AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH

4 Stars - PROFOUND

Even in the realm of documentaries, Al Gore’s film on global warming is different.  For those who easily accept the messenger, the message is clear:  Human beings are living lives, especially in the United States, that are causing a dangerous warming of the earth’s temperatures. For those who struggle with the former Vice President and Presidential candidate, distrust and/or dislike makes it more difficult to accept the message.  But in either case, the film delivers on its purpose:  to sound an alarm about the survival of our planet as we now know it.

Weaving together Gore’s personal life with the lectures he has given “over a thousand times,” director Davis Guggenheim (NYPD Blue, Alias, 24) gives a portrayal of Gore that explains his passion with saving our planet.  It began back in college when Gore took a class from a scientist who was measuring the earth’s increase in carbon dioxide and comparing it to the increase in the temperature of the oceans.  The steady increase in temperatures despite the rise and fall of the seasonal changes had become noticeable decades ago and the predictions made back then are coming true:  The earth is getting noticeably warmer.

The effect this is having on our planet is undeniable and Gore states that all scientists agree with the evidence.  The glaciers are melting, the Arctic’s warmer waters are causing the icecap to be melting, the storms from warmer oceans are causing levels 4 and 5 hurricanes, the tornadoes are increasing and getting larger, the floods and droughts are increasing. In fact, Al Gore suggests that we are seeing climatic events right out of the book of Revelations.

That’s not to say that Gore is making a religious or spiritual appeal.  He is not.  Though he does call this a moral issue and during the credits he encourages us to pray if “you believe in prayer.” Seeing the effects dramatically increasing, he suggests catastrophic changes are happening now and will increase in our children and grandchildren’s lives.

Using a multimedia technology that is very effective, the film presents the well-developed lectures that Gore has been giving free of charge wherever he is invited.  One of the most compelling visual tools he uses is a chart that is based on the studies done with ice cores which go back hundreds of thousands of years.  These cores show the fluctuation of the earth’s temperature as a rhythm of warming and cooling.  But something is wrong.  The usual cycle when compared with the last 100 years shows a dramatic shift of warming.  When this chart is compared to the increasing population of human beings, it matches.  It took humanity up to the year 1800 to reach our first 1 billion people and until 1930 to reach our second billion. Then, in the last 70 years, we grew from 2 billion to 6 billion people.  The increase in humans and their activities correlates with the unprecedented rise in the earth’s temperature.

            Gore is correct that this is an “inconvenient truth” we would all like to ignore.  But we cannot.  The profound truth is that we have never had 6 billion people alive before and, if current trends continue, we will have 9 billion by 2054.  The fragile atmosphere that sustains our lives must be cared for if we or our children are to survive. 

 

Discussion:

                                                    

1.       Al Gore has created a website for recommendations that each of us can do to help avert this crisis.  It is www.climatecrisis.net.  After viewing this site, what are you going to change?

 

2.       When Al Gore asserts that there were no scientific studies contesting the fact of global warming, he did not explain that there is agreement on global warming but disagreement on its cause.  The majority believe it is due to human activity.  Some scientists do not.  Here is the Wikipedia list of scientists and their statements if they disagree:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scientists_opposing_global_warming_consensus

 

3.       When Al Gore takes us to the family farm and shows us the barns where he and his father harvested tobacco, he then tells us of his beloved sister who died of lung cancer from the cigarettes she smoked since she was eighteen.  Gore’s father stopped the lucrative practice and got out of the tobacco business.  What will be the financial sacrifices you are willing to make to help stop a similar destruction of human lives?

 

4.       In the book of Genesis, it is clear that God gives His people the responsibility to care for the land.  In the film during the credits, Gore suggests ways this can be done.  One of his suggestions is to “Plant trees.  Lots of trees.”   Here is one Christian ministry doing just that if you would like to get involved in healing our planet:  www.edenprojects.org.

 

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Cinema In Focus is a social and spiritual movie commentary.  Hal Conklin is former mayor of Santa Barbara and Denny Wayman is pastor of the Free Methodist Church. For more reviews: http://www.cinemainfocus.com.