Passionate about the need for society to change to deal with the climate crisis? Enjoy giving presentations? Have a hankering for PowerPoint or Keynote? Want to get personally trained by Al Gore to give An Inconvenient Truth presentations in Canada?
Well then, read on.
Al Gore is launching the Climate Project Canada -- a Canadian organization dedicated to raising awareness about the most important issue of our time -- the climate change crisis.
Some 200 Canadians will be chosen to personally train with Al Gore and climate scientists on climate science, the problems and the solutions. The deadline for applications is March 3. Apply at http://climateprojectcanada.org/index-2.html
A note of caution -- the Climate Project Canada is strictly non-partisan. So stressing your party affiliation/involvement is not advantageous.
Background
Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize for raising alarm about the most important issue of our time: climate change. His movie An Inconvenient Truth won two Academy Awards and is the third highest grossing documentary of all time.
When the movie was being shot, Gore had given the presentation more than a thousand times. But once the movie was complete he began to think about how he could spread the message wider and faster.
The Climate Project was created: with a mission to train 1,000 people from around the world to give the presentation.
I was in the first group of Canadians trained in Nashville in 2006 by Gore and leading scientists for three days. For the 20 Canadians who were chosen, more than 1,000 people applied.
The group that I trained with in Nashville was eclectic and the individuals were absolutely amazing people. People from every walk of life: school teachers, church ministers, students, grandmothers, CEOs, former Ministers in government, environmentalists, scientists.
The Climate Project has launched a Canadian operation -- named -- you guessed it, The Climate Project Canada. April 4, 5 and 6 will be the training in Montreal for 200 more Canadians . If you are passionate about this I would suggest you apply see http://www.climateprojectcanada.org/index-2.html
Victoria Serda (pictured above with Al Gore) was one of the first 20 Canadians chosen -- and she has given the presentation more than 80 times to more than 19,000 people! (I've only given the presentation to 7,000 people over the last year). Presenters who are selected commit to give a minimum of 10 presentations a year -- and cannot be paid for the presentations (although we can be re-imbursed for our travel expenses).
Backgrounder on An Inconvenient Truth
Film critics Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper gave the film “two thumbs up”. Ebert wrote: “In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to.”
An Inconvenient Truth is also the title of a companion book by Al Gore, which hit the #1 position on the New York Times bestseller lists on July 1, 2006.
The film premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and received three standing ovations. It was also screened at the Cannes Film Festival, and was the opening night film at the 27th Durban International Film Festival. And was the most popular documentary at the 2006 Brisbane International Film Festival.
An Inconvenient Truth opened in New York City and Los Angeles on Wednesday, May 24, 2006. On Memorial Day weekend, it grossed $91,447 per theater, the highest ever for a documentary and the highest of any movie that weekend.
The film has grossed more than $23 million as of September 6, 2006, making it the third-highest-grossing documentary of all time.
In the movie Gore discusses the risk of the collapse of a major ice sheet in Greenland or Antarctica, either of which could raise global sea levels by approximately 20 feet (6m), flooding coastal areas and producing 200 million refugees. Meltwater from Greenland, because of its lower salinity, could halt the Gulf Stream current and quickly trigger dramatic local cooling in Northern Europe.
Producers Laurie David and Lawrence Bender saw Gore’s slide show in New York City after the 2004 premiere of The Day After Tomorrow. Inspired, they met with director Davis Guggenheim about the possibility of making the slide show into a movie.