“An Inconvenient Truth”
An Inconvenient Truth is the documentary film about global warming, which is presented by former US Vice President Al Gore and directed by Davis Guggenheim. It was first released in the US in May 2006 and achieved numerous awards including the 2007 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The film was a genuine box office winner, and received a generally positive reaction from the movie critics. Of course the real issue is global warming, and here the film has achieved much to persuade politicians, organisations and the public at large that global warming does exist, is mainly created by humankind, and must be acted upon sooner rather than when it is too late. The film has since been accepted and used by many educational establishments as part of their science curricula.
An Inconvenient Truth focuses on Al Gore and his travels in support of his efforts to educate the public about the severity of the climate crisis. The film closely follows a keynote presentation that Gore made many times to audiences across the world. It intersperses Gore’s exploration of data and predictions regarding climate change and it’s potential for disaster with Gore’s life story. It weaves in events that changed his (Gore’s) world view, including his college education with an early climate expert, his sister’s death from lung cancer, and his son’s near death from a car accident.
Gore reviews the scientific opinion on climate change, discusses the politics and economics of global warming, and describes the consequences he believes global climate change will produce if the amount of human generated greenhouse gases is not significantly reduced in the very near future. The film includes segments that serve to refute those critics who say global warming is unproven or that warming will be insignificant.
The documentary ends with Gore proposing appropriate actions to be taken that would reverse the effects of global warming, by releasing less carbon dioxide and planting more vegetation to consume more carbon dioxide. Gore calls upon his viewers to learn how they can help him in these efforts.
Gore published a book of the same name in parallel with the film, and this contains additional information and scientific analysis. More recently a follow up documentary was released in 2007 in which Gore discusses additional information that came to light after the movie was made including Hurricane Katrina, coral reef depletion, wildfires and, glacial earthquake activity in Greenland.
Whilst the documentary has received it’s share of criticism, on balance it appears that many of the leading climate scientists in the world have applauded the science used and the messages given.
The film is now widely available in DVD format.
Source: Wikipedia 2008.