24 Hours of Reality: The Cost of Carbon Will Call on Super-Polluters to Pay

Cultural Leaders Will Highlight Personal, Social and Economic Costs of Climate Change

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 21, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Climate Reality Project's third-annual global broadcast, 24 Hours of Reality: The Cost of Carbon, will be streamed live from Los Angeles, California on October 22-23, beginning 11 a.m. PST. Nearly one year after Hurricane Sandy inflicted $65 billion worth of damages on the U.S. Northeast, 24 Hours of Reality will create the largest interactive conversation about the cost of carbon pollution around the world.

"Carbon pollution is changing our climate and transforming our world – with profound and costly consequences for governments, communities, and individuals alike," said Maggie L. Fox, CEO of The Climate Reality Project. "This year's event will be a major step forward in the social revolution for climate action. Together, we'll assess the collective and individual costs of carbon pollution we all are paying and call for lasting solutions that will change the course of our future."

Building on the award-winning programming of the previous two installments of 24 Hours of Reality, this year's program will travel the world exploring six continents — North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia — identifying the specific costs we are already paying for carbon pollution. Riveting mini-documentaries from around the world will bring to life how climate change impacts individuals and whole communities, from Staten Island families rebuilding after Sandy to Somali climate refugees finding new homes in Kenya to victims of the summer's 500-year flood in Central Europe.

Throughout the program, viewers will be asked to discover the unique costs of carbon they're exposed to and share them with their social networks through Facebook, Twitter, and email at the Cost of Carbon website, designed and developed by the New York-based creative technology studio Modern Assembly. Over the course of the 24-hour period, viewers' costs will be featured in the program, and the audience will be encouraged to send their Cost of Carbon assessment and demand for action to leaders from the top 20 carbon-polluting countries through social media. By doing so, millions will unite in speaking with a single voice that world leaders cannot ignore, building real momentum for a market price on carbon and a political price on denial.

Six hosts, one from each continent, will guide the segments:

• Philippe Cousteau Jr. – Explorer, entrepreneur, environmental advocate, and special correspondent for CNN International
• Vanessa Hauc – Correspondent at Telemundo Network and main source of information on different issues that affect Latinos in the U.S. and abroad. 
• Sebastian Copeland – Award-winning photographer, explorer, author, and environmental activist.
• Femi Oke – International journalist and host of The Stream on Al Jazeera English
• Angela Sun – Television host and director of Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
• Sarah Backhouse – Television host, producer, sustainability expert, and founder of Future360.tv

Along with former Vice President Al Gore and the President and Climate Reality Project President and CEO Maggie L. Fox, a variety of international celebrities, economists, business leaders, advocates and other special guests will join our hosts, including, but not limited to:

• Dr. Jim Yong Kim, President, the World Bank Group
• Dr. Peter Fox-Penner, Principal and Chairman, the Brattle Group
• Jack Johnson
• Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary, UNFCCC
• Mana
• Lord Nicholas Stern, a British economist and academic. He is IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government, Chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics
• Dr. Rosina Bierbaum, professor and former dean at University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment
• Kumi Naidoo, International Executive Director, Greenpeace
• Danai Guirira,
• The Parlotones
• Alice Thomas, Climate Displacement Program Manager, Refugees International
• Dr. Anthony McMichael, Professor Emeritus of Population Health, Australian National University
• Gary Cohen, Founder, Healthcare without Harm

For more information on 24 Hours of Reality, visit www.climaterealityproject.org.

About The Climate Reality Project
The Climate Reality Project is one of the world's leading organizations dedicated to mobilizing action around climate change. With a global movement more than 5 million strong and a grassroots network of trained Climate Leaders, we are spreading the truth and using cultural momentum to solve the climate crisis. Former Vice President and Nobel Laureate Al Gore is the Founder and Chairman of The Climate Reality Project. For more information, visit www.climaterealityproject.org or follow us on Twitter at @ClimateReality.

SOURCE The Climate Reality Project