Not so inconvenient

Posted December 13th, 2006 at 12:05 pm by Erin Carlson, Yahoo! For Good

 5 Comments / Filed in: Yahoo! For Good

I’ve been accused of having a green heart. That’s why I’m so pleasantly surprised by what seems to be a major shift in public opinion on climate change. And we can definitely thank Al Gore for that.

My team, Yahoo! for Good, had the privilege of previewing An Inconvenient Truth as a result of our Earth Day efforts in April. We even got to hear from Al himself — he was a surprise guest at a theater filled with only 50 people. He was so passionate and, get this, witty. Where was that in 2000?

Our team left the theater truly transformed. We wanted to ensure that the most people possible saw this film. We even arranged for hundreds of low-income high-school students in Los Angeles and New York City to see it opening week.

Fast-forward to the DVD release. What a no-brainer to make the film available to the youngest (and sometimes most powerful) influencers. So we donated more than 220 copies of An Inconvenient Truth to high-school science teachers in neighboring communities of Yahoo! offices — from California to Oregon to New York. After all, it’s required viewing for all students in Norway and Sweden.

After hearing that the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) rejected a donation of 50,000 DVDs from the movie’s producers allegedly for fear of losing corporate funding, we knew this Purple Act of Kindness was more important than ever. It seems tragic that education is such a low public funding priority in the U.S. that the NSTA has to worry about risking capital campaign contributions from the likes of Exxon Mobile for simply educating kids about global warming. But alas, that’s another story…

In the meantime, Yahoo! will continue to put the environment front and center and educate people on how they can protect it. It’ll do my heart good.

Erin Carlson
Senior Manager, Yahoo! for Good

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5 Comments Add your own

Todd | December 13th, 2006 at 3:17 pm

Exxon PR is in high gear (via the Competitive Enterprise Institute). Have you seen the parody site they created to try and lampoon Gore’s Inconvenient Truth? It’s despicable. Check it out.

http://www.thenextleft.com/blogatory/archives/2006/08/exxonmobil_behi.html

I think it’s really a tribute to the name “Yahoo! For Good” that you guys stepped in and did something. Personally, if you were collecting money from the public to get more copies in the hands of educators, I’d donate at least $100. Maybe $1000 just to spite Exxon.

Richard Rosenthal | December 13th, 2006 at 8:49 pm

We should try to have some understanding for our oil glutony. This is our way of life and soon to be that for China and India. It is fine to feel pity for the planet and in some circles it is quite fashionable. But there are a few necessary changes required before we can change. The first is to get beyond the denial. Another is to replace fossil fuel stocks (equities) with equivalent wealth: to buy off the wealthy. The most important is leadership by someone who realizes that by letting go of the banana is the best way to free oneself from this monkey trap. Such a leader will educate Americans that fixed(and failing) energy reserves under the sands of unenlightened nations will only cause us grief(national security issue), Goals: renewable energy R&D, a challenge for America’s engineers, and most importantly, economic opportunity! for generations. Remember that the Chinese will want our technology if it makes their life better. That is a lot of opportunity at no one’s expense. That is win-win and so very American.

alessandro | December 14th, 2006 at 7:41 am

I appreciate this effort. Please remember Exxon and other energy companies in the world are still too powerful also in “propaganda”. That’s the real problem.
Thanks.

rochelle | December 15th, 2006 at 9:53 am

so what are you going to do about the educational part? how come america does not want to change over to the metric system? what about educating these young people on receycling and the effects.how come no one wants to change the school system to better the students and to be more competitive with european nations schoolsystem?
or better yet where i can i start to make a difference, cuase i have a five year old and she is starting school next year? i was raised in europe and the schoolsystem is so much better over there, but i can’t stay home to homeschool my daughter since i am a single mom. so any suggestion would be appreciated.
thank you.

Scott | January 5th, 2007 at 3:04 pm

There has got to be a good alternative to lamination though…
(the little laminated poster… hrmm extra plastic). Just a thought, is there a good alternative?