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Help others see An Inconvenient Truth! Watch An Inconvenient Truth for free!

why bother? what's new on the blog? who are you?

If you haven't done so yet, please sign the biggest climate petition in history at Avaaz.org. This week (June 6-9), the thirteen women and men who lead the world's wealthiest nations meet in Germany to decide the fate of our global climate. This petition you sign will be delivered at the conference, as well as held high at street demonstrations outside.

The Memo Goes Out To Two Billion?

Anthony from Australia is blogging about Live Earth, by far the largest concert ever held. It happens on the 7th of July and the goal is, astoundingly, to raise awareness about global warming. Officially,

Live Earth will use the global reach of music to engage people on a mass scale to combat our climate crisis, bringing together more than 150 of the world's top musicians for 24 hours of music from 9 concerts across all 7 continents.liveearth.org

Or, more authoritatively:

9 concerts. 2 billion people. 1 Earth.

By any measure, the event will be huge, and tickets have been sublimating like ice on a hot winter day. But, you can still find admission for New York, Johannesburg, Rio De Janeiro, Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney, Hamburg, and Istanbul. (London's all sold out!)

As the only two industrialized nations who refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol, who still register the greatest amount of denial of even the occurrence of climate change, the U.S. and Australia have much to gain from increased public understanding. I've heard that Australian Prime Minister John Howard has the nickname "Bonsai" because he is a little Bush. Let's hope these guys can see the writing on the wall, and hear the music.

Thanks to Anthony for providing great coverage, and support for sharethetruth!

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On the heels of a Nobel Peace Prize nomination, and An Inconvenient Truth's two Academy Award wins, Al Gore is about to testify before Congress on the subject of global warming. In addition to providing expert testimony in a language politicians can understand, Gore plans to present hundreds of thousands of signatures from We the People, urging our Congressmembers elect to take action immediately.

From his website:

I know from personal experience that the only thing that will make Washington really take notice and do something to solve the climate crisis is the prospect of millions of committed citizens taking action. It's time to join together and make that happen.

Sign the postcard to your representative demanding real action on global warming below and I'll personally deliver it to Washington in March. I'll keep you up to date on how things are going by email.algore.com

Don't delay! Sign the card and pass along the link, so your every acquaintance can fill in their names by March 21st.

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It just keeps getting better.

Two Academy Award nominations, and it's George W. Bush who'll be delivering the preliminary acceptance speech tonight. From the horse's mouth:

The President's Plan Will Help Confront Climate Change By Stopping The Projected Growth Of Carbon Dioxide Emissions From Cars, Light Trucks, And SUVs Within 10 Years.whitehouse.gov

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When I heard today that Apple announced its new online movie distribution deal, to offer over a hundred Paramount movies, I immediately checked the iTunes store to see if An Inconvenient Truth was available. Alas, it is not. But I'd like to ask sharethetruth visitors to drop a request at the Apple "Request Music" page (which covers movies, too) to communicate that there is demand for this movie. It'll only take a second!

Ideally, when the movie can be purchased and downloaded, sharethetruth can help distribute the movie that way as well. It'd be less of a burden on our donors, and the lack of a DVD, packaging, and fuel burned for shipping would be, best of all, a more sustainable option.

Did anyone else who watched the keynote appreciate 1) An Inconvenient Truth ranked #1 on Amazon.com during the iPhone demo, 2) Al Gore's voicemail, and 3) the collection of Antarctica photos, albeit without close-ups of ice shelves breaking off?

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Over the last hour, sharethetruth received 450 DVD requests, on average one every 8 seconds. As of this writing, there are 3,213 unfulfilled orders for free copies. At $20, the DVD's current going rate, this operation would require $64,320 in donations – without tallying packaging and shipping costs – just to catch up.

Over the last week, eight very nice donors have stepped forward, contributing a total of $90.

Though the numbers are, to put it mildly, somewhat mismatched, I believe this isn't a funding problem as much as it's an awareness problem.

