http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/11/news/economy/energy_consumption/?postversion=2007101113 And it IS the lynchpin now in the progress this movement makes.
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Gore glams up global warming fight -- again
Rising prices have done little to curb consumption. Can a $100 million ad campaign from Al Gore do the trick?
By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com staff writer
October 11 2007: 1:18 PM EDT
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Whether it's for national security reasons or to protect the environment, nearly everyone agrees the nation should use energy more efficiently.
Yet despite soaring energy prices and calls from the political left and right, energy use is going nowhere but up. By 2030 it's expected to jump 35 to 40 percent in the U.S. alone.
Enter Al Gore.
Since making his 2006 global warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," the man has been front and center raising awareness around climate change.
Now he's embarking on a public advertising campaign estimated to cost between $100 and $200 million a year, one of the largest public service campaigns in history. Expect to see television commercials, newspaper spreads and Internet ads popping up in a few months time.
Funded by donations and proceeds from "An Inconvenient Truth," the campaign will focus on convincing people that they can do something about global warming.
"It's about communicating the urgency and solvability of the climate crises," said Brian Hardwick, a spokesman for the Alliance for Climate Change, an environmental group founded and chaired by the former vice president. "So
will demand the kind of change we need."
The campaign won't focus solely on energy - it will also address other factors, from deforestation to methane from cows, that contribute to global warming.
But carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas, and most of the carbon dioxide emissions generated by humans come from burning fossil fuels.
The ads won't endorse any specific legislation in Congress - such as bills to raise fuel economy standards, cap carbon emissions or require utilities to buy a certain percentage of renewable power.
Rather, it will attempt to convince people that global warming is not an unstoppable phenomenon that is now out of their control. It will aim to convince people we have the technology and the ability to avoid global warming and the disasters that scientists say it will create, like crop-killing droughts, city-destroying floods. The hope is to motivate people to pressure their political and social leaders to make the necessary policy changes.
"We have all the answers we need," said Hardwick. We want to "reframe the issue as an opportunity, not a sacrifice."
The campaign will be created by the Richmond-Va.-based Martin Agency, the same outfit behind Geico's successful caveman ads and UPS' "What can brown do for you." Martin was also recently chosen as Wal-Mart's (Charts, Fortune 500) lead agency.