Al Gore’s Climate Reality Leadership Training Recap

Last week I was lucky enough to attend Al Gore’s Climate Reality Leadership Training in LA and on the second day HE insisted that I take a picture with him!

…alright so a couple thousand other leaders photobombed it. What can I say? We’re kind of a big deal.

The event was fantastic. Although I was familiar with most of the topics, there were several recent events, pictures, and facts that really smacked me in the face, followed by some promising trends, contagious hope in the room, and determination that picked me right back up…as only the issue of climate change can do.

Meeting so many amazing people and listening to a diverse set of experts and activists was truly inspiring!

Overall, my belief that climate change is the most important issue facing us today, that it will affect everyone, and that it requires immediate action has only gotten stronger. As has my belief that we are all capable of making a difference and must step up our game if we are to solve this crisis in time.

The transition to sustainability is inevitable, but we need to make sure we get there quickly enough. There is a shot clock on this issue and the truth is we don’t know just how much time we have left to make our comeback. We’re the underdog right now and need to dig deep (like our world depends on it). We can solve this. Plus, who doesn’t want to be part of a good underdog story?

It’s not even that hard to start helping! The best first step is to talk about it with people you know and to do it frequently! Whether it’s your friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, or uber driver – just start talking about climate change with people: how it’s affecting us, the seriousness and urgency of the issue, and, importantly, the solutions to it.

“You don’t understand how valuable your influence is” – Jonathon Scott

A few of the many key takeaways:

• “The sustainable revolution will have the magnitude of the industrial revolution, but the speed of the digital revolution.” – Al Gore
• “When we can harness the wisdom of crowds…that’s when we all move forward in the right direction”. Al said “wisdom of crowds” a lot, which was music to my ears. For those that don’t know, I hope to harness the collective wisdom of the Crowdsourcing Sustainability community and put it to good use by reducing GHG emissions (once the community is big enough). The idea has evolved a bit, but you can get the gist here.
• “We know how to solve the problem, we just need to get on with it.” – Professor of Climate Science V. Ramanathan (“Ram”)
• “The power to win this fight isn’t in someone else’s hands. It’s in ours.” – Eric Garcetti, Mayor of L.A.

…also, to get into this training, I had to sign a contract saying I’d do ten presentations on the reality of climate change and the solutions in the next year, so if anyone would like me to speak at their town, school, company, living room, etc. let me know!

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