Gore launches a campaign to cut U.S. greenhouse gas

NASHVILLE - Former Vice President Al Gore launched a three-year, multimillion-dollar advocacy campaign yesterday calling for the United States to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions.

The Alliance for Climate Protection's "we" campaign will combine advertising, online organizing, and partnerships with grass-roots groups to educate the public about global warming and urge solutions from elected officials.

"We're trying to get a movement happening to switch public opinion so that our leaders feel, 'Wow! We really need to make this a top-priority issue,' " Alliance CEO Cathy Zoi said.

An advertising campaign will equate the climate-change movement with other grand historic endeavors, like stopping fascism in Europe during World War II, overcoming segregation in the United States, and putting the first human on the moon.

Some ads will feature bipartisan pairs, such as the Rev. Al Sharpton with Pat Robertson, and Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with former GOP Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Robertson spoke yesterday on The 700 Club, his long-running Christian news and talk show, about his involvement, saying he was honored to be asked by Gore to participate.

"It's just common sense that we ought to be good stewards of the environment ... ," he said.

Gingrich spokesman Rick Tyler said the former congressman was participating because he agreed on the need for a bipartisan approach to climate change. In his new book, A Contract With the Earth, Gingrich argues that conservatives are natural environmentalists.

The Alliance will initially spend $300 million over three years, although Zoi said more could be spent in the future.

Zoi said Gore contributed his profits from the book and movie An Inconvenient Truth, a $750,000 award from his share of the Nobel Peace Prize, and a personal matching gift. She declined to provide the total amount.

"When politicians hear the American people calling loud and clear for change, they'll listen," Gore, the former Tennessee senator and 2000 presidential candidate, said in a statement.

The campaign is also working through partnerships with groups like the Girl Scouts. The Scouts' 2.7 million members, for example, will take a climate action pledge and the Alliance will provide kits offering suggestions for projects they can do in their neighborhoods.

Zoi says research suggests that many Americans are concerned about climate change but don't know what to do.

The "we" campaign Web site (www.wecansolveit.org) hopes to change that by offering ideas on conserving energy at home and work and guidance for those who want to do more, such as writing to their elected officials.

"The biggest, most important decisions are going to be coming from government and corporate leaders," Zoi said. "We need to have people saying, 'We want you to take bold steps.' "

As if to illustrate the challenges ahead, representatives from 163 countries began weeklong talks in Bangkok, Thailand, yesterday on forging a global warming pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol - and faced wide divisions between rich and developing countries over how to slash greenhouse emissions.

"With the 2009 deadline, we have just 11/2 years in which to complete negotiations on what will probably be the most complex international agreement that history has ever seen," said Yvo de Boer, U.N. climate-change executive secretary.