Oh, The Good Old Days

Looking back through the mists of time to July 2006, we see a somewhat balanced ledger. Before the DVD release of An Inconvenient Truth was ever on the horizon, sharethetruth sent people directly to the movie theater, paid tickets in hand. It worked just about right. This effort directly introduced the wonderful world of global warming to nearly a thousand people (indirectly, many more). We constantly ran out of funding, but enough generous souls continued to show up at the door to make up the difference.

How do we keep the books balanced, perpetuating past success? The answer is, I believe, improved communication on several points:

1. Hey you! Sharethetruth is powered by real people, not fake ones!

Since today's massive influx of visitors have come from FatWallet.com, SlickDeals.net, RedFlagDeals.com, and the like, many recent requests are generally being made in a different context than expected. Here's a sample of what people are saying:

Signed up. 1 less movie in my Netflix queue...
shieryda, CAG thread

I'm down for one. I saw this before. It was good. Maybe not exactly super exciting. But worth watching again... one day.
jdamirez, SlickDeals thread

Awesome! I can't wait to ebay my free copy.
breakfast-pants, Reddit.com thread

If it does come, I'm just going to turn around and sell it on Half.com or something.
GTZ_NSR, same CAG thread

While there's nothing wrong at all with scoring free or discounted stuff (I quite like it myself), I don't think most of the people requesting the DVD just to have a copy – or, $10 extra dollars – truly understand what this cause is about.

First, this site is not Al Gore's, nor is it affiliated with the Paramount or Participant Productions. Many visitors are leaving comments thanking Gore, or otherwise responding to the effort as if the movie studio is funding a giveaway effort.

Second, not only does all money come from individual donors, but an individual runs the website. The collaboration of these individuals has yielded a pool of cash none-too-easily collected. When was the last time you saw in-demand gifts publicly distributed by a non-profit organization, let alone individual people? Sharethetruth is simply not a company with profit margins or, for that matter, any funding that might allow for irresponsible spending. Even in our free movie ticket days, we declined requests that failed to convey sufficient trustworthiness. We'd lose the trust of donors if we squandered their gifted money.

Third, people mustn't misunderstand why the movie is being offered free. It's not because there's a surplus of movies, or that it's not worth the money. It's that viewers are so inspired by An Inconvenient Truth, they want to do what they can to help others see it, too. A perverse feature of the way we value goods in market societies is the confusion that can occur between two absolutely opposite ends of the worth spectrum.

2. Sharethetruth wants to "do good" and be sustainable, too.

The Inconvenient Truth DVD case is made of 100% post-consumer recycled material (a full step beyond "100% recycled") wrapped with EarthFirst PLA film made of corn and a 100% compostable label. Correspondingly, sharethetruth does not wish to condone excessive shipping, or excessive consumption. Someone who has seen the movie and wants a copy to sit on a bookshelf is, simply put, not a target beneficiary. I have no desire to be exclusionary, but given our limited resources, both for this cause and from this little blue dot that gives us life, it's the poor and the skeptical who get dibs on the free stuff.

3. Sharethetruth needs your help.

You may have noticed that the number of requests we are now getting far exceeds current capacity. Closing the request form is not an option, however, because everyone is still welcome and I hope to send out DVDs to as many as possible. So with this backlog of pending transfers at hand, I'm turning to you, if you've seen the movie, to either contribute some funds, or pledge a copy of the movie to sharethetruth, so we can connect you with a beneficiary in your area.

In the meantime, we're writing everyone we can for assistance, from Mr. Gore to companies involved in the film to unrelated but philanthropically inclined organizations, for any copies of the movie they'd be willing to offer up. This, like the global warning itself, is just part of the long beginning – and we really hope to do everything we can to help.

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Attend a free screening of An Inconvenient Truth at a neighbor's home, this Saturday! As of this writing, there are 1850 events planned (within a 10-minute bike ride from here, 6 screenings are still open for RSVP). There's no fun like house party fun. Look for showings near you or sign up to host an event of your own.

Thanks to MoveOn and Al Gore for sponsoring this event, as well as Treehugger for the tip!

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Watch An Inconvenient Truth on Dailymotion!

Share and enjoy. Then, snag the DVD which ships on November 21st () to lend to your friends without computers!

