Al Gore, Cameron Diaz and me

This past week I spent the better part of three days in the company of Al Gore Jr. and his associates as part of The Climate Project, an effort to create a small army of climate change slide-show presenters across North America and beyond. If you've seen Laurie David's documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, you've already seen a good portion of the show. But Al wants as many people as possible to see as much of possible of his entire presentation, and after almost 20 years of writing about climate change, I decided to help him do just that. Is this really a good idea?

It's a bit of a risk for someone who still considers himself a journalist rather than an advocate, but I suppose I don't really believe that neutrality on the subject serves much of a purpose. It's also a risky venture for Gore, a man who may yet decide to take another run at the top job in D.C. But it's a really big risk for another guy, and ultimately it was Mike McCracken's decision to work alongside Gore as his primary and highly visible scientific adviser that convinced me this was worth doing.

If McCracken, former head of the U.S. Global Change Research Program, thinks that giving 1,000 dilettantes 400 pretty pictures in the form of a PowerPoint or Keynote file and sending them out across the continent to explain a sometimes nuanced and always controversial scientific issue is a good idea, then who am I to argue? There's also the positive review that the guys at Real Climate give the documentary.

I now have at my fingertips several hundred of what Gore says is an 800-item slide genome. And I am authorized to show them whenever and wherever possible. I've already got a few venues tentatively set up, but I'm going take the next few weeks to practice by inflicting the show on my family and friends, who will soon tire of hearing about ice core data, thermohaline circulation and soil moisture content. But that's what family's for, right?

For those wondering about the kind of people that Gore's people have entrusted with his precious slides (he has given it at least 1,200 times already and there isn't a smoother and more polished slide show in existence when he gives it), I'll tell you this much: it's an awfully eclectic group.

About 200 were at my training session, held at the Nashville Hilton. And no, Gore did not pay for our hotel rooms -- just the food and a night at BB King's club down the street. Among them were genuine climate scientists, studying under the likes of NASA's Jim Hansen, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's Ruth Curry (both of whom figure in the slide show), at least one astronomer specializing in the exoplanet search, a dolphin show host, numerous high school teachers, yoga instructors, stay-at-home moms, retired engineers and so on. The common theme was a demonstrated commitment to environmental issues either professionally or as an activist. Long-term experience was valued, but there were also a couple of teenagers, including one 14-year-old from Colorado.

Oh, and Cameron Diaz.

Some of the more climate-science-literate trainees, like myself, probably benefited more from the ancilliary training on how to give a presentation than from listening to Al Gore explain his slides for a day and a half, but it sure was fun watching him digress into Anecdote Land every few minutes. He just loves to tell stories. Plus, the presenter instruction came from one Andy Goodman, formerly a writer for The Nanny, of all things. And let me tell you, if, like PZ, you hate the thought of sitting through scientific PowerPoint presentations, you're not alone. The things some scientists think will engage people's attention are incredible. But there is a good way to assemble a show, and Goodman is THE guy to tell you how to do it.

For others attendees, such as those with theatrical training, it will be interesting to watch them navigate the sometimes tricky scientific details. For example, the historical record of carbon dioxide levels and temperatures sometimes has the CO₂ levels following the temperatures, rather than the other way around. Although that can be explained without undermining the argument against fossil-fuel causation, it's not straightforward and gives rise to all sorts of competing speculations. And I already know some presenters are going to omit the deep ocean current slide completely, for fear of tripping over the explanation of the thermohaline pump in the North Atlantic -- at least for the first few shows they give.

I'm going to try to leave in as much as possible, given the time constraints of the particular venues. If anyone has any thoughts on what sort of issues can trip up someone giving such a presentation, I'd love to hear them.