I must admit that I didn’t run a regression analysis, but I think it’s safe to assume that there is a relationship between the release of “An Inconvenient Truth” with the spike in searches for “global warming”.

As you can see, there is a steady increase of interest in the topic, and this interest peaks right around the time when “An Inconvenient Truth” wins an Oscar – Check out point ‘C’ on the graph. It’s interesting to see that a movie was able to increase people’s interest in a topic like this, and if that’s what it takes to raise awareness about pressing issues that people like to pretend aren’t there, then so be it. Angelina Jolie should put out a documentary with a compelling slide show to talk about her forays in Africa… and so on.

For the most part, the human civilization is reactive as opposed to proactive. We see all the signs, but often times, it just seems easier to avoid and deny the situation than dealing with it directly.

There are many web 2.0 initiatives out there looking to deal with this pressing issue. Some of them are even quite innovative and engaging, and you know there are definitely some social networks out there charged with dealing ‘solving’ this issue. Hopefully the power of the web 2.0 is strong enough to start a mass movement towards action… and only time will tell if it is up for the challenge.

Here are some of those sites trying to educate and make a difference:

Tree Nation: Help plant one tree out of 8 million in Africa, in the shape of a heart.

MyAbodo: Cool application that teaches both adults and kids how to ‘build’ an environmentally friendly home.

ZeroFootprint: A social network aimed to engage citizens to fight climate change. The City of Toronto, has a community of their own – this is a partnership between ZeroFootprint and the City of Toronto.

A cool Mashup showing rising sea level