Amar and I went to the movies last night. It was a spur-of-the-moment type of decision. We pulled into the parking lot of the theater and hopped out to see if anything was starting that very minute...and it turned out that we were in for a treat.
We settled into a showing of the new Al Gore documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth".
It was funny - as I was parking the car, I noticed an "Al Gore 2008" bumper sticker on the car next to me. It made me chuckle a bit on my way into the movie. On my way out of the movie, however, I almost wanted to put one on my car.
Stop reading this now and go see this movie.
I don't consider myself a tree-hugger. I don't necessarily consider myself a Democrat (or a Republican). And when I think of Al Gore, I remember that he once claimed that he invented the internet awhile back.
All of that aside, I will say that during the movie, I gasped. My jaw dropped. I applauded. I laughed. I was appalled. I was surprised. And more than anything, I wanted to change things about the way that I lived my life.
A bit of an overreaction? Probably so.
Before we went to see the movie, Amar had been telling me about Al Gore's slide show, and how it was rumored to be quite a good presentation. What the movie does is kind of take you through that presentation, and take you through Al's journey to research it, compile it, and pitch it to the world.
Throughout the movie, Al (yes, he and I are on a first name basis now) presents you (or "smacks you in the face") with tons of graphs, charts, pictures, quotes and trendlines all related to global warming. But it doesn't get boring. It doesn't get dry or overly scientific. What shows through it all is that this man is supremely motivated about helping to literally save the planet.
[Here is where my family, if they are reading this, will likely disown me...we'll allow for a brief intermission for them to find their way to the exits.]
When Amar and I got out of the movie, we immediately went to the website, www.climatecrisis.net and started clicking away. We talked about how we wanted to work for Al Gore (seriously!), about how we wanted to change our lightbulbs to use less energy, about how we wanted to be a one-car family after we got married...and on, and on, and on.
This movie may not change your life. You may actually hate it. Fine by me - you do what you've got to do. As for me, Al Gore was in my dream last night. And scarier still, it wasn't a nightmare. I was on the road with him, helping him pitch his ideas to the world. Helping take care of the planet that God has so graciously given to us.
Go see the movie. And then come back and tell me what you thought of it.
3 comments:
So, assuming that you're serious for the moment, you should definitely read this speech by Michael Crichton.
Yes, I know that he's a science fiction writer, but he's also an M.D., and a good part of why his books are so good is that he's an excellent researcher (in the journalistic sense) and writer.
(On a side note -- if you read the headline from the story above, you'll see why this is funny -- scientists are now trying to measure the climate on both Mars and Jupiter.)
Going back to the movie, here is a simple summary of 6 key inaccuracies in it, all of which can be easily checked given a little bit of research.
If your facts are wrong, it follows that your conclusions are wrong, too.
Finally, even from the most liberal of sites, in case you think that this is all political bias, there is doubt about at least some of the “facts” in Gore's film.
Al Gore may have lost the Presidency, but he was more than qualified to be a candidate. He's a brilliant man and an outstanding leader.
Unfortunately, his brilliance is not in climatology, but in politics, so his relatively simple scientific mistakes are magnified many times over by his leadership abilities.
Be careful when you listen to him.
Thanks for the links, whoever you are :)
I did not intend to imply that I fell hook, line and sinker for every "fact" communicated by Mr. Gore. And no, I haven't been brainwashed. I knew going in about several of the inaccuracies that he mentioned.
However, despite all of that, I do believe that we're severely damaging this planet. If all that this film does is encourage people to recycle, or drive less, or just pause and think about the environment, then I think the effort has been successful.
Agreed, he is no climatologist. But he's spent a heck of a lot more time looking into this than most people I know. And I do agree that his "leadership abilities" do serve to exaggerate some of the points in the film.
Thanks for your thoughts on this. I read the summary you linked to, and when I have more time, I'll check out the other sites too :)
dooce better watch out.. kimmie is here :-)
now then,
anonymous: Thanks for the links and point obviously. I wish I had a name to thank directly.
As kim mentioned she and I throroughly enjoyed the film. Like she said more than anything else what most captured us positively was the fact that here was a politician who was showing passion/taking risks and really trying to make a change.
Re. your points. I am not sure what your drift is here. Am I to read your six points and infer that you think we do not have to make any changes to how we live? I hope not that would be pretty short sighted enough for a science lover.
I am starting from bottom up with the 6 inaccuracies summary.
6. "India and china will mess it up so let us not try to fix it". That is kind of inane ain't it. That is like saying I am not going to teach my kids healthy habits because Indian and Chinese kids do not know healthy habits. Err... come again. Plus even if this supposition is true. Indian and China are not at the US levels yet and there is no way we can get them to take this seriously if we do not eat our own dog food.
5. I like the IPCC note he points out of a 14 chapter dense document. Interestingly here is the line right above the line he quotes and it says "There is a highly significant correlation between increases in Northern Hemisphere land temperatures and the decreases. There is now ample evidence to support a major retreat of alpine and continental glaciers in response to 20th century warming." Whoa what could that possibly mean?
4. Let us continue further down the summary page and see what else is there for us to see. Lo behold the same report says "The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) has increased by 31% since 1750. The present CO2 concentration has not been exceeded during the past 420,000 years and likely7 not during the past 20 million years. The current rate of increase is unprecedented during at least the past 20,000 years." fascinating ain't it.
I got the above doing 10 mins research. Please understand I am not defending Gore's research or claiming it is without flaws. I am just tired of "scientists" drawing conclusions for people instead of letting them ponder and reason.
Finally, let us not undermine a passioned plea for gut check just because it comes from a politician. Robert Balling (the man who wrote the 6 point summary) is a prominent climate change skeptic who has publicly support energy companies. Note that I am not immediately saying therefore we should completely throw his arguments out because he is tainted and has taken sides. Just saying he has his own lenses like everybody else and maybe it is time for people to think for themselves instead of choosing "Gore" or "Balling"..
err.. did not realise I was on a soap box. Adieu :)
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