Must See – An Inconvenient Truth
The Al Gore Documentary ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ was released in the UK on 26 December 2006. David Hughes, (david.hughes@senergyltd.com) of Senergy Ltd and Editor of IOR Views reviews the film and considers the implications.
Review
As a climate change nerd I was looking forward to acquiring the DVD of this documentary having missed it during its brief cinema season. It certainly didn’t disappoint.
“I’m Al Gore I used to be the next president of the United States” - the audience laugh. “I don’t find that particularly funny” quips Gore. So starts a most interesting and profound lecture on the issues surrounding climate change.
Gore explains that the subject of how human CO2 emissions are affecting the earth’s temperature is something that has interested him since his college days in the 1960s. During his political career, prior to becoming vice-president, he tried in vain to engage the attention of politicians and business leaders into considering the long term implications. And as vice-president he was part of the US delegation negotiating the Kyoto Protocol - only to find US participation in the agreement rejected by the successor administration.
Film poster
He presents the evidence to show that human activity is influencing the climate way beyond any cyclical changes that have occurred in the past 65,000 years. He describes the effects of global warming on the climate, and the differential effects in equatorial and polar regions. There is a particularly good explanation on the circulation in ocean conveyors, and how interfering with the status quo can bring about abrupt changes in climate.
Gore deals with the critics that say tackling CO2 emissions will inhibit economic growth by reference to the automobile industry. Those companies that confronted head on the need to reduce exhaust emissions such as Toyota and Honda are very profitable whereas Ford who dragged its heels is in deficit. And there is a brief introduction to the ‘Princeton stabilisation wedges’ as an illustration of the range of things that need to be done.
A quote from Winston Churchill in the lead up to Word War II: “The era of procrastination of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays is coming to a close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences” seems very apt.
This lecture is a message to the world but perhaps, more importantly, to the politicians and industry leaders in the US for whom clearly the truth as expounded in the lecture is inconvenient. With the brief sequences showing the counting of the vote in Florida one might also ask if there is a double meaning in the title. Is ‘the inconvenient truth’ the fact that really it was Gore who was elected in 2000 (he undeniable received a higher popular vote) and how different the US would be today, both at home and how it is perceived abroad, if he had become president.
Al Gore concludes his peroration: “Future generations may well have occasion to ask themselves ‘what were our parents thinking, why didn’t they wake up when they had the chance?’ We have to hear that question from them now.”
I found this a thoroughly adsorbing and thought provoking film which I recommend whole-heartedly. It’s been nominated for an Oscar in the ‘best documentary’ category and thoroughly deserves to win.