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Another update – November 1: The resolution is now further along and will reach the UC Regents, for the last official stamp, in January. It calls for a 25% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2020, zero-waste by 2020 as well, and climate-neutrality ASAP (I believe this makes sense since the last target can be achieved with the help of emissions offsets).

Update – October 26: Time to backpedal, because it wasn't the UC Regents that voted, it was the sustainability steering committee of the UC Office of the President. Still neat, but a resolution passed by that committee isn't the extraordinarily bold decision that I (and the source that tipped off sharethetruth) believed it was. I apologize for the misinformation; this incident strongly compels increased vigilance towards future fact-checking. Thanks for the "hugg", shazam!

The original post remains for posterity:

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Carl Sparre from Australia writes in with a fascinating idea: what if George W. Bush got a Tesla Roadster electric sports car for Christmas?

There's every indication that our President, the leader of the free world, still doesn't "get it" on issues of the environment. Some may remember his commitment to cutting carbon emissions when he was running for office; that commitment is now gone. While the science of global warming becomes more solidified each day, Bush drives backwards, stating that America will not introduce carbon-reducing initiatives until more data arrives. He has reiterated promises of lowering U.S. carbon "intensity" (which in all probability increases emissions), and of reducing dependence on foreign oil (relying on non-renewable or low-energy-return resources such as coal and ethanol, which also continue to generate greenhouse gases). In short, his policies dedicate our future to a world full of carbon and short of resources.

Maybe his mind can be changed.

There's a fancy new sports car called the Tesla Roadster, not only a zero-emissions vehicle with recyclable tires and batteries, but also a nimble number clocking in with 248 horses at a 4-second 0-60. It's $80,000, but consider 80,000 people each contributing 1 dollar. (Keep in mind that over 247,000 have pledged online to watch An Inconvenient Truth.)

Help buy a Tesla for George Bush. It's a positive way to send a powerful, visceral message to a lot of people. Update: Pledge is now closed.

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Kathy from Seattle has organized and hosted three massive ticket giveaways now, for residents in her home state of Wisconsin. Not only were they amazingly successful and brought 230 people to see An Inconvenient Truth, her generosity also caught the attention of the local papers.

An article that ran last week in the Post-Crescent also featured sharethetruth, proud to be a part of the efforts. You can see the excerpt in the photo included here, or read the article posted online at the newspaper's website.

Thank you Kathy, the Post-Crescent, and all supporters of the film!

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Swag for awareness, not for profit

I'm proud to announce that sharethetruth t-shirts and postcards are now available for pre-order. Simply enter your email address and I'll keep you posted as they become available!

Sharethetruth is working with two of the most environmentally-, socially-, and even carbon- (!) conscious apparel and printing companies on this planet Earth, to bring you swag (more info below). The merchandise will not be marked up whatsoever and, in the case of leftover money, 100% of it will go to sending out tickets (and in the future, DVDs) and organizing screenings. So without further ado, here's the front of the shirt (there won't be a border; click to enlarge):

And the back (click to enlarge):

Poor frog! In case you don't know about the Golden Toad of Monteverde, he was featured two articles back and has become the mascot around here, for better or worse.

Postcards from the precipice

Sharethetruth's probably more useful on postcards (rather than informational flyers or brochures) because cards not only feel more valuable and aren't thrown away as quickly, but can also be passed on, mailed to relatives or left on the bicycle seats of secret admirees! Have a look (and try enlarging the picture, 'cause the toad looks better in detail):

The shirts are on order with TS Designs, where organic cotton, Fair Trade labor practices (in spirit and letter), and sustainable no-PVC dyes are a brand philosophy. The postcards, for distributing to theaters and people on the street (outside the cinema where they've just finished An Inconvenient Truth, of course), are of the Greener Printer variety, made from 100% recycled and 50% post-consumer waste materials, with soy/vegetable inks and no chlorine. What's more, they factor in the cost of offsetting carbon emissions when they ship goods!

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This reply was so inspirational, I'm quoting almost all of it! From Sheri in Knoxville, TN.

