People from 47 U.S. states and 58 countries spent 3 days in San Francisco being trained by Al Gore and team at the Climate Reality Project training, 8/21-23/12. The group included none other than Ms. Bette Midler! (see more on her NY Restoration Project at www.nyrp.org) Mr. Gore presented his entire current slideshow, supported by climate scientist Mike MacCracken of the Climate Institute.

3 new things I learned:

1) Humans emit 90 million tons of CO2 every DAY (we are now up to 390ppm in the atmosphere though scientists say we should be at 350ppm);

2) Some climate scientists are now saying that the high number of extreme weather events around the globe can clearly be attributed to climate change, whereas they had been hesitant to make that connection in the past;

3) Other countries are facing climate impacts so directly that they don’t have the same level of denial we have here. The fossil industry has paid PR firms to successfully plant doubt in the public’s mind in the U.S. It was embarrassing – at one point conference organizers said “people dealing with deniers (Americans) stay in this room, and people from other countries who want to focus on action steps meet in room B.”

But it wasn’t all bad news: last year more was invested globally in renewable energy ($187 billion) than on fossil infrastructure- yay! And San Francisco is an exemplary green city. There is hope….  See http://climaterealityproject.org/ if you would like a presentation.