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AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
Truth or Dare to Save the Planet
Al Gore finally shakes the you-lost-the-presidential-election-monkey off his back when he takes the stage as an environmental evangelist in “An Inconvenient Truth”. Although Gore certainly shows an entertaining side of himself, I doubt that most audiences would describe this film as entertaining, per se. However, its educational value makes it a must see in my opinion, but I care about the future of our shared planet and hope others will too, if they don’t already, after seeing this film. “An Inconvenient Truth” is a documentary film that documents Al Gore’s travelling multimedia show. Gore’s show provides an almost overwhelming history and presentation of facts about the greenhouse effect and the shockingly rapid evolution of the earth’s surface as the result of mankind’s mass consumption. “An Inconvenient Truth” is the documentary version of the fictional (but not as unbelievable as one might have thought) “The Day After Tomorrow”, the action blockbuster starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Dennis Quaid.
Although, I love to learn, I must say that at times I found the presentation a little too full of facts to absorb in a 2 hour period. The information presented will horrify people, hopefully into action, but the film ends on a somewhat awkwardly hopeful note. I tend to think that the film takes a 60s approach to a 2006 problem; in other words, I think that people may be too cynical to believe that writing their Congressmen will solve the problem, or any problem for that matter. I also find fault with the fact that the filmmakers decided to intersperse tips and suggestions for things the average person can do to save the planet with the credits. Honestly, I think GenXers and GenNows will find the information horrifying but not buy the solution presented, I know I didn’t; I found the ending too hippie and out of touch with the lost idealism that permeates modern America; although the tone may appeal to Baby Boomers. So what can we do to save the planet? What should we do to prevent “Waterworld” from becoming a reality? (Post to share your ideas.)
Despite the some of criticisms that I have, I still would encourage people to go out of their way to see this film, even if it is inconvenient.
You can find out more about the environmental issues discussed and the film at:
http://www.climatecrisis.net
Some facts that stood out to me:
1) Since 1978, arctic sea ice has been shrinking at a rate of 9% per decade.
2) Seagulls were spotted for the first time at the North Pole in 2000 (so Santa watch out!)
3) The snows of Mt. Kilimanjaro, at their current rate of melt, may be gone by 2020.
4) 2005, the year this film was filmed (in fact they were filming when Katrina hit) was the warmest year on record and one of the top ten, all occurred in the past 15 years.
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