10/08/2013

Beginning at 11am PST on October 22, former Vice President Al Gore and The Climate Reality Project will stop the clock for a full 24 hours to focus the world’s attention on the greatest challenge of our time: climate change driven by carbon pollution. With our global broadcast 24 Hours of Reality: The Cost of Carbon, we’ll bring together artists, scientists, celebrities, economists, and other experts to explore the many ways we’re all paying for carbon pollution in our daily lives — wherever we may live — and how we can solve this with a market price on carbon.

Each hour puts the spotlight on a separate continent — Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, or South America — and tells the story of how carbon pollution and climate change are shaping key local issues from food security to extreme weather. The Cost of Carbon also offers audiences the opportunity to join the conversation and learn what costs carbon pollution is personally exposing them to through our interactive Carbon Tab tool. Viewers can then send the result to their government leaders and demand they take action.

Last year, 24 Hours of Reality attracted a record 16 million-plus online views around the world, and we plan to smash this record with 24 Hours of Reality: The Cost of Carbon. But we need your help to make this the largest-ever conversation on carbon pollution. Watch the broadcast and let your friends, family members, and others in your network know what’s happening and how they can join the conversation too.

Why should you watch and what can you do to get the word out? We’ll tell you.

Why You Should Watch 24 Hours of Reality: The Cost of Carbon

1. 24 Hours of Reality: The Cost of Carbon will be the world’s largest conversation on carbon pollution, with millions taking part worldwide. You don’t want to miss out.

2. We watch the news and read the headlines because we want to know about the issues shaping our world. But many people think climate change only applies to polar bears and far-off countries. The Cost of Carbon breaks down what the climate crisis means for you personally in your daily life — and makes it entertaining.

3. Chances are, you’re exposed to the cost of carbon pollution in ways you may not even realize — and the bill just keeps getting more expensive. The Cost of Carbon’s Carbon Tab tool lets you see just what carbon pollution could cost you — and lets you take immediate action to persuade our leaders to put a price on carbon.

4. Compelling science and compelling storytelling makes for seriously enlightening entertainment.

5. The world’s land and oceans warmed 0.85 degrees Celsius (1.5 degrees Fahrenheit) from 1880—2012; according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), at our current rates of emissions, we’re on course to see an average of 3.7 degrees of warming from 2081—2100. That’s carbon pollution at work.

6. The IPCC also reported that while sea levels only rose 19 centimeters from 1901—2010, they’ll likely rise another 63 centimeters by some time from 2081—2100, if our current rates of emissions continue. That’s a lot of beachfront property in Miami, New York, Los Angeles, and other cities around the world that just got a lot closer to the water. As in, under it.

7. You’ve heard how climate change affects our lives and livelihoods. The Cost of Carbon brings this home with stories of how Superstorm Sandy transformed Staten Island, drought struck Durango, Mexico, and impacts on other communities.

8. We all need water to live, but carbon pollution threatens both water supplies and the health of ocean life. We’ll tell stories of diminished drinking water in Bolivia and dying reefs in Belize that will have you thinking about the issue differently.

9. We’re used to relying on basic infrastructure like roads and power lines for every part of our every day routines. But what happens when climate change undermines these foundations and exposes us to a new, uncertain normal? We’ll explore these questions and more by looking at 500-year flooding in Germany and rising seas threatening dikes in the Netherlands.

10. Climate change can lead to rising food prices in wealthy nations, but in some regions, the consequences can be much more severe, threatening basic food security and leading to political instability in Somalia.

11. Carbon pollution isn’t just affecting how we live; it’s also affecting where we live. The Cost of Carbon will travel to communities in Bangladesh and India to document lives forcibly displaced from their homes by the effects of climate change.

12. One of the greatest costs of climate change is what it means for our health. The broadcast goes to towns across Australia to witness the consequences of carbon pollution in terms of fire and flooding, and address what such changes mean for the health of ordinary people there and the world over.

What You Can Do to Help Get the Word Out

13. Subscribe to email updates for 24 Hours of Reality: The Cost of Carbon.

14. Let your Twitter followers know you’re joining The Cost of Carbon conversation both before and during the event. Make sure to use the hashtag #CostOfCarbon.

15. Talk about 24 Hours of Reality on Facebook using the hashtag #CostOfCarbon.

16. Invite your Facebook friends to RSVP, too.

17. Share this photo on Facebook.

18. Watch the 24 Hours of Reality Trailer, then share it on Facebook or Twitter.

19. Sign up for The Cost of Carbon Thunderclap

20. Email your friends who don’t use social media to let them know about this global event and encourage them to subscribe to email reminders at www.24hoursofreality.org.

21. Change your social media profile pic to the 24 Hours of Reality logo (right) to show your support.

22. Host a 24 Hours of Reality: The Cost of Carbon watch party.

23. Attend a Mashable MeetUp. Click here to find one near you.

24. Donate your lunch hour and watch 24 Hours at your desk on October 22—23.

Source: climaterealityproject.org