His name is David and he recently turned 7 years old. Rather than ask for remote control cars and video games, he asked for donations, all of which he gave to the Alliance for Climate Protection (our nonprofit that houses the We Campaign). Accompanying the money was a hand written note, in unmistakably 7-year old handwriting:

“Dear Alliance for Climate Protection. I am sending you chek’s that add up to 400$ that I collected at my 7th birthday party insted of presents. thank you for trying to save the earth. love David feigeison.”

As any teacher or parent knows, sometimes it is the simplest acknowledgments that carry the most meaning. Taped to our office refrigerator door, this note is an inspiring reminder of the importance of our mission. Unless the necessary actions are taken now, unless policymakers step up and pass smart legislation, unless the international community comes together and commits to changing their energy consumption patterns, David’s generation will find themselves raising their kids in a world that looks drastically different from that of today. The time to address this issue is now. We owe it to David to help ensure that our children inherit a healthy planet.

Let’s hope that the older generation doesn’t continue to wreck the climate and the planet in their race for short-term economic gains. After all, they are borrowing the planet from David and the rest of the younger generation.

Also read: Angry kids against the grownups inaction

“Did you notice the ads after last night’s presidential debate? ABC had Chevron. CBS had Exxon. CNN had the coal lobby. But you know what happened last week? ABC refused to run our Repower America ad — the ad that takes on this same oil and coal lobby”, said Cathy Zoi, CEO of the We Campaign, in an email newsletter to the campaigns member two days ago.

ABC is still, after more than two days, refusing to say or even respond to the We Campaign about why they won’t run the Repower America ad.

“As our country faces deep economic problems, we need to be able to have an honest debate about the root causes of our problems. As Al Gore has said, “We’re borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the future of human civilization. And every bit of that has to change. As oil and coal backed groups outspend even major party committees in this political year, it’s outrageous that ABC would deny our ad”, said Cathy Zoi.

In response to the refusal the We Campaign launched an online petition site to make ABC change their mind. In just 24 hours over 100,000 have signed it and sent messages to ABC in support of the Repower America ad.

“I’ve been deeply frustrated. I suspect a lot of you have been too.

We’re facing such huge challenges and all you hear through the media are demagogic chants like “drill, drill, drill.”

Skyrocketing energy prices. The climate crisis. Unraveling financial markets. Wars that just happen to be in places with a lot of oil. These are all just different faces of exactly the same thing. As I’ve said in the past, we’re borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the future of human civilization. And every bit of that has to change.

We all know what we have to do. Ask anybody on the street and they’ll tell you. We need to “Repower America” — invest in ourselves, here at home, with clean, economical energy technologies that we know work. And be the global leader as these technologies take off around the world.

And ask anyone, and they’ll also tell you why it isn’t happening: the oil and coal lobbies — and the politicians who do their bidding.”

Learn about Al Gore’s clean renewable energy challenge for USA and why offshore drilling is not the answer to high gas prices.

Update: Cathy Zoi, from the We Campaign, just sent out this email:

Wow! I just got an update on the number of donations we received from Al Gore’s email. I couldn’t believe it. Just in the first 6 hours, folks gave more than $150,000 to get our Repower America ad on the air.

With your help, we can support a national CNN buy for the next week, too. Will you chip in to keep it on the air?

If you want to contribute to the TV ad click here.

Yesterday Al Gore launched the We Campaign. It’s a $300 million 3-year effort “to mobilize Americans on climate change.”

The campaign will focus on sending out its message using mainly TV and print ads. People will be urged to go to the We Campaign website and sign the petition for a global treaty on climate change, urge the press to ask questions about climate change and learn more about global warming, the solutions and how they can personally minimize their environmental impact.

The ads will show, by featuring people like Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich, Pat Robertson and Al Sharpton, that both conservatives and liberals can rally around the climate crisis (You can see the very first advertisement that will be aired on TV after the jump).

The We Campaign is backed up by Alliance for Climate Protection. Organisations like the Girl Scouts of the USA, Conservation Federation of Missouri, Earth Day Network, Colorado Wildlife Federation and many others is partnering with the We Campaign to bring in grassroots organisations to the campaign.

To be able to fund this huge campaign Al Gore will donate all profits from the An Inconvenient Truth book and movie. He will also donate his Nobel Prize money and a matching sum from his own personal money stash.

Below you can find a interview from 60 Minutes with Al Gore about the new campaign (“- Like the Vice President?” “- Hahaha”). And, ah, the irony when you have to watch a car commercial before and after the actual video interview.

Interview with Al Gore:

The first TV ad: