More than 120 representatives of the timeshare sales and timeshare resales industry met June 2-3 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire to learn how they can play a proactive role in saving the environment.

The event was the 2008 ARDA New England Regional Meeting, and was opened by Ray Sirois, IT Director for Wright-Pierce, a civil engineering firm in Topsham, Maine. Sirois is one of approximately 2000 people worldwide who have been trained to give the presentation about climate change that Al Gore gave in his documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth”.

Here are some of the disturbing facts that Sirois shared with the group:

• Nine of the past ten years have been the hottest on record.
• At the current rate of carbon emissions into the atmosphere, Massachusetts will have the same climate as present-day South Carolina and sea level will rise by 2 feet by the end of the century.
• Nationwide, the production of electricity is the number one contributor to greenhouse gasses; but in New England, transportation is the number one culprit.
• Researchers at Princeton estimate that carbon emissions can be cut in half by 2050 by using technologies that already exist, but need to be put into place. The solution must include a combination of technologies (solar power, wind power, etc.) because the problem is so great and so pervasive.

The message was clearly that the time for change is now. Timeshare companies must step up as leaders in the hotel and leisure industry to show that we are taking responsible actions ourselves, and that we are setting an example for timeshare buyers, sellers, and timeshare renters.

To read the full Sell My Timeshare NOW press release on the meeting, follow this link.

And in case you have missed seeing An Inconvenient Truth, here is a YouTube link to the film’s trailer.