(originally posted at Deny My Freedom)
After a couple weeks into release, I finally got around to going to see ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, Al Gore’s documentary on global warming that intertwines his biography as it relates to the issue. These moments – wrapped into the parts of his vaunted ‘slide show’ presentation – give the movie the heart and the soul to go along with the brains of Gore’s presentation. Being someone who considers themselves at least better-versed on the issue of global warming than most people, I was amazed to learn a few things about the ‘greenhouse effect’ that I did not know before. While the movie generally stays away from the deep scientific explanations, the point comes across clearly: if we do not change our ways, life on planet Earth, as we know it, will change dramatically…forever.
Contrary to what reviews may have stated, there is not much ‘humor’ to the documentary. While it does have its funny moments – there is clearly a Matt Groenig-produced bit that will have you rocking in your chair with laughter – Gore handles the issue with the seriousness it deserves. You will see pictures that made audience members where I saw this (a suburb of New York City) gasp at the marked difference that only 20 to 30 years have made in some of our environments. You will see graphs of clear, hard scientific evidence showing you the dramatic changes in various indicators. There are projections that will frighten you and make you wonder just how things went so wrong, and why no one has done anything to stop it. At one point in the movie, Gore asks that very same question, and it is with silence that the reply comes. In the course of the last century, we abandoned our duty to the planet in the name of economic growth. The logical question to ask is plainly simple.
The movie covers the 2000 election only briefly, and you can hear in Gore’s voice the complete devastation of having ‘lost’ that race caused him. In these voiceovers between segments of his slide show, you will listen to an Al Gore whose voice will haunt you. As you see him in different settings, whether it be out in nature or giving his presentation around the world, you will come to realize that this is not the man who came off as stiff and wooden on the presidential campaign trail. It’s not the caricature that the mainstream media has made him out to be. It is the voice of a man reborn, a man who has rediscovered a driving force of his life. It is an Al Gore who is deeply passionate about informing the world of an issue that is dismissed by the press and by most politicians as a theory, not a fact. You might imagine that he would harbor resentment against those who continue to ignore the onset of global warming at the world’s peril, but surprisingly, you will hear very little vitriol directed at the Bush administration or at the Republican Party in general. It is not a political issue, Gore says, it is a moral issue.
When the theater lights come back on, and I heard the voice of Melissa Etheridge sing over the credits, the mission was clear: it is up to us to inform people about global warming. Our leaders refuse to address the problem. Our press continues to question the veracity of the science. But when you think about the hundreds of millions of people that could possibly be affected by the consequences of global warming, you begin to realize that it is absolutely necessary to address it. Gore recognized that it was his duty to go around the world, city by city, family by family, person by person, to open the eyes of others to an enemy – ourselves. We exacerbated global warming. We created the problem. But we can fix it. The strength of humans united to change the world is a powerful thing, and it is up to us to ensure that, as our former vice president put it simply, political will is indeed a renewable resource.
If you haven’t seen the movie yet, look up your closest theater showing it and see it. If you have seen it, see it again. Stay for the credits and learn a little about what you may be able to do. And finally, tell everyone you know about it. It is up to us to plant the seeds of a movement to save our planet.