Nashville - climate Presenter training wrapup
Inspiring. Motivating. Humbling. Moving. Informing.
Those are a few of the words that come to my mind as I reflect back on my training this week to be a Climate Presenter as part of Al Gore’s Climate Project. I met inventors, investors, educators, scientists, a beauty pageant queen, a rocket scientist, an artist who in an earlier career was a coordinator for the Greenland Ice Sheet project and more. And of course I met a former VP of the USA.
The experience was also overwhelming. I already knew much of the material presented, although not in the depth its now been shown to me. I have tried to imagine how those with less of a background are coping with the information load. But TCP (The Climate Project) has set up a good support and information system for us. We also have the network of other presenters, over 1000 of us in the US alone. More in the UK and Australia.
I have the slideshow on my computer now, many hundreds of Mmegabytes, and many hundreds of slides. Now I’m modifying it in small ways so that I can present it, so that my voice can carry the message, so that people I present to will see themselves in the solution. And so that it does not necessarily take two hours to present!
Some of us wondered at the selection criteria for those who were chosen to be trained, out of the many thousands who applied. There seemed nothing in common. But perhaps the one commonality was that we all believe, fervently, that we must stop climate change, and that we can. As Al Gore said, “Once you know the truth about climate change, it is a moral imperative to stop it.” We are all now better prepared to further that work. We are all now emboldened to stand and deliver the message of hope, and of action, that the slideshow presents, and that the struggle against global warming requires.
Global warming does not need to be a catastrophe. It will be if we do not change course. But if we do change course (and we must), we can turn it into the biggest economic engine this planet has seen yet. The investment, new technology, and social progress will be on a scale never before matched in history. This can be, and will be, our “finest hour”. And to be part of the group of 1000 who are in the forefront of bringing this message to the public is humbling.
The science is in, the scientists have done their job. the scientific community is in broad consensus. There is refinement to be done, there are more causations and effects to be determined and understood. But now it’s our turn, to take the science and make it known. I’m preparing for my first presentation next Wednesday, and many presentations beyond. There’s a national listing of all presentation time’s and places on the Climate Project home page, as well as a way to request a presentation. Check there for a presentation near you! And let me know directly if you want a presentation by me. I’m going to be doing my best to fill these shoes.