The best part about sharethetruth is what I don't even see: the awareness spreading further out, the little changes happening in people's lives as a result of the extraordinary clarity offered by An Inconvenient Truth. And incidentally, this is not the first or second to reply saying they actually convinced someone into getting a hybrid!

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The last giveaway in Wisconsin was such a success, there's now a sequel! UPDATE: The event is over and this one was an even bigger win!

Thanks to our generous donor, there are 80 free seats at the Marcus Hollywood Cinemas in Grand Chute (Appleton) for Tuesday, July 25th, at 6:30pm.

If you're interested, email to reserve yours. If not, or if you've already received free tickets through sharethetruth, you can tell your friends and family about it – especially if they're reluctant to go. But in either case act quickly, 'cause that's how they're disappearing!

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Among many fitting mascots for global warming, the most compelling one of all might be Bufo periglenes, the golden toad of Monteverde:

"The reward for the finder of this marvellous creature is sublime. Anyone who spies the glittering brilliance of the frog is at first astounded by its beauty and overwhelmed with the excitement and joy of discovery; almost simultaneously he may experience great fear. The story continues that any man who finds the legendary frog finds happiness....One story tells of a man who found the frog, captured it, but then let it go because he did not recognise happiness when he had it; another released the frog because he found happiness too painful."
J. Savage, On the Trail of the Golden Frog

This breathtaking creature made but a blip of an appearance to Science. It was discovered in the 60s, and over the next two decades it would awe scientists, schoolchildren alike, evoking wonder and prompting extensive study. But where once upon a time the puddles on the forest floor saw hundreds of bright orange toads, climbing atop one another, ready to mate during the few weeks they could once a year, not one has been found since 1989, when the last male was spotted, unable to find a partner.

Incidentally, the puddles on the ground nowadays are also different: shortlived if not completely dried out. Every year since the mid-70s, the number of mistless days in the Monteverde forest preserve has increased, caused by a rise in sea surface temperatures which elevates the cloud line which, in turn, fails to impart the proper moisture conditions required for the toad's survival.

So why should anyone care? It's not just that the frog was cute, nor is it just 'cause extinction sucks. Bufo periglenes, the first documented victim of global climate change, was a creature that survived tens, maybe hundreds or thousands, of thousands of years of climate change – the slow, gradual kind that provides enough time for species to adapt – but not this. This time, its home got hot way too fast.

Sharethetruth's mascot is the toad. Expect to see him around, once again, if only for just a little while longer.

UPDATE 7/28: Our toad is now in living color, ready for pre-order on shirts and postcards!

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One troll out of 5,000 unique visitors to-date ain't too shabby! While a very small minority of free ticket requests have been declined, no one has yet submitted silliness to the form – until today. So here's the model citizen's way of not getting complimentary tickets from sharethetruth:

Amount requested: $100,000
First name: fake
Last name: mmphosis
Email: [bleeped]
Address: none
City: rural
Country: Canada
Theater: dunno
Date/time: dunno
Comments: without housing, little money, travel is very expensive, I wouldn't even know where to go to see this movie in a theatre

Which is weird, because apparently he makes web pages! Anyway, he received from sharethetruth $100,000 worth of video links, namely the interview between Al Gore and Inconvenient Truth director Davis Guggenheim, the , as well as clips from the Discovery special on global warming. Enjoy, Mr. Mmphosis!

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If you could track the Inconvenient Truth meme, to follow the idea wherever it went as it passed from Al Gore to Davis Guggenheim to film, then to newspapers and advertisements, to moviegoers who passed it on through email & the web, telephone, casual lunch meetings and of course steamy bedroom conversation, it would be fascinating, and fantastic to behold. You might notice two interesting things – aside from the inevitable brilliant surprise that you had spontaneously become omniscient:

1. It has spread from the coasts inward.
2. It is passed on with such fervor, re-flares of the meme are not uncommon, and seem to happen in spite of the meme itself.

