01:13
This summer,
the denial of climate change was overtaken by reality. It’s too hot! We can no longer ignore the
fact that human beings are making the planet hotter, and that it is happening
to all of us, now. Once the reality sinks in, the next question must be: What
can we do about it?
We need leadership on climate change. And if elected officials and
governments are failing to lead, then all of us, everyday citizens, must step
up to take their place.
That’s why I’m
so excited to be joining one thousand individuals this week from around the
world at our Climate Reality leadership training in Northern California. Together
with our Chairman, former Vice President Al Gore, we will be training them to
share the reality of climate change as leaders who encourage their communities
to take action.
These one
thousand diverse, passionate, and extraordinary people will become the newest
members of our Climate Reality Leadership Corps. And it’s clear we’ll learn as
much from them as they learn from us.
Our Climate
Leaders are volunteers who work all over the world to share the truth about
climate change. They come from all walks of life — with expertise in
government, science, business, medicine, and countless other fields. They are
trusted messengers who collaborate with their peers to make climate change part
of the daily conversation everywhere.
To date, our
Climate Leaders have given presentations to a total audience of 7.3 million
people. Our 3,500 trained Climate Leaders worldwide include people like Jeunesse Park, who lives in Johannesburg
and founded the group Food & Trees for Africa. People like Dong Sik Lee, an environmentalist who
worked in the financial industry in Seoul. And Paul Rippey, who has traveled the world to
speak about climate change from Uganda to Ghana, and from India to Switzerland.
And so many more.
Among their
many other acts of leadership, Climate Leaders connect the dots between the
extreme weather where we live and the global reality of a warming climate. They
work to discredit the well-financed and professional deniers who, in the face
of all evidence, continue to ignore the reality of this urgent crisis. They are
on the front lines of the movement to call on our governments to reduce carbon
pollution now.
And this week,
we are training a thousand more of them. They come from 46 states and over 60
countries, and each of them has an important perspective on how to strengthen
the climate movement.
Keep checking
our blog this week as we share the unique stories and training experiences of
our newest Climate Leaders. They will be sharing the insights we learn from
this training on how to win the conversation on climate change — first in our
own communities, then globally — as we move aggressively toward solutions. We
can do no less.
By President & CEO, http://climaterealityproject.org
