Al Gore trains Pinoys as climate leaders

By The Climate Reality Project
August 3, 2013

CHICAGO, IL – In a keynote presentation on Wednesday, former Vice President Al Gore officially welcomed six Filipinos among more than 1500 new members to the Climate Reality Leadership Corps. As part of his day-long session with attendees, Mr. Gore, the Founder and Chairman of The Climate Reality Project, delivered an updated slideshow presentation first made popular by the award-winning An Inconvenient Truth.

Among those who were trained are United Nations news correspondent Tonie Marie Bacala and peace worker Maria Marasigan based in New York; engineer Marc Caratao D.Mgt., sustainable management students Nicole Cruz and Ny-Ann Nolasco from California; and engineer Francisco Alvarez ME, PME of Chicago.

“We are glad that Filipinos based in the United States have been trained to spread the reality of the climate crisis and hoping that they would be able to speak up and win the conversation on extreme weather brought about dirty energy which has caused series of disasters in the Philippines,” said Rodne Galicha, district manager of The Climate Reality Project in the Philippines who also serves as executive director of Romblon-based environment organization Sibuyan Island Sentinels League for Environment Inc.

Galicha, who mentored more than 90 Asia-Pacific participants coming from 21 countries, said that the role of Filipino-Americans in the climate conversations is to make Americans realize that the burning of fossil fuels, over-consumption and investing in climate-inducing industries are making the lives of communities in the developing and least developed countries especially in the Asia-Pacific region such as Bangladesh, India, the Philippines, Pakistan, Thailand and India.

“We can directly harness the power of nature such as wind, water and the heat of the sun – we have the technology to utilize and the creativity but we need political will to do it. Our country is blessed with beautiful 7,107 islands: with free and clean sources of energy – but there is no such thing as clean coal, it is still coal, dirty coal,” newly-trained Dr. Marc Caratao, an engineer by profession and born in the province of Cebu.

“I have seen the devastation of hurricane Sandy in New York but I am also alarmed with the disasters that are becoming a new normal brought by the climate crisis in the Philippines affecting our poor communities including the indigenous peoples. Yes, climate change is the cause but the vulnerability of our communities is increased by industries with investors based outside the country – they must be held accountable by paying their climate debts and pulling out their investments from disaster-inducing businesses such as mining,” said peace worker Maria Marasigan.

“Some people may deny the reality of the climate crisis but what we know is that our families, relatives and friends including our poor vulnerable communities back home are experiencing unusual weather patterns resulting to loss of livelihoods and lives. These are all not a hoax nor a scam! Climate crisis is, indeed, real,” said journalist and UN correspondent Toni Marie Bacala.

For Chicago-based Engr. Francisco Alvarez, Filipino families must be able to understand the reality of the climate crisis haunting their relatives in the Philippines.

“We must continue educating our Filipino families about the plight of our people back home, why are they suffering the effects of climate change and how are we able to extend assistance which is long term and invest in clean and green businesses in local communities where we come from,” said Alvarez.

Volunteers from all 50 states and more than 70 countries attended the Climate Reality Project’s twenty-third training program, and participants included teachers and students, academics, lawyers, physicians and nurses, entertainers, homemakers, business leaders, entrepreneurs, public servants, and more. Following the training, Climate Leaders emerge from the program as energized and skilled communicators with the knowledge, tools, and drive to educate diverse communities on the impacts of climate change and to demand action now. Since the program’s inception, Climate Leaders have reached millions of people worldwide through their presentations in their communities. In 2013, Climate Reality CEO Maggie L. Fox challenged Climate Leaders to undertake more than one thousand Acts of Leadership, including presentations in their communities, public hearings, and media outreach to a collective 1.3 million people worldwide.

This is the second Climate Reality Leadership Corps event in 2013, following the organization’s largest-ever international training program in Istanbul in late June 2013 with three Filipinos in attendance: Sonja Garcia Antonio from Davao City, Zephanie Mari Repollo fom Dumaguete City and Elirozz Carlie Labaria from Tagbilaran City.

Mr. Gore also made several announcements during his presentation:

Third Annual 24 Hours of Reality

“Today, we’re proud to announce the third annual 24 Hours of Reality, which will take place this year in Los Angeles on October 22.”

“Every year, we travel around the world to explore the reality of the climate crisis and tell just some of the countless stories of how it’s transforming lives and how people are joining together to do something about it. The theme of this year’s 24 Hours of Reality is the exorbitantly high cost of carbon pollution that we’ve all been paying for way too long now.”

“The cost of carbon pollution is something we’ve all been living with and paying for years while the fossil fuel industry just keeps making record profits. It’s time now to make the polluters pay for the damage they cause in super storms, wildfires, and rising seas, among other costs of carbon pollution, and put a price on carbon.”

In 2012, 24 Hours of Reality: The Dirty Weather Report broke the world record for viewers of a live online event, with more than 17 million online views, and won ten prestigious Telly Awards for excellence in online content. The broadcast also generated more than 165 million impressions on social media. In 2013, we plan to smash this record. For more information, please visit www.climaterealityproject.org.

Social Good Summit

Mr. Gore also announced that The Climate Reality Project will serve as a co-host of the first-ever climate segment at this year’s Social Good Summit in New York City on September 23, and that he will provide the keynote address at the first-ever Climate Segment at the Summit.

“I want you to join with Climate Reality and me to come together with one shared goal: to unlock the potential of new media and technology to make our planet a better place and translate that potential into action. We will also be unveiling an exciting new campaign called What I Love, and are excited to debut this in front of some of the most influential personalities in social media.”