Organizations spearheaded by former Vice President Al Gore have launched an advertising campaign in movie theaters to inform audiences of the measures they can take in their everyday lives to mitigate the "climate crisis."

As part of a deal with the movie advertisement agency ScreenVision, the Alliance for Climate Protection -- founded by Gore in 2006 -- is airing advertisements, conversations about conservation, and a short animated feature called "Sky is Falling" at 7,000 theater screens nationwide.

The "Go Green" video package runs before the movie begins, alongside advertisements for local goods and services.

A pre-movie ad -- which also appears on television -- says Americans "didn't wait" for someone else to storm the beaches at Normandy, guarantee civil rights, or put a man on the moon. "And we can't wait for someone else to solve the global climate crisis. We need to act. And we need to act now."

Movie-goers also hear energy-saving tips. They're urged to use push lawnmowers and compact fluorescent light bulbs; to do only full loads of laundry, switch off lights and appliances when they're not needed, and use less heat or air conditioning.

"Of course it would be great if everyone had a hybrid car," a spokesman adds.

The pre-show bundle also includes an animated feature from Current TV -- the cable news channel also founded by the former vice president.

The segment, entitled "Sky is Falling," says the United States in 2006 produced 5.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide, the weight-equivalent of 1.2 million elephants. As animated elephants fall from the sky, causing terror in the city below, the animated video says, "It's time to stop ignoring the 1.2 million elephants in the room."

The pre-movie package and the TV ads are part of the Alliance for Climate Protection's three-year "We" campaign, which is described as "an unprecedented mobilization campaign to solve the climate crisis." Al Gore's group is spending $300-million to spread the "we can solve the climate crisis" message.

Some of the campaign's TV ads feature strange bedfellows -- Democrat Nancy Pelosi and Republican Newt Gingrich; and the Reverends Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson -- disagreeing on everything except the need to address climate change.

The initial part of the "We" campaign - now being seen in American televisions and theaters -- is a "call for American unity and leadership on the climate issue," the Alliance said.

Subsequent installments will reinforce the message that Americans must cross traditional partisan and ideological lines to solve the problem. The final phase will move to a "discussion of specific solutions."

According to the Alliance for Climate Protection, "The international scientific community agrees that we may have only a short time to act in order to ensure that the next generation will inherit a healthy planet."

Conservative criticism
James Taylor, a senior fellow for environmental policy at the Heartland Institute, is a a frequent critic of Gore's efforts. He told Cybercast News Service, "I believe that the ACP is wasting its money. People have been exposed to these over-the-top scare scenarios for so long that they take it with a grain of salt."

He dismissed the Alliance's claim that there is only a limited time to act.

"The Earth has warmed 0.6 degrees Celsius since the end of the Little Ice Age, which by the way, were the coldest temperatures during the past 10,000 years. To have warmed 0.6 degrees Celsius from such a cold spell is not very alarming." The Little Ice Age ended around 1850.

"The scientific evidence indicates that most of that warming occurred before humans could have had that much of an influence. So, at most, you're talking about human influence being partially responsible for 0.2 degrees Celsius" increase in temperature.

"To put that in perspective, if humans are influencing the climate, it's been only at the margins, certainly not in the way that would indicate alarm," Taylor said.

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