Have a look at the sharethetruth map of inspiration for a rudimentary but accurate, microcosmic illustration of the movie's reach. Of particular note, those dots in Wisconsin, Missouri, Mississippi, Colorado, and most of Texas? They sprouted during the last week alone. While people much smarter than I have eloquently doubted whether Al Gore is correct to hope that political will is a sufficiently renewable resource, their outlook might be improved by considering how this movie spreads and even changes minds.

Re-flares of the meme are impressive too, sparking large amounts of wildly disproportionate interest in An Inconvenient Truth. When re-flares occur, they create feedback loops wherein people become so active in participating, their contribution becomes vast and ongoing, far greater than that which they received. In the case of sharethetruth, when people write in with commendations, or simply that they're now going to watch the film, it keeps this hub of activity well-oiled, making clear that the system is working.¹ Visitors here, or to other Inconvenient Truth ticket giveaway sites, or to the gopher-popping abundance of local free screenings, such as the 105 theater seats offered today in Pensacola, can then absorb not only the film's message, but also the meme's meta-message: people are seriously gung-ho (and possibly insane).

What's so special, you ask? Memes frequently spread like wildfire. However, there's a large difference between the way this one spreads and the way a funny video about diet coke and mentos does. This one must overcome resistance, every minute of each day. And yet it reaches people who decided beforehand that they didn't need to be reached.² How's that for a meme?

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As An Inconvenient Truth closes its eighth week, its current momentum will, at worst, make it the 3rd highest grossing documentary of all time. You can see day-by-day stats for box-office intake at Box Office Mojo. Not bad for Mr. Square's science slideshow!

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The Discovery Channel promises "no politics, just the facts" in its upcoming global warming special.

Titled "Global Warming: What You need To Know" hosted by Tom Brokaw, it airs Sunday, July 16 at 9pm ET/PT, and again at Saturday, July 22 at 8pm ET/PT.

For people you know who won't watch An Inconvenient Truth because it's got Al Gore in it, or for some other fascinating reason, this is the perfect chance to break out the guacamole and invite 'em over!

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Today marks a month since sharethetruth began taking donations (and we're over $3,000!). Since this site simply would be nothing without all the people who've helped it this far, I'd like to express to them my immense appreciation.

The first people to thank are Lawrence, Kathy, and Greg Craven, the three most generous donors, who've also found other ingenious ways to promote An Inconvenient Truth. I'm extremely inspired by what they're doing, and that in turn, helps this entire effort accelerate forward.

Mr. Craven left a veritably bold message for everyone, explaining his motivations and even where the money's coming from. My hat is off to you, sir!

It's thanks to all the website referrals, especially the greatest one of all, Lawrence Lessig's blog, that people started showing up in the first place. Professor Lessig was also the first to donate and trust sharethetruth when it was even more of a fledgling unknown.

Kathy has not only donated huge, she's propelled her own efforts offline, putting an ad in the local Green Bay paper, and getting her parents to watch it then help her hand out theater tickets on its last showdate.

I'd use expletives to describe how awesome ya'll are, but I don't want to scare anyone away!

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It's official: having shot far north of $2,800 in donations in a single month, sharethetruth has accomplished 10-fold what I was capable of alone. Moreover, it's helped spread awareness of the movie's importance, and issues underlying, far better than I could have by simply telling my friends.

This is the tribute's first part, an interview wherein a UC Santa Cruz philosophy professor grills sharethetruth on some hard questions. Since he's playing the role of devil's advocate, I'd like to call him Stan. Here we go:

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If you told me two months ago

...that I'd wake up at 8:00 on a Saturday to stand in line for a film starring Al Gore? Ha!

Well, thanks to California Assemblymember John Laird and the Nickelodeon theater, three hundred Santa Cruz residents were fortunate enough to do just that – and watch An Inconvenient Truth for free. Better still, attendance was so successful, a second screen had to be opened to handle the crowd overflow.

I learnt of the screening through the local Good Times, which last week had published John Laird's announcement of the event. Two days before the screening, I wrote Laird's office to introduce sharethetruth and ask if there were seats available for our visitors here. I quickly found out that it was a "sold out" show, but that I could attend if I so wished. Since no one in town had a pending ticket request at that time, I concluded it'd be a great opportunity to check out the panel discussion and, if I got the chance, pimp this site a bit.

