An Inconvenient Truth is essentially the lecture on global warming Gore has delivered for years, "probably more than a thousand times." As a result, the presentation is polished, thorough, approachable, and compelling.Gore, the self-described "Former Next President of the United States," aims to raise awareness of the problem of global warming. The globe is addicted to an unsustainable lifestyle, and as we've heard with other addictions, the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. But as the evidence accumulates, so too do the greenhouse gases. The solutions offered in the closing credits give small comfort. And rather than Melissa Etheridge's "I Need To Wake Up," perhaps REM's "It's The End of the World As We Know It" is more apt.
Which isn't to say it's the End of the World. But the world will change, and drastically. What remains to be seen is if those changes will anticipate the trends we're observing today, or simply react to the damage yet to be done.
Technorati tags: Al Gore, global warming, An Inconvenient Truth
5 comments:
I'm interested in this one. Yes, the world must change. Most of us wealthy cannot picture such a thing. And I would not be considered wealthy by most, who assume that the ability to pay will automatically bring the fulfilment of desire. Our habits and selfishness will on their own yield disaster: Pro 18:9 Slack habits and sloppy work are as bad as vandalism.
My biggest concern in today's political climate is that the people who need the most persuading will distrust this messenger. They will ceratinly be advised to distrust him by the Republicans and conservative sympathizers in the media (like Bill Steigerwald of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review). It doesn't matter that climatologists are queueing up to confirm the accuracy of Gore's claims. That may even be detrimental to Gore's case with a scientifically illiterate electorate that believes in omnipotent designers and guardian angels.
Those who believe in omnipotent Designers (as I do) should check their doctrine. The Designer didn't say, do whatever the heck you want and commit ecological suicide. What was actually said was "tend and keep." The bible (yah, the Christian one) is pretty clear that God quite likes this universe & this earth, and expects human beings to look after it for him. So scientific illiteracy is no excuse; design doesn't justify stupidity. And a belief in guardian angels is simply irrelevant IMHO.
The fact that the "tend and keep" doctrine appears in the Bible is not the point. There are too many pernicious practices inspired by all kinds of scripture and religious traditions for me to feel too comforted by this particular coincidentally aligned divine ecological sensibility. That sensibility should derive from a careful study of the facts such as we can ascertain them, and an extrapolation of the disaster that awaits us if we fail to change.
When I was in college, the sixties, global cooling was the rage. It was said that we were three degrees Fahrenheit from another ice age.
Now the rage is global warming. We'll see.
Brok
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