San Francisco - Nobel Peace Prize laureate Al Gore on Monday launched a 300-million-dollar advertising campaign aimed at raising awareness in the US about the dangers posed by global warming. Gore's organization, The Alliance for Climate Protection, said the ad blitz was the largest ever for a public policy issue and was aimed at increasing pressure on political leaders to act urgently to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gas pollutants.
"We can solve the climate crisis, but it will require a major shift in public opinion and engagement," Gore said. "The technologies exist, but our elected leaders don't yet have the political will to take the bold actions required. When politicians hear the American people calling loud and clear for change, they'll listen."
The campaign which will include TV, print, radio and online advertising, aims at engaging 10 million new supporters to drive policy change. Currently the Alliance say it has 1 million active supporters.
The campaign will be funded by private donations and the Alliance already has pledges for half the amount. Speaking on TV news magazine 60 Minutes, Gore also revealed that he would be contributing his Nobel peace award, plus his profits from his work as a venture capitalist and from the book and movie project, An Inconvenient Truth, to the campaign.
The first clip, which airs Wednesday shows images from World War II with actor William Macy comparing the urgent need for climate action with the fight against Nazism. Another clip brings together black activist Al Sharpton with conservative preacher Pat Robertson saying they agree on almost nothing except the need to deal with global warming.
