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Al Gore's Buys His Own (Green) Private
Army
YOUR
NEW REALITY
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
The idea of Al Gore leading a 10 million strong team of volunteers pulling
old car wrecks out of rivers and planting trees is scary enough. But the
Al Gore Green Army (AGGA) have
much bigger plans :
Al Gore yesterday launched a drive to mobilise 10 million volunteers
to force politicians to act on climate change - twice as many as the
number who marched against the Vietnam war or in support of civil rights
during the heyday of US activism in the 1960s.
During the next three years, his Alliance for Climate Protection plans
to spend $300m (about £150m) on television advertising and online
organising to make global warming among the most urgent issues for elected
American leaders.
$300 million on TV ads and spam. That sort of money could buy a lot of poor
American homes a slab of solar panels.
Gore told the Washington Post that he launched the initiative because
of his concerns that US politicians had balked at supporting strong
legislation on climate change.
"This climate crisis is so interwoven with habits and patterns that
are so entrenched, the elected officials in both parties are going to
be timid about enacting the bold changes that are needed until there
is a change in the public's sense of urgency in addressing this crisis,"
Gore said.
"I've tried everything else I know to try. The
way to solve this crisis is to change the way the public thinks about
it."
That's exactly what Rupert Murdoch said last year when
he converted :
"...we can change the way the public
thinks about these issues..."
Al Gore is putting his money where his
mouth emits carbon :
The campaign is getting a hefty kick-start from Gore. The former vice-president
has donated earnings from his Oscar-winning film, An Inconvenient Truth,
his Nobel peace prize, and his job at a venture capital firm.
He's throwing in a few million. But where will the other $290 million or
more come from?
Oh, there will be online fund-raising.
The AGGA will be haranguing you nightly at home and on the street. They
want you and your friends to pay for lobbyists and marketing campaigns to
get a new worldwide carbon tax introduced. Australia, the UK and most of
the EU are already keen to sign up.
$300 million on TV ads and online marketing would also give Gore a mind-bogglingly
intensive media launch for a late-run presidential campaign.
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