Promote Education on Global Warming - An Inconvenient Truth

Back online. Last week did the 'Truth' show for 200 business folks at the Vancouver Board of Trade. I have another show today for 400 and a few more coming up in May and early June. And speaking of spreading the good word, I just handed over a prize to EnviroWoman, the winner of ChangeEverything’s New Year’s Resolution’s contest.

I’m in London, England at a conference, but I wanted to check in now that it has been announced I'm leaving Vancity. I'm heading back to Alberta to head up ATB Financial. It's a great opportunity with a huge potential for growth. It's been an incredibly tough decision and I didn't like being away when the news was released, but the timing had to accommodate the approval process of ATB Financial. I've had an amazing 7 years, but I really feel that the organization is in great hands and well set up for future success and to see me to move on. I'm at Vancity till June and will continue with my "An Inconvenient Truth" work and and will keep sharing my journey.

My nerves must have paid off. Things went smoother last night at the premiere of our Can you handle the Truth about climate change? at the Ridge Theatre.

The rain and traffic were a challenge, so I appreciate everyone persevering to make it out and I look forward to their feedback.

All in all, I think it wasn’t bad for a show we cobbled together in a few weeks, and I’m getting more comfortable with the content. Though we started a bit late, I watched the clock so we could get to questions.

So, I did my first show; for Vancity employees. It was a perfect audience to work out the glitches and nerves. The good news is that overall it was pretty good. Obviously I have some work to do. I went over time, which is something I have to watch out for and we had a techno hiccup that threw me a bit. (It involved a slide featuring a photoshopped picture of me with Cameron Diaz. A practical joke from my "trusty" team. Enough said).

So it was a big night for An Inconvenient Truth at this year’s Academy Awards. Gore got a few trips to the podium, first as a presenter and then when “An Inconvenient Truth” got its statue for best documentary. As for the best song win, well, I don’t know about you, but I must say I didn’t see that one coming. Overall, with billions watching around the world you couldn’t ask for a better way to get the climate change crisis message out, except for maybe the Superbowl. Well, maybe next year.

After seeing “An Inconvenient Truth”, I was chatting with my friend Robert Safrata about the film and its impact on me; people I know and love – people I can put my arms around -- will be deeply impacted by global warming. Did I really want my grandchildren and their grandchildren wondering why my generation knew about this problem and did nothing? Suddenly, I felt like I should do something. I just wasn’t sure what I could do.

There are things I depend on in this life – Sunday night dinners with the family; that the Rolling Stones will live to tour again, and that my grandkids can ski the Helm Glacier.

If you had asked me years ago if I thought global warming or climate change was real I would have said “sure”. If you had asked me “when?” I probably would have guessed a hundred, maybe a thousand years from now. I mean, the Helm Glacier isn’t going anywhere soon, right?

I came across this great video - a mashup of An Inconvenient Truth and Malphunktion. Check it out...

Just wondering if anyone saw the Quincy episode this week. It was a rerun of a show from the late 1970's or early 80's about an oil refinery that was producing excessive amounts of sulfer dioxide that was being released into the atmosphere. It proves how long people have had concerns about the earth's atmosphere and air pollution only they didn't call it Gobal Warming then.

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