Blog Profile

The blog — The Climate Reality Project (CLP) — is a blog idealized by former US vice-president Al Gore. Later joined by activists, cultural leaders, organizers, and scientists, the group of bloggers describes themselves as “passionate individuals who’ve come together to solve the greatest challenge of our time”.

Prior to starting the blog, Al Gore was deeply involved in climate change related projects not only as a politician, but as an artist and activist. The former vice-president of the United States wrote and starred in the Oscar winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” — which follows his political campaign to educate people about global warming.

I couldn’t resist but to mention his brief speech at the awards night:

“My fellow Americans, people all over the world, we need to solve the climate crisis. It’s not a political issue; it’s a moral issue. We have everything we need to get started, with the possible exception of the will to act. That’s a renewable resource. Let’s renew it”

And yes, he has been working hard to “renew” the will of act — in a sustainable manner I must say — Al Gore aims to enlighten young people — future leaders who will one day rule the world.

That is sustainable because it’s a long term outcome — these young leaders will live much longer than current “adult” leaders and they still have their visions and intellects to be shaped. — Not that you can’t teach a new trick to an old dog, but the younger dog is more willing to learn it and will be around longer to pass on the knowledge.

Now, before diving into the blog, it’s important to highlight that many other blogs about sustainability offer solutions to environmental problems, even I tried briefly to suggest alternatives concerning water bottles and chocolate.

However, what makes the Climate Reality Project unique is their approach to introduce (or reintroduce if you will) the topic before starting the conversation while other blogs assume that their readers know informations about climate change a priori. Al Gore makes sure to state facts before bringing “sustainability” to the table.

That is indeed a wise way to start a conversation if you think about it:

“Hey you, you don’t believe in climate change but you should! Whoever told you that it’s fake news lied to you” — WRONG

“Hey you, have you seen NASA’s interactive map of global temperature? It proves that we humans do impact negatively the planet with our actions” — Not perfect, but much better.

All posts teach/explain one item/category of climate change and what the is the deal with that particular topic, and then once the problem is understood — a solution is suggested by the blog.

Let’s analyze their post concerning the rise of sea levels.

Before stating why sea levels are rising and blaming humans, the post defines what sea-level rise is. (So if a reader who doesn’t believe in climate change somehow ends up in this post, he/she won’t feel attacked at first with someone contradicting their beliefs — which I believe it’s a great strategy to begin the dialogue).

After carefully explaining basic concepts, the post breaks down misconceptions about the outcomes of sea-level rise. It states that the oceans are not like bathtubs, spreading water evenly across the world — and that is not just interesting — it’s a hook because it makes you wanna keep reading about it.

Then a graphic casually makes a visual impact on the readers — and teenagers love graphics — and finally we get to the explanation of why sea-level is rising, and how humans are responsible for that — only after all these steps are carefully explained and facts are mentioned that the post actually states that sea-level rise is bad. It’s a big problem that needs to taken action asap.

It does not get political at all.

F a s c i n a t i n g.

And lastly, a solution is offered — what can you (reader) do?

The source of authorities in this blog comes from the most diverse spectrums, some posts start with a quick introduction of whom will be “lecturing” us throughout the post. Examples of experts go from Bill Nye (American science communicator), to Jaden Smith (rapper, actor, and activist), and the organization Our Children’s trust ( a group of young leaders fighting against global warming).

The latter has a whole blog post explaining how they came to be and who they are. The tone is more journalistic than explanatory as it tells the history and accomplishments from the organization.

The title already has an air of newspaper rather than blog post -

“YOUNG CLIMATE REALITY LEADERS TAKE CLIMATE ACTION TO THE COURTS”

This post, contrary to the majority, states at the very beginning the threat that global warming represents — and the actions that are already being taken to fight it. Then we get to the specifics of the case — in a narrative style, formatted as if it was for a traditional newspaper: interviews, quotes, background of the case (when it started, by whom, the first consequences, etc). And opposite to a traditional CLP blog, no solution is offered — because no problem is presented — it’s just a motivational story of young people out there fighting for climate change.

The blog was created in January of 2011 and from July of the same year until November 2018, the blog posts three times a week — no particular weekdays — in a mixture of informative casual and motivational tone.

Adding their blog’s design to the voice and tone, I would definitely guess that they are aiming towards a younger audience.

Climate change is mainly a problem for the younger generations, and the sooner they realize it the better — and that justifies the casual tone of the blog rather than a formal newspaper with a language and vocabulary that does not ring to the youth.

The colorful design and big pictures also have a younger look to it as it resembles websites like Buzfeed rather than the New York Times.

The blog is clearly directed towards the american audience, and the statistics shown at the website similarweb.com proves it. About 55% of the visitors are in the US, followed by english-speaking countries (UK, Canada, and Australia). The four countries represent 77% of the blog’s audience, which is steadily around two hundred and fifty thousand visitors a month.

To me, that’s quite successful. They’ve reached impressive numbers for a blog.