Los Angeles, CA - Detailing a historic effort to engage billions of people across the globe, Kevin Wall, Al Gore, Pharrell Williams, Cameron Diaz, and the MSN Network today launched Save Our Selves (SOS) - The Campaign for a Climate in Crisis. The announcement was made at the California Science Center.

SOS is designed to trigger a global movement to combat our climate crisis. It will reach people in every corner of the planet through television, film, radio, the Internet and Live Earth, a 24-hour concert on 7/7/07 across all 7 continents that will bring together more than 100 of the world's top musical acts. Live Earth alone will engage an audience of more than 2 billion people through concert attendance and broadcasts. MSN has partnered with SOS to use its reach to make the Live Earth concerts available across the globe. The Live Earth audience, and the proceeds from the concerts, will create the foundation for a new, multi-year global effort to combat the climate crisis led by The Alliance for Climate Protection and its Chair, Vice President Al Gore. SOS was founded by Kevin Wall, who won an Emmy as Worldwide Executive Producer of Live 8.

http://liveearth.msn.com/pressreleasefeb

Even if people are skeptical about global warming you have to think about the risks. If global warming is only 40 percent likely to be happening today, the consequences are so catastrophic that the issue has to be dealt with. The magnitude of the problem is the key, not the likelihood of it.

Think of it like Russian roulette. You wouldn't play Russian roulette even though the risk is only 1 in 6, because the consequences are just too severe.

If the planet is at risk, then the odds don't have to be even 1 in 6 to take serious action. We can debate the odds of global warming. It's the consequences that each of us has to take seriously, and do something about it. And the odds of global warming going on are way higher than 1 in 6.

Harry

 

It sure won't do any harm to try!

One thing, though: Your logic on magnitude & probablity can be misleading. Probability is everything. The world literally turns on probability. If a ten kilometer wide asteroid struck the earth, nearly ALL life, as we know it, would end (huge magnitude). However, no one seems to be losing any sleep over it (minimal probability). That line of thought is what keeps an alarming number of people from flying commerical aircraft.

 

Only because of their ignorance, since air travel is in fact safer than travel by automobile.

"Criticality" is the issue. Global warming would cause catastrophe on a scale never seen before. If an issue is critical, it needs to be taken very, very seriously.

Another example: if the failure of a component of a bridge would cause the collapse of the structure, that means the "criticality" of that component is a key concern. Bridges have been torn down and replaced from having components such as "pin and hanger" details. These pins and hangers are very difficult to inspect. A failure of one pin means the bridge collapses.

It's better just to phase out dangerous structures like that and replace them with more robust designs.

We can't replace our planet, it is critical to all of us.

Harry

 

I would be more worried about the bridge...lol