Office of the Vice President ________________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release April 20, 1994 GORE TO ANNOUNCE NEW GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVE Offers Youth Around the World a Chance to Improve the Environment In a first of its kind seven-way, international, interactive town meeting with the children of the world, Vice President Al Gore will announce on Friday, April 22 the creation of the GLOBE program: an international project to establish a working relationship between children, educators, and scientists to monitor the worldwide environment and report their findings to enhance global awareness. To commemorate Earth Day 1994, the Vice President will host a children's town meeting at the USIA Studio in Washington, DC, where he will announce the program. He will be connected to children in Tokyo, Dakar, Quito, Stuttgart, and Perth as well as scientists in the South Pole. The GLOBE program, the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment program, was first mentioned by Gore in his book Earth in the Balance. Then Senator Gore proposed a "program involving as many countries as possible that will use school teachers and their students to monitor the entire earth." "Our children understand the importance of preserving and protecting the environment often much better than we do," said the Vice President. "This initiative offers them an exciting and hands-on opportunity to learn more about the environment and to work with scientists and other children from around our country and around the world. They will help all of us come to a better understanding of the pressures in the global environment." The GLOBE program will be developed and implemented in the United States through public/private partnership and internationally through a collaborative effort among countries throughout the world. Several federal agencies will be involved in the development of GLOBE, with the office on Environmental Policy at The White House taking the lead. Others participating will include: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)at Commerce, NASA, EPA, National Science Foundation, and the departments of Education and State. NOTE: Media interested in covering the interactive town meeting at the USIA Studio, 601 D Street NW at 8:00am should call 202- 456-7035. The Vice President will participate in a press conference on the GLOBE program following the town meeting in the White House Briefing Room at 9:30am on Friday.