An Inconvenient Truth
We went to see “An Inconvenient Truth” over the weekend.
You really want to see this movie. You may not know that you want to, but you do. You may be on the fence about the issue, or afraid that it’s boring, or unconcerned. You may think you disagree with the movie. Trust me. You want to see it. You’ll be very glad you did. You’ll agree with me when you leave the theater, and say “She’s right, I did want to see that movie.” I promise. You won’t be bored. You’ll be entertained. You’ll be enlightened. You’ll be inspired. You’ll thank me. Please just indulge me. Give it a shot.
If it isn’t in theaters after this weekend in Indianapolis (we saw it at Landmark, where it’s playing at least until Thursday) then please throw the DVD on your Amazon Wishlist, or into your Netflix queue. Or let me know, and when I get the DVD, I’ll have everyone over to watch.
We knew the basics of the movie before we went, but seeing the information spelled out in charts and graphs is really compelling. And seeing the photographs (2, 3) of the way the earth has changed in the last thirty years is astonishing. We went and bought the book after we saw the movie, because I wanted the charts…
One of the things I didn’t expect was a list of realistic changes that we can make to solve the problem. I’d shifted directly into despair mode that this is an unfixable problem, or that the changes we need to make are so radical that only hemp-wearing hippie nuts would tackle them. That’s really not the case at all.
Here’s one of my favorite parts of the movie… Regarding the argument that combatting global warming will destroy the economy, Gore displays the image below, which comes from a Bush Administration presentation on “global stewardship” and is a call to balance economic concerns with concerns about the environment. The image displays the absurdity of the argument.
Gore says in response to the image, “OK, on one side we have gold bars,” he says. “Mmm, mmm, don’t they look good!”
“And on the other side, THE ENTIRE PLANET!”
The point of course, being that without the planet, where would we keep our delicious gold bars?
