Thinking Green
I finally got around to watching Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth on DVD last week and haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since. In case like me you missed it in the cinemas, the film is a very slick documentary version of the former VP’s traveling slideshow on global warming. Although I’ve never really been a big fan of Gore – he’s a razor-sharp intellectual unsuccessfully posing as folksy raconteur, though I fully understand the survival value of this tactic in a place like Tennessee, or in most of America for that matter – the film is a masterful study in 21st century communications. His presentation, a systematic and accessible explanation of the science behind climate change, is buttressed by a host of truly scary images depicting the devastation already wrought. Top takeaways:
- There is no debate about the science of global warming. Consensus exists among the overwhelming majority of scientists studying the phenomenom. The preception of scientific uncertainty is the result of a misinformation campaign waged by Big Oil, reminiscent of the strategy successfully employed by the tobacco lobby to hide the harmful effects of smoking.
- We’re knee deep in global warming already. The last decade saw the hottest temperatures on record, going back as far as measurements have been taken.
- It’s possible to slow down or perhaps stop the process. Gore cites the united international response to healing the hole in the ozone layer as a recent example of a win for humanity.
Above all else the documentary is a wonderful kick in the behind to all those fence sitters (until recently, myself included) who for a host of reasons are not yet awake to the gravity of the situation and the urgent need for a personal response.
Filed under: america, communications, international affairs, plague | 2 Comments
Hi David! I saw that film last year on cinema, and it really is frightening. Gore’s style looks a lot like a political campaign, but actually he makes strong points. He’s right all along the lines. He brings proofs for every statement. It’s highly recommendable!
Seeing the temperatures we’ve had in Switzerland this April (the highest since the 19th century!) we’re in trouble.
All the best!
Adri
Hi Adrian, I know what you mean about the high temperatures. We’ve had real summer weather in Brussels since more or less the start of April!
Of course people are making the most of it, but I can only imagine what it’s done to the life cycles of organisms that live and die according to temperature cues, and the knock on effect this will have on the food chain…