An Inconvenient Truth
Global warming is not a speculative theory. It’s a proven syndrome, despite what so-called “skeptics” (read: those with financial interests in carbon dioxide producing industries) claim. Former vice-president of the United States, and possibly the rightfully elected president in 2000, Al Gore, has toured the world for years giving a power-point slide show that cogently and convincingly explains how global warming occurs, what the consequences are, and why we must reverse this trend, which threatens our species’ (and our planet’s) existence. A documentary on his presentation, “An Inconvenient Truth,” is currently playing in movie theaters around America, and it has renewed the populist conviction that something must be done.
Predictably, our president and his oil business cronies proudly tell the press that they haven’t seen the film, that they don’t intend on seeing the film, and that despite their having never seen the film they know it’s full of “junk science” and unnecessarily alarming distractions that divert our national attention from really important stuff, like gay marriage.
By every measure — per capita, gross tonnage, etc. — the USA is the world’s biggest contributor of the greenhouse gasses that cause our planet to get hotter, sea levels to rise, and weather-borne catastrophes to intensify. But our War President, busy bankrupting the treasury with the ongoing criminal enterprise in Iraq, unilaterally withdrew our country from the Kyoto Protocol, agreed upon by every member of the United Nations except Australia, because forcing our industries, chief among them the automotive and energy sectors, to limit their emissions would create “an unfair disadvantage” in the competitive marketplace. As Al Gore illustrates in “An Inconvenient Truth,” the choice between money and our entire planet seems like an obvious one except to the fellows in power.
What’s most striking about “An Inconvenient Truth” is how charismatic, charming, entertaining, eloquent, and real Albert Gore appears on camera. Had Candidate Gore been half as compelling as Movie Star Gore, we probably wouldn’t be in the depressing predicament we’re saddled with today. What’s also obvious in the film is Gore’s immense intelligence and curiosity about the world around him, qualities utterly absent in George W. Bush. Our quasi-elected leader heads perhaps the most anti-science administration in the history of our republic, a cabal that mistrusts dissent, skepticism, and debate, the very linchpins of the scholarly pursuit of truth. Alas, inconvenient as this truth may be, it’s not going away. To ignore it any longer is to put the lives of our children and our grandchildren at risk.
See the movie. Read the book. Then visit http://www.climatecrisis.net to find out what you can do to help solve the global warming problem.
