“Eighty-five Australians have been chosen to spread former US vice president and climate campaigner Al Gore’s greenhouse message to their local communities.
Mr Gore is personally training his environment crusaders after recruiting them from a pool of 700 hopefuls.
As a mother of two, Elizabeth Bastian says the decision to apply to do the training workshop was easy.
“Having two kids makes you think about the future much more than when you’re living for the present,” she said. She says she could not believe Mr Gore selected her to spread the word on climate change. “My heart was beating so much, I thought my chest was going to crack open,” she said. “I was absolutely thrilled.”
This weekend, Mr Gore has taught each of his messengers how to present a slide show drawn from his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. After that, Mr Gore says they will be on their own to deliver 10 presentations to their communities.
“The whole purpose of this is to get the message of the climate crisis delivered more quickly to more people with the scientific accuracy and connect it to the solutions,” he said.
The Australian Conservation Foundation helped organise the event. Its executive director, Don Henry, hopes more people will now do their bit to deliver a global warning.
“The great challenge for us now is to turn that awareness into action to ensure that we do dramatically cut greenhouse pollution,” he said.
Elizabeth Bastian is a happy participant. “The good thing is I am Australian – I will be thinking about Australian concerns and what concerns me,” she said. Australian and US citizens are the first to participate. The British are next in line.”
