A Longwinded Mission Statement

July 7

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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