At this point, it should come as no surprise that day two of The Climate Project was action packed. The session began with Mr. Gore giving his famed Climate Crisis keynote presentation in “real-time” so that we could have the flow and content fresh in our minds. This was followed by a meticulous review through the entire presentation, stepping through slide by slide and substantiating content, fact by fact. Aided by climate scientist Mike MacCracken, Mr. Gore provided incredibly clear and accessible explanations of the science behind the presentation, all the while citing sources and fielding questions from the participants. Mr. Gore also shared some insights into the reasoning, methodology, and history behind the slide show as well as a few lessons that he’s learned over the 1200+ presentations that he’s given on the topic. (It should be noted that Special Assistant Lauren Prince and the staff were again tirelessly working to note slide changes, fact check and research on-the-fly! Many thanks to you all!)

It’s also worth mentioning that today we were joined by three special guests, venture capitalist John Doerr and his daughter as well as the notable Cameron Diaz who hosted MTV’s environmental documentary Trippin’. After tearing apart a mere 200 or so of Mr. Gore’s 800+ “slide show genome,” the 8+ hour marathon session was concluded for the day with a trip to BB King’s blues club for some music and dinner.

I must say in all honesty, coming into this experience, I was a little concerned that the participants and I would merely be puppets; Al Gore’s climate minions so to speak. However, I’m exceptionally pleased to report that this is absolutely not the case. When we went through the slides today with all the participants, I came to the realization that each unique perspective and point of view that I had talked about yesterday is actually the makings of a unique presentation. Each one of the presenters is going to speak about the climate crisis in his or her own way, adopting the presentation, adding to it, transforming it and really making it their own. With each presenter, Mr. Gore’s slide show evolves and actually becomes a distinctly new presentation. To explain it another way, I now understand Mr. Gore’s film to be a product of his perspective which he’s meticulously tailored for the general audience. Building upon this, the goal of The Climate Project is not merely to train more people to give his presentation on his behalf, but rather to build a community of presenters who each see the climate crisis through a unique lens. It is through these lenses that the presenters will be able to connect in more meaningful ways to specific communities that might range anywhere from Wal-Mart associates to hunters and anglers to inner-city youth. Most importantly, I believe that these presenters will inspire their communities to take up an active role in creating and implementing solutions to climate change.

I’d love to hear your comments and ideas on where you think I should go present the climate slide show!

Popularity: 3% [?]

Digg this | Hugg this

See Also: Geo + Info Postcards,The Climate Project – Day 1,New Year’s Resolutions,

This entry was posted by Mike Lin on Thursday, January 4th, 2007 at 1:09 am and is filed under Environment, Social Change, Vestal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.