Alliance for Climate Protection
The Alliance for Climate Protection was founded in 2006 by former United States Vice President Al Gore.[1] The Alliance is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization committed to educating the global community about the urgency of implementing comprehensive solutions to the climate crisis. The organization oversees numerous campaigns, including Repower America, The Climate Project, Repower at Home, the WE Campaign, the Reality Coalition and works with its affiliated organization, the Climate Protection Action Fund.[2]
Overview
The Alliance capitalizes on the need to draw together a diverse range of individuals and organizations, including representatives of labor, faith, business, schools, women, agriculture, sportsmen and many other communities. In other words - social justice and wealth redistribution through the climate change movement. According to their website, the Alliance “brings together faces and voices in a way that diversifies and strengthens the global network of concerned individuals who want to take action now on climate issues.”[1]
Leadership
Maggie Fox is the President and CEO of the Alliance for Climate Protection. For over 30 years, Fox has worked on various environmental campaigns and national issues. At one time, Fox was the National President of America Votes, which is a progressive coalition of over 40 organizations that are coming together to recruit voters and convince them to support progressive causes. She served as the Deputy Executive Director of the Sierra Club. Fox has consulted with a number of progressive organizations on their energy and climate campaigns including the Energy Future Coalition, Western Resource Advocates and the Ocean Conservancy.[3]
Maggie Fox began her career as a teacher and community organizer on the Navajo and Hopi Reservations of Arizona and New Mexico and worked for the Colorado, North Carolina and Northwest Outward Bound Schools for over a decade. She earned her B.A. from the University of North Carolina, a Masters in Education from the University of Colorado, and a J.D. with an emphasis in Environmental Law and Native America Natural Resources Law from Northwestern School of Law.
Funding
The primary funding source for the Alliance for Climate Protection is Al Gore's networks and his personal work. Paramount Classics, distributor of Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth, announced in August of 2006 that it would donate 5% of all box office receipts to the Alliance. Al Gore has also donated all his proceeds from the film to the Alliance. After receiving the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, Al Gore pledged to donate 100% of his share of the prize (approximately $1.5 million) to the Alliance.[4] Gore's published book, Our Choice, has had all proceeds donated to the Alliance as well.[5]
Some of the profits from the Live Earth concerts[6] and profits from the associated book - The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook, were also used to fund the Alliance.
Projects
Repower America
Repower America was launched in 2008 by Al Gore, based on a speech he gave in July of 2008. The campaign calls for a plan to “repower” the United States and revitalize national energy infrastructure through investment in energy efficiency, clean renewable energy sources, a unified smart energy national grid and clean car technology.[7]
A major part of the Repower America campaign is the Repower Wall, an interactive online forum housing personal videos and written testimonials calling for action to solve the climate crisis. The Repower America brand is shared by the Alliance and by their affiliate the Climate Protection Action Fund.[8]
The Climate Project
The Climate Project (TCP) educates and engages people at a peer-to-peer level worldwide about the urgency and solvability of the climate crisis..[9] Volunteers are trained to give a version of Al Gore’s slideshow featured in An Inconvenient Truth. They are active in 55 countries and have given a combined total of over 70,000 presentations. The Alliance for Climate Protection and The Climate Project unified their programs and activities in March of 2010.
Repower at Home
In 2010, the Alliance for Climate Protection launched Repower at Home, a national program dedicated to reducing residential energy waste.[10]
Repower at Home provides users with information about saving energy in their own homes and tools for inspiring others to follow their lead. Repower at Home has challenged Americans to reduce their energy use by the equivalent of seven million pounds of coal by October 10, 2010.
WE Campaign
In March 2008, the Alliance launched a three-year, $300 million campaign aimed at mobilizing Americans to push for aggressive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. This campaign is one of the most ambitious and costly public advocacy campaigns in U.S. history.[11] In August 2008, the WE Campaign released a television advertisement demanding that American leaders give the American people "truly clean energy" within ten years (Alliance for Climate Protection's Repower America Project).
Reality Coalition
The Alliance for Climate Protection, League of Conservation Voters, National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council and Sierra Club launched the Reality Coalition, a national grassroots and an aggressive multimillion-dollar advertising campaign to change the public perception of clean coal. In early 2009, the Coen Brothers directed a TV commercial for the group titled: This Is Reality.
Affiliates
The Climate Protection Action Fund is a non-profit, non-partisan affiliated organization that directly influences the passage of key local, state and federal climate and energy legislation and policies that are critical to solving what they perceive as our most urgent climate problems. According to the website, the Action Fund uses targeted legislative campaigns, issue advocacy and grassroots organizing to promote actions to combat global warming.
External links
- Al Gore
- America Votes
- Climate Project
- Climate Protection Action Fund
- Energy Future Coalition
- Live Earth
- Northwestern School of Law
- Ocean Conservancy
- Outward Bound
- Repower America
- Sierra Club
- The Climate Reality Project Official site for the Alliance for Climate Protection.
- University of Colorado
- University of North Carolina
- WE Campaign
- Western Resource Advocates
References
- ↑ Jump up to: 1.0 1.1 About The Climate Reality Project The Climate Reality Project (accessed: October 6, 2011)
- ↑ Alliance for Climate Protection Wikipedia (accessed: October 6, 2011)
- ↑ Arena Profile: Maggie L. Fox The Politico (accessed: October 6, 2011)
- ↑ Gore Says Climate Change Not a Political Issue Dalje.com, Oct. 12, 2007
- ↑ Our Choice Al Gore, March 24, 2009
- ↑ Live Earth switch-off is vetoed BBC News, June 4, 2007
- ↑ What is Repower America? Repower America (accessed: October 6, 2011)
- ↑ Learn More About Repower America Repower America (accessed: October 6, 2011)
- ↑ About The Climate Project The Climate Project (accessed: October 6, 2011)
- ↑ More Heat, Less Light New York Magazine, June 20, 2010 - "Later this summer, Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection is planning to launch a program called Repower at Home that will focus on helping Americans create more energy-efficient homes."
- ↑ Gore Launches Ambitious Advocacy Campaign on Climate The Washington Post, March 31, 2008