An Inconvenient Truth
Posted by DavidM in Climate change | 22 September 2006
Last night I watched Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth.
I was expecting to be disappointed after having seen so much hype for it and not having been impressed by Gore in the interview he did a week or so ago on TV.
However, I'm pleased to say I wasn't. The film was lucid, enjoyable and easy to understand. It wasn't too 'American' for my taste - bringing in only touches of sentimentality but not going overboard.
It was a mixture of two things; Al Gore presenting his 'slide show' to a live audience which he did eloquently, with humour but also with a passion for his subject; and voiced-over story of Al Gore the budding environmentalist which I thought worked less well but didn't damage the overall message.
As anyone will know from reading this blog I'm already a believer of the message Gore is putting across and the message in the film is loud and clear.
After the film we had Zac Goldsmith, editor of The Ecologist do a short talk and lead a discussion and it was good to hear him confirm the key messages of the film.
What I took from it was:
- Climate change is real and the science is in no doubt about this
- We need to significantly reduce our emmissions to prevent disaster
- We have the technology to do that, we just need the political will
- If we make the changes now they don't need to be onerous or damaging to economies. If we wait, we will be forced by events to make changes that are more expensive, inconvenient and severe.
Whether you believe in climate change or not you should see this film. Whether you like Gore and his politics or not, go see this film. Then talk to people who know their stuff and check what the film is telling you. Then do something to lower your emmissions.
