Photo of Planet Earth courtesy Apollo 17 crew, NASA, 1972.
In the late 60s, the first photographs of Earth taken from outer space were published for global view. This image of our planet provided a Eureka click of awareness about its startling beauty and fragility in a galaxy of multiple planets and stars. Its appearance coincided with an era of Civil Rights, Women's Rights, and the birth of the modern day environmental movement. In some ways, this marks the beginning of the global brain era, the collective awareness of our interconnectivity within a habitat shared by billions.
In the new millennium, a global warming message found heightened expression through the Internet. With the completion of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" (2007), the greening of American messaging moved from special interests to the mainstream. See the trailer:
Utilizing the three-tier media approach explored extensively in Obama's campaign, Gore's team used the MoveOn.org and TrueMajority networks to spread the word about his film, as well as traditional print and television media sources. The trailer travelled pass-it-on email trails, increasing the buzz. The film not only played to sold-old audiences in movie theatres, it won an Academy Award for Best Documentary, catapulting its message into the homes of millions.
Following his well-publicized chad-driven defeat by Bush and company in 2000, Gore decided to withdraw from traditional politics to become a spokesman not just for one country (the US) but the world, winning the Nobel Prize for his efforts. Here Gore speaks in 2008 on climate change and human behavior.
Additional Reading:
"Top green stories of the ‘00s" Grist, December 2009
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