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The Climate Reality Project is a
non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
organization involved in education and advocacy related to
climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
. The Climate Reality Project came into being in July 2011 as the consolidation of two environmental groups, the Alliance for Climate Protection and The Climate Project, both of which were founded by
Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic ...
. Among its activities, The Climate Reality Project hosts an annual event called 24 Hours of Reality.


Overview

The Climate Reality Project is focused on
climate change education Climate change education (CCE) is education that aims to address and develop effective responses to climate change. It helps learners understand the causes and consequences of climate change, prepares them to live with the impacts of climate change ...
and advocating for climate solutions available today. The organization is a consolidation of two environmental organizations, the Alliance for Climate Protection and the Climate Project, both founded in 2006 by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. Gore currently serves as chairman of the board of directors. As of 2021, the organization said it operated 10 branches worldwide and was active in 170 countries.


History


Alliance for Climate Protection

The Alliance for Climate Protection was founded in 2006 by Al Gore to encourage civic action against climate change. The organization was founded in Palo Alto, California, and later moved to Menlo Park, California, before relocating to Washington, D.C., in 2009. Originally established as a
501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of ...
, the organization later included an affiliated
501(c)(4) A 501(c) organization is a nonprofit organization in the federal law of the United States according to Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. § 501(c)) and is one of over 29 types of nonprofit organizations exempt from some federal income taxes. ...
, the Climate Protection Action Fund, which developed advocacy campaigns focused on climate change solutions through grassroots organizing and lobbying. The organization was partially funded by proceeds donated from Gore's documentary ''
An Inconvenient Truth ''An Inconvenient Truth'' is a 2006 American documentary film directed by Davis Guggenheim about former United States Vice President Al Gore's campaign to educate people about global warming. The film features a slide show that, by Gore's own e ...
'', as well as profits from the book of the same name. Gore also donated his salary from his work for the venture capital firm
Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers Kleiner Perkins, formerly Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), is an American venture capital firm which specializes in investing in incubation, early stage and growth companies. Since its founding in 1972, the firm has backed entrepreneurs ...
and prize money from his 2007
Nobel Peace prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolo ...
for a total of more than $2.7 million. The distributor of ''An Inconvenient Truth'',
Paramount Classics Paramount Vantage (also known as Paramount Classics) was a film distribution label of Paramount Pictures (which, in turn, has Paramount Global as its parent company), charged with producing, purchasing, distributing and marketing films, generally ...
, also donated 5 percent of the film's box office earnings to the Alliance. The Alliance was also funded by profits from
Live Earth Live Earth was an event developed to increase environmental awareness through entertainment. Background Founded by Emmy-winning producer Kevin Wall, in partnership with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, ''Live Earth'' was built upon the be ...
concerts in 2007. The Alliance encouraged federal policies that limited greenhouse gas emissions and supported low-carbon power sources. Former campaigns from the Alliance include the bipartisan "We" campaign, launched in 2008. The campaign, which included an advertisement called "We Can Solve It" featuring
Nancy Pelosi Nancy Patricia Pelosi (; ; born March 26, 1940) is an American politician who has served as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives since 2019 and previously from 2007 to 2011. She has represented in the United States House of ...
and
Newt Gingrich Newton Leroy Gingrich (; né McPherson; born June 17, 1943) is an American politician and author who served as the 50th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party, he was the U. ...
jointly calling for a response to climate change, was created to prompt public action against climate change on a national and international level. The "We" campaign included partnerships with the Girl Scouts of the United States of America, the United Steelworkers of America and the
National Audubon Society The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such orga ...
. The same year, the Alliance launched the "Repower America" campaign to support Gore's directive to shift American homes to 100 percent clean energy within 10 years. This campaign supported climate change legislation in the United States and, according to ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
'' in 2008, was one of the farthest reaching public advocacy initiatives in recent history. Also in 2008, the Alliance created the Reality Coalition in partnership with the
National Wildlife Federation The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) is the United States' largest private, nonprofit conservation education and advocacy organization, with over six million members and supporters, and 51 state and territorial affiliated organizations (includin ...
, the
League of Conservation Voters The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) is an American environmental advocacy group. LCV says that it "advocates for sound environmental laws and policies, holds elected officials accountable for their votes and actions, and elects pro-environmen ...
, the
Natural Resources Defense Council The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is a United States-based 501(c)(3) non-profit international environmental advocacy group, with its headquarters in New York City and offices in Washington D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Bo ...
and the
Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who b ...
. The Reality Coalition used television, print and online advertisements as well as grassroots events to challenge the idea of
coal pollution mitigation Coal pollution mitigation, sometimes called clean coal, is a series of systems and technologies that seek to mitigate the health and environmental impact of coal; in particular air pollution from coal-fired power stations, and from coal burnt b ...
.


