Al Gore and Live Earth

Trying to keep things apolitical around The Optimist Company will not be easy given highly charged public opinions on topics like the environment and business' role in the community. At one point only a few years ago mentioning Al Gore may have been as politically charged as we could get.

But now that Gore has distanced himself from politics (a stance that, obviously, could change at any given moment in the next 6-9 months) and turned to building private ventures like Current TV and employing his own soaring Q Rating to making the topic of Global Warming both celebrity-cool and about as politically agnostic as it can get, it seems safe to plug MSN's archive of July 7's Live Earth "Concerts for a Climate in Crisis," staged around the world by master promoter Kevin Walls and emceed by Gore himself. Check out Optimist favorites Jack Johnson in Australia, Lenny Kravitz in Brazil and the star-studded London lineup.

Also, checkout this month's fantastic Fast Company profile by Ellen McGirt on the "brand makeover" of the formerly droll pol. Al Gore.

Love An Inconvenient Truth or dismiss it as propaganda, but you must at least grant Gore some serious marketing credibility for his ability to make the global climate a talkable topic.