In the past three decades, Al Gore has come to the Democratic National Convention in many roles -- as an ambitious young senator, a vice presidential candidate, a vice president and a presidential nominee. On the last night of the 2008 convention, he came as a Nobel Prize-winning proselytizer against the perils of climate change, linking Barack Obama's candidacy to his own cause of the past decade.

With Lynne Twist, Jack Canfield and the Pachamama Alliance we have squarely faced the environmental crisis facing our fragile planet. And we have felt the sadness of our own participation in the unconsciousness of our consumer culture. We have been humbled to see our own myopic focus on ourselves, while ignoring our roles as stewards of the earth. We have recommitted to living more responsibly as those planetary stewards.

CLIMATE CHANGE

Pascual and Talbott are, respectively, vice president for foreign policy studies and president of the Brookings Institution. They are involved in a joint project with Stanford University and New York University on global governance, including on the issue of climate change.

A growing cadre of consultants are specializing in helping developers and architects gain approval from the U.S. Green Building Council through its LEED certification program. “Going green used to be part of just a handful of organizations’ mission statements, but now it’s become part of everyone’s agenda,” said Ashley Katz, communications director for the Green Building Council. “That has, of course, increased the need for sustainability consultants.”

Democrats urged vendors to make sure 70 percent of the food served at convention events was organic or local and included "at least three of the following five colors: red, green, yellow, blue/purple, and white (Garnishes not included)." They arranged for biodegradable cutlery and, instead of providing trash bins, set up manned "resource recovery stations" complete with compost boxes. To hold their credentials around their necks, convention-goers received lanyards announcing: "I used to be a soda bottle." They were offered free loaner bicycles and "carbon-free parking" for their two wheels. They bought Coca-Cola from Energy Star machines proclaiming: "Every empty bottle is full of potential." And many conventioneers got locked out of their hotel rooms because their electronic keys were made from "sustainably harvested wood."

(Amy Argetsinger - Twp)

An estimated 32 million acres (13 million hectares) of forest are lost to loggers, farmers and fires every year, according to the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization. Most of it is in the Amazon, in Southeast Asia and in West Africa.Trees, and especially the diverse vegetation of tropical rainforests, soak up and store carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming. Decaying or burning trees releases carbon into the air. Scientists estimate that deforestation accounts for up to 20 percent of the carbon added by man to the atmosphere.