An exciting energy hummed as everyone shuffled into the seats. Though most of the crowd was 35 or older, many brought their children. It's fun enough to be part of any special event; but in this case, knowing the crowd was about to watch this movie made the experience a real treat.

There's a lot to be said about the film itself, of course, but I'll not go into it fully here. It was stunning once again. More applause this time. Different from before, I had deeper appreciation for some scenes, in light of the "facts" I've been hearing and reading lately.¹ Especially striking was the biggest slide – the chart with Earth's temperatures superimposed against carbon-dioxide levels, over the last 650,000 years.

Credits roll on the carbon-neutral production

Afterwards, the discussion panel convened. Before getting into the Q & A, however, I must mention that the official flyers, handed out to the audience before the show, recommend sharethetruth as a way to Take Action. Plus, when someone asked the panel if anything was being done to promote the movie by, say, giving out free tickets, a staffer responded by dropping the sharethetruth bomb. No, I didn't pay them!

Lisa Sloan, professor and director of Climate Change and Impacts Laboratory at UCSC, kicked off the discussion by recognizing that the climate has indeed been very different at various stages of our planet's past. For the Earth, she said, climate change is no surprise; humanity, however, is having an increasingly dramatic effect.

John Laird described the work he and others are doing on the state level. They're protecting the fragile delta water system (AB 1200), saving billions of water annually with high-conservation toilets (just approved), and raising California's fuel economy standards (as Gore observes, American cars can't even be sold in China because they're far too inefficient). I don't know that much about John Laird, but his environmental record looks promising, and he seems a compassionate speaker and listener.

The other 800-pound gorilla

It was fascinating to me that there were no questions directly about climate change. And not because the audience was a "choir" that didn't need "preaching" to, for more than one viewer loudly (obnoxiously) disagreed during the film. I believe it's because by the end, the presentation was so clear and compelling it naturally rendered clichéd arguments against human-caused global warming pretty weak.

All the questions, it seemed, were about energy. How individuals can conserve energy, how business can, alternatives to energy company monopolies, solar power, nuclear power, wind power (yes!), car-sharing programs, improving gas mileage, commuter trains, the impacts of widening the highway, to name a sample. As has been echoed by scientists and global leaders alike, the question is no longer whether humans are exacerbating global warming to a dangerous degree, it's what we can do to lessen our effect.

Laird observed that Californians are in a unique position to be able to take the first strides in improving fuel economy, water conservation, energy use, and so on. If we raise our standards for automobiles, for example, it pressures U.S. automakers to implement industry-wide changes: manufacturing two breeds of cars, one for California and another for the rest of the nation, is simply not economical. Those standards, therefore, become raised for the entire country. That's a powerful message, especially to communicate that small-scale efforts have all the power to make big differences.

Photos from the event.

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UPDATE: The tickets are gone, the giveaway a resounding success! Kathy, donor and organizer, mounted a brilliant effort to get Ashwaubenons to see the film, including running an ad in the local paper and meeting folks at the cinema.

There were 80 tickets free for everyone, and it was at the Bay Park Cinema for today's 7:05pm showing, the last day it was showing in the area. If you took her up on the opportunity and went to the film there, do email and offer your thoughts!

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This is sharethetruth blog. Welcome.

For one thing, it'll be easier to communicate – both ways – about updates happening 'round here, using the venerable weblog format. Lists are so 1999!

But far more important, sharethetruth, while still dedicated to helping everyone take others to see An Inconvenient Truth, will now branch out to help spread awareness, address uncertainty about global warming at large, and examine solutions. Since the environmental crisis by necessity requires a broad perspective, let's say economic considerations, political climate, and potential widespread shortages of water, food, and energy are all fair game for discussion. The future of our planet deserves no less than the utmost concern from everyone on it.

I'm totally late to the party, aren't I.

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How this idea got started

After seeing An Inconvenient Truth on June 11th, 2006, I couldn't escape how absolutely dead-on it is. (Climate scientists agree. Pore over this healthy discussion at realclimate.org on the "admirable science" behind the film, scientific errors included.) And if the film was that accurate, then I needed to do everything possible to help.

