Lynchburg College alumnus Charles Tooley, one of the first 50 volunteers trained by Al Gore, will present "Climate Change: Increasingly Inconvenient," a graphic depiction of Gore's visual material on global warming.
Tooley, a 1968 graduate of LC and former mayor of Billings, Montana, will make his presentation at 7:30 p.m. February 25 in Sydnor Performance Hall, Elliot & Rosel Schewel Hall, as part of Lynchburg College's Year of the Environment. The presentation is free and open to the public.
In 2006, Tooley was selected from several thousand applicants and traveled to Nashville to be part of the group of presenters for The Climate Project. With 50 others selected from around the country, Tooley worked with Gore, scientists, and staff to learn how to become a presenter of the information about global warming that Gore presents in the film "An Inconvenient Truth."
Tooley has made about 50 presentations of the material to date. In January 2007, he returned to Nashville to be a mentor and to assist Gore in training 200 people from around the country in the global warming presentation.
Tooley served on the Billings City Council from 1988 through 1993, prior to being elected mayor of Montana's largest city. He enjoys the distinction of being the longest-serving mayor in the history of Billings, retiring undefeated at the end of 2005.
In July 2005, Tooley met with 40 mayors - from Chicago, Pittsburgh, Denver, Salt Lake, Seattle and other cities - at the inaugural Sundance Summit on Climate Change. The meeting was designed to help cities develop strategies for action on environmental and energy issues not adequately addressed by the federal government.
Tooley has been president of Tooley Communications since he founded the company in 1984, providing services in market research and public policy development. He is also a popular featured speaker, addressing audiences 80 to 100 times a year on subjects such as leadership, citizenship, communications, and building community.
Tooley will also present Citizenship, Leadership, and the War on Warming at the Lynchburg College Senior Symposium Lecture Monday, February 25 at noon, Memorial Ballroom, Hall Campus Center.
For more information, contact Shannon Brennan at 434/544-8609.