Nature invited some prominent names to comment on Al Gore's recently concluded Climate Reality Project.
Barry W. Brook, director of climate science, Environment Institute, University of Adelaide, Australia, said, "Overall, I don't think this initiative will do much good. For one thing, Al Gore is now as much a hindrance as a help on climate change advocacy, as he's been characterized (probably unfairly) as a highly partisan figure, and so immediately gets about half of all folks offside..."
Judith Curry, chair, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, United States , said, "If the intent of Al Gore's telethon is to garner broad support for climate and energy policies such as proposed by the UNFCCC (e.g. the Kyoto protocol), I anticipate that this effort will backfire and energize the opposition to such policies. As a scientist I find the mantra "remove the doubt, reveal the deniers" to be objectionable…"
Candis Callison, assistant professor, Graduate School of Journalism, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, said, "It's not clear to me what work the Climate Reality Project is doing, nor who it's directed at. Al Gore has done a great job of 'galvanizing the faithful', (i.e. those who already care about climate change) so if it's about that, and if the Twitter feed is any indication, then it seems to be succeeding wildly..."
Read all of the responses on the Nature News Blog.