I wanted others to see this movie. Without awareness, change is impossible.

Incidentally, the same sentiment is independently echoed by an unprecedented number of people, to include:

"In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to."
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

"An Inconvenient Truth is a necessary film."
A.O. Scott, New York Times

A quick mental calculation revealed that with $280 in savings, I would be able to put 28 people, at $10 per ticket, in the seats of a local theater. But convincing 28 people did not seem like I'd be doing much.

But what if there were others like me, who wanted to share this movie with everyone they loved, and even people they didn't know, so much that they might help put up the cost of a movie ticket – or even transportation to the theater? That is the gamble of this endeavor.

What this website is, and where it's going

Sharethetruth has one goal: to relentlessly encourage the viewing of one very necessary movie. It will promote An Inconvenient Truth, ask others to help, and explore every sensible means possible to advance public awareness of its lucid science. I am in no way affiliated with Paramount Classics or Participant Productions, though will certainly write them for assistance in this cause. At climatecrisis.net, I learned that Paramount is donating 5% of ticket sales to the Alliance for Climate Protection. Maybe they'd be willing to donate 5% more to help more people see the movie (generating publicity and sales)? We shall see.

As of June 15th, you can donate to sharethetruth!

Following are the timeline and future plans. Your ideas for improvement are welcome, so please contribute them at the forum.

• June 11: Registered sharethetruth.us. The domain names with suffixes .com, .net, and .org are all taken, but unused. If this site receives attention, I'll ask the owners of those sites to donate their parked domains. There is something appropriate about the ".us" in sharethetruth.us though: it is we in America who bear the burden of enabling real global change. (Don't know why? Watch the movie for free.)
• June 12-14: Authored the web pages for sharethetruth.us.
• June 14: "sharethetruth.us" resolves; site goes online.
• June 15: Created the sharethetruth forum, a message board for all interested parties to communicate and connect. Thanks to Lussumo for building the forum software.
• June 16: Pledged my own money to start.
• June 16: Set up a PayPal donation account.
• June 16: Put donation page online, here! Note: I'm not making money from this site; if anything I'm spending, by paying for web hosting, donating, and using up my time.
• June 17: Internal site design, mainly for statistics to keep track of all the new traffic coming here.
• June 18: Spread the word a little. Sharethetruth is now linked from luminous sources such as Joi Ito, Grist.org, not to mention the official Inconvenient Truth movie blog. You can help promote, even if you don't have a website: tell and email your friends and family, post comments on blogs, and Hugg this site!
• June 19: Realized 1) we have a surplus of donors, and 2) getting tickets is too hard. So pushing onward, there's now an easy form for dead-simple access to free admission.
• June 20: Added the simplest, most risk-free way to help sharethetruth. Enter an email and geographical location to be connected to others in your area. (It's so easy you can fill it out even if donating, without breakin' a sweat.) There's nothing more attention-grabbing than a group of people...a group of people in front of a movie theater giving away free tickets. Inspired by a forum post by JTen.
• June 21: Built the Activity Log to keep transparent the flow of money.
• June 22: Added a map to the Activity Log to show who's pledged to connect with others in their area.
• June 24: Let donors decide how the Activity Log displays donation information.
• Future: Post transcripts of correspondence with recipients of free tickets, with any sensitive personal info bleeped out.
• Future: Create ticketing system for easy fulfillment of new free-movie requests.
• Future: List people who want to see the film who filled out the form, in accordance with this privacy statement. Donors can quickly see who wants to watch the movie.
• Future: Add to the "why bother?" page. A lot of people refuse to see this movie because of a great many preconceptions about it (e.g., it's liberal, don't like Al Gore, science is not 100% flawless, etc.)
• Future: Determine effective methods of helping DVD distribution of the movie.
• Future: Determine effective methods to facilitate screenings of the film – for example, on campuses, in corporate settings, etc.

Now what?

Anything is appreciated. If you're willing to contribute, check out the myriad ways you can help out. Even if you don't wish to donate, a word of encouragement in the forum would be terrific. Thank you!

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