The Climate Project

The Climate Project, founded in 2006 and based in Nashville, Tennessee, was also supported by Gore's profits from the documentary ''An Inconvenient Truth''. The Climate Project was an educational, worldwide grassroots organization that trained selected members of the public to give public talks, similar to Gore's presentation in the film. The talks focused on the harmful effects of climate change and ways to address climate change at the grassroots level. By 2009, the project had more than 3,000 participants worldwide. These participants, trained by Gore, delivered 70,000 presentations to 7.3 million people.


Recent history

In March 2010, the Alliance for Climate Protection and The Climate Project combined to create a single organization. The new organization was known as the Alliance for Climate Protection until it was renamed The Climate Reality Project in July 2011. The organization brought together the aims of its two predecessors to focus on education initiatives related to climate change as well as continuing to develop a grassroots network to address climate change.


Activities


24 Hours of Reality campaign

The Climate Reality Project hosts an annual event called 24 Hours of Reality, a 24-hour live broadcast about the climate crisis and its solutions with a one-hour segment in every time zone. Each broadcast features celebrities, musicians, elected officials, and thought leaders from around the world. In 2017, the broadcast had a potential reach of 400 million people. Themes for each annual broadcast are: * 2011: 24 Hours of Reality * 2012: 24 Hours of Reality: The Dirty Weather Report * 2013: 24 Hours of Reality: The Cost of Carbon * 2014: 24 Hours of Reality: 24 Reasons for Hope * 2015: 24 Hours of Reality and Live Earth: The World is Watching * 2016: 24 Hours of Reality: The Road Forward * 2017: 24 Hours of Reality: Be the Voice of Reality *2018: ''24 Hours of Reality: Protect Our Planet, Protect Ourselves'' *2019: ''24 Hours of Reality: Truth to Action'' *2020: ''24 Hours of Reality: Countdown to the Future'' The first event, in 2011, was a 24-hour event that was broadcast live over the Internet and featured 24 presenters across 24 time zones presenting in 13 different languages. The presentations, which stressed a link between climate change and oil and coal producers, started in Mexico City and traveled west before culminating in New York City with a presentation by The Climate Reality Project's chairman
Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic ...
. The event included celebrity hosts and panel members such as Renee Zellweger,
Fran Drescher Francine Joy Drescher (born September 30, 1957) is an American actress, comedian, writer, activist, and trade union leader. She is known for her role as Fran Fine in the television sitcom '' The Nanny'' (1993–1999), which she created and prod ...
and
Virgin Group Virgin Group Ltd. is a British multinational venture capital conglomerate founded by Richard Branson and Nik Powell in February 1970. Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by the Companies House, who class it as a holding co ...
's
Sir Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is a British billionaire, entrepreneur, and business magnate. In the 1970s he founded the Virgin Group, which today controls more than 400 companies in various fields. Branson expressed ...
. The webcast received 8 million views, 5 million of which were unique viewers, and was awarded a "Silver Lion" at the
Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (formerly the International Advertising Festival) is a global event for those working in creative communications, advertising, and related fields. It is considered the largest gathering of the ...
event in 2012. Accompanying this event, The Climate Reality Project also released several short videos covering topics related to climate change. The videos included ''Doubt'', ''Climate 101'' and ''Grassroots''. A second webcast called ''24 Hours of Reality: The Dirty Weather Report'' was broadcast beginning on November 14, 2012. This broadcast followed a format similar to the inaugural event and featured speeches and presentations from more than 100 activists, business leaders and scientists in 24 locations. The 2012 webcast focused on the impact coal, oil and gas pollution have on weather patterns. The webcast attracted 14 million unique viewers and a viewership of more than 16 million, which set a
Ustream IBM Watson Media (formerly Ustream and IBM Cloud Video) is an American virtual events platform company which is a division of IBM. Prior to IBM acquisition, it had more than 180 employees across San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Budapest offices. ...
record for the most online viewers in a 24-hour period. The event also generated 135 million tweets from
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
users, compared with 120 million tweets in 2011, and received ten Telly Awards in 2013 including two silver Telly awards in the News/News Feature and Social Responsibility categories and seven bronze Telly awards.


Climate Reality Leadership Corps

The Climate Reality Project also addresses climate change through a network of approximately 31,000 Climate Reality Leaders, which the organization calls the Climate Reality Leadership Corps. As of 2019, The Climate Reality Leadership Corps has conducted 43 training events to prepare Climate Reality Leaders to communicate and conduct effective advocacy events within their local communities. Climate Reality Leaders come from 154 countries. Members of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps lead educational events and encourage activity to address climate change in their local communities.


See also

* Planet Relief *
Live Earth Live Earth was an event developed to increase environmental awareness through entertainment. Background Founded by Emmy-winning producer Kevin Wall, in partnership with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, ''Live Earth'' was built upon the be ...
*
Earth Hour Earth Hour is a worldwide movement organized by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The event is held annually, encouraging individuals, communities, and businesses to turn off non-essential electric lights, for one hour, from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. ...
* Denmark plants trees


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Climate Reality Project Climate change organizations based in the United States Non-profit organizations based in Washington, D.C. Al Gore Organizations established in 2011