On Sept. 25, Al Gore told a group of 50 recruits that he had been waiting for the cavalry to show up. They were gathered at his Carthage, Tenn., farm to spend a day learning to give Gore's slide presentation on global warming, made famous by the movie "An Inconvenient Truth."

Gore has been making speeches and presentations to get Americans and others around the world to wake up to the dangers of climate change since the 1980s. But now he's not alone.

"You're finally here," Gore said.

Among those first 50 recruits was Oregon's Secretary of State, Bill Bradbury. And Wednesday evening Bradbury gave his first public presentation of the slide show at the Corvallis/Benton County Public Library.

About 200 people attended. Every seat was taken, the walls and floors were lined with bodies and more spilled out into the hallway.

To begin the evening, the audience was treated to "Global Warm-up," an original song performed by the Free Range Chicks. Lyrics included "Kyoto - isn't that some new junk food from Japan?"

Humor is never far away, but the main message is as serious as they get. From the lovely first photographs of the Earth taken from space, to slides showing the disappearance of glaciers, ice shelves and snow fields on mountaintops, the show is sophisticated enough for adults and simple enough for children to grasp.

According to Bradbury, the rise in carbon dioxide levels in recent years has been drastic. They are higher now than at any time in the last 650,000 years - a fact determined by examining ice cores that date back that far. Those CO2 levels have a direct correlation to high temperatures. The 10 hottest years on record have been within the last 15 years, with the hottest being 2005. High temperatures affect everything from ocean and lake levels to what species can live where.

Emperor penguins have seen a 70 percent population decline in the last 50 years. Polar bears, who can swim 50 miles to feed, are dying because that's not far enough for them to find food.

But humans are fighting for life because of climate changes, too. Bradbury mentioned the families from Louisiana and Mississippi who are still unable to return to their homes a year after Hurricane Katrina.

"They are the country's first climate refugees," Bradbury said.

According to the presentation, Lake Chad drying up is largely responsible for the genocide in Darfur.

"At the core, the problems in Darfur are climate-related," Bradbury said.

After a devastating famine in 1987, an Arab alliance formed to rid the region of African farming communities. Genocide ensued and continues with Sudanese government backing.

"People can't make a living and feed their families," Bradbury said.

His presentation was tailored to his home audience. Photos and graphics showed glaciers around Mount Hood receding. Bradbury said shifts in global winds and ocean currents may be responsible for the dead zone off Oregon's coast.

Oregon is one of several states taking independent action to reduce carbon emissions. All three Pacific Coast states, along with the New England states, have taken steps that the federal government has refused to take.

Bradbury reminded the audience that Corvallis has ratified the Kyoto climate protocols, even though the president has refused to do so.

But we Americans have managed to tackle tough challenges before in the name of doing the right thing, he said, citing the abolition of slavery, the fight for women's rights, the civil rights movement, the fight against Fascism in the two world wars.

In the question-and-answer period, Bradbury said he had been galvanized into action on the issue of climate change because he felt as a parent he had the obligation to do what he could to leave the world in better shape than he found it.

"The fact is I've failed," he said. "The fact is we've failed in terms of passing on a better place to live."