Al Gore's Assault on Global Warming

By Amanda Griscom Little, Grist.org. Posted May 23, 2006.

Think you've been hearing a lot about global warming lately? If a new climate-focused group hatched by Al Gore has its way, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

After nine months of behind-the-scenes planning and wrangling, the Alliance for Climate Protection is now nearly ready for prime time. Gore spoke about the alliance in an exclusive interview. He said the group aims to raise big bucks for a single goal: "To move the United States past a tipping point on climate change, beyond which the majority of the people will demand of the political leaders in both parties that they compete to offer genuinely meaningful solutions to the crisis."

Practically speaking, this means launching a massive media and grassroots education campaign trumpeting the urgency of global warming and targeted at all manner of Americans -- "NASCAR fans, churchgoers, labor-union members, small businessmen, engineers, hunters, sportsmen, corporate leaders, you name it," said Gore -- with the assumption that "where public opinion goes, federal policy will follow."

With a leadership team that includes Brent Scowcroft, national-security adviser to presidents George H.W. Bush and Gerald Ford; Carol Browner, head of the U.S. EPA under Bill Clinton; and other heavies, the alliance could considerably pump up the volume of the green movement's barely audible public outreach on global warming. It plans to raise "tens of millions at least," said Browner. The group's official launch date is not confirmed, but will likely be in the coming weeks. The search for a CEO is under way, and board meetings have already commenced.

By all accounts, the alliance was Gore's idea, but he is choosing not to take a spot on the board of directors or participate in the governance of the group -- in the interest, he said, of avoiding confusion about its political objectives.

As the buzz intensifies around An Inconvenient Truth, Gore's global-warming documentary that hits theaters on May 24, and a forthcoming book of the same title, so does speculation that he plans to vie for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008. Gore dismissed the suggestion of a link between his public climate activism and a 2008 bid as "totally, totally absurd," but he knows he can't dodge his political image.

"As hard as I try, I don't think I can come off as completely nonpartisan," he told us with a knowing chuckle. But the alliance, he said, must be "completely and totally insulated from any political innuendo. I feel very strongly that the climate crisis needs to be redefined as a moral -- not a political -- issue."

That may explain why three of the five current members of the alliance's board of directors are high-profile Republicans -- in addition to Scowcroft, they include Lee Thomas, EPA chief under Ronald Reagan, and Teddy Roosevelt IV, venture capitalist and great-grandson of his namesake, the GOP president. "We are very sensitive that this not be misconstrued as a political campaign," Roosevelt told us. "[O]ur mission is by no means to endorse legislative solutions or political candidates."

According to Browner, the board will likely double in size in the coming weeks, adding leaders who will further reinforce the bipartisan nature of the group, representing the interests of labor, science, religion, underprivileged communities, and corporate America.

The More the Merrier

Only one board member -- Larry Schweiger, president of the National Wildlife Federation -- hails from an environmental organization, and, says Schweiger, no other enviro-group heads will be added to the top-tier leadership. It's a deliberate and notable shift in strategy given that last year Gore started initial discussions about the alliance with members of the Green Group, a behind-the-scenes coalition of leaders of big national environmental organizations.

Those discussions stirred up tactical disputes among enviros. "There have long been heated debates within the environmental community over how to proceed with a unified climate strategy," said Browner. "Partnering with a broad spectrum of interests -- from national security to labor and industry -- has liberated and broadened the discussion."

Amanda Griscom Little writes the Muckraker column for Grist Magazine.

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