Gore to launch climate 'reality' campaign

Former US vice president and environmental activist Al Gore is launching a new campaign this week to urge action against climate change with a day-long Internet broadcast from around the world.The project, called "24 Hours of Reality," will feature a multimedia presentation viewable online that aims to showcase recent science on climate change and reveal how money motivates those who deny it. Hourly broadcasts will take place in various locations around the world, including Beijing, New Delhi, Jakarta, London, Dubai, Istanbul, Seoul and Rio de Janeiro. The campaign will begin in Mexico City at 0000 GMT Thursday and end with the final presentation by Gore starting at 7:00 pm (2300 GMT) in New York. The goal is to "focus the world's attention on the full truth, scope, scale and impact of the climate crisis," said a statement by Gore about the project at www.climaterealityproject.org. "Today, climate change is no longer a prediction: It's a reality," Gore said. "Yet around the world, we are still subjected to polluter-financed misinformation and propaganda designed to mislead people about the dangers we face from the unfolding climate crisis."The broadcasts, each led by a local "citizen activist personally trained by" Gore, a 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner for his efforts on climate change, will be followed by information on how viewers can help in their area. A slideshow presented by Gore about the dangers of climate change was the basis of the popular 2006 documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," which grossed 49 million dollars worldwide.According to a Gallup poll released in March, Americans have become less concerned about global warming over the past two years, with 48 percent saying they think "the seriousness of global warming is generally exaggerated," up from 41 percent in 2009. In an impassioned essay in Rolling Stone's June issue, Gore accused President Barack Obama of failing to lead on climate change and warned that the very survival of civilization was at stake.Gore, who narrowly lost the 2000 election to George W. Bush, credited Obama with moving the United States "slightly" forward on the issue but said the US president "has thus far failed to use the bully pulpit to make the case for bold action on climate change."