An Inconvenient Truth

Climate Change

Al Gores An Inconvenient Truth acknowledges the threats of climate change. His presentation is a good way of getting people to understand by using multiple videos, pictures and graphs. You would think having a movie based off of a slide show presentation would be boring, but Gore knows how to keep it interesting by speaking emotionally and factually. During the presentation Gore speaks his opinion, shows emotionally startling images, and gives factual information in order for people to understand the consequences of climate change.

Gore is one of a few who actually try to spread the word of threatening climate change. A good point he brings up is big shocking changes versus gradual ones. The process of climate change is very gradual but why should we wait until something shocking happens to do something about it? Relating to this an article by New York Times mentions, “In the meantime, recent fluctuations in temperature have intensified the public debate over how urgently to respond… the combination of flooding, heat waves and droughts in the summer were taken by most researchers trained in climate analysis as evidence to show that weather extremes are getting worse.” Not seeing the actual effects day to day might be a reason people don’t care as much. Gore brings these problems to life by showing many graphs and videos. When he shows a video clip of an ice cap breaking off and falling into the ocean it makes it real. Showing images to the viewers helps them pay attention because they can visually see what exactly Gore is concerned about. Clearly the most threatened area is the Arctic. Already, Polar Bears are becoming the biggest endangered species because they cannot survive without the ice and each day the ice is melting more and more. Gore puts the problems in perspective by showing a map and creating a virtual flood around the world. Many states and other countries would be flooded out when the caps melt and create a 20-foot sea rise. This relates to gradual versus shocking changes because people can now see although this is gradual that is what will eventually happen.

I don’t understand how people could deny global warming or push it to the side to worry about it later. Gore also shows the popular image “earthrise” and you can clearly see the difference of glaciers and lakes shrinking (Ebert). Robert Ebert who critiqued the movie agrees by saying the slide shows images and statistics kept him interested: “Gore stands in front of a graph showing the ups and downs of carbon dioxide over the centuries. Yes, there is a cyclical pattern. Then, in recent years, the graph turns up and keeps going up, higher and higher, off the chart”(Ebert). Carbon dioxide is a main factor in global warming, so the graph helps people see the danger the future has to offer.

Right from the beginning I knew I wasn’t about to watch a boring movie when he tells a joke, “I am Al Gore and I used to be the next president of the United States.” Although Al Gore had already captured my attention with his information he proceeded to share personal stories in his life. He begins to tell how he worked on a tobacco farm as a child and his sister started smoking at a young age. His sister became diagnosed with lung cancer and passed away. If this wasn’t sad enough he tells another story about how later his son was in a tragic car accident and was in the hospital for a long time. His son turned out to be okay but it gave him a new perspective on life. Seeing as he almost lost two people close to him he knew they would never see the world, and I believe this is what makes him care so much about saving it himself. He also brings up where he truly first got his interest when he was inspired by his teacher Roger Revelle talking about the Carbon Dioxide increase (Steig). When steig speaks of all the personal stories Gore shares in his review he says, “And it is interspersed with personal reflections from Gore that add a very nice human element.” Agreeing with Steig I think his speech gains credibility by putting himself out there. By putting himself out there you learn to trust him jut like you would one of your friends. He knows by trusting him you will listen to what he has to say and realize something has to be done.

The way this movie was put together overall attracted viewers. Producers took into account audience emotion when creating the movie. For example, the music placed in was sad when showing clips of ice breaking off or when Gore was telling the story of his son in the car accident and his sister dying. Also, producers knew that they wanted to get what Gore had to say out to the public but a movie being made of a slide show presentation probably didn’t sound to appealing. They then decided to add a little documentary footage of Gore with little clips of him in his hometown and such. This kept viewers interested because they then weren’t seeing graph after graph it was being mixed up. The level of technology that they had would also definitely boost credibility. If Gore walked up to the front of a room with a poster and started pointing to drawn out graphs I am sure nobody would take him seriously. But even I was amazed when they showed some of the graphs on the big screen and how the states would flood as soon as the ice caps melted.

Gores audience could be from 15 and up. The information he is giving is probably too much for anyone younger to understand. There are many purposes of this movie. One would be to inform the audience of what is going on in the world and how climate change is becoming more of a risk. Another is to educate. I am sure many people walked in to that presentation knowing nothing about climate change and walked out with such a better understanding. Gore definitely got his point out to the viewers.

I believe that Al Gores argument was overall successful. As I began watching the movie I didn’t know a lot about global warming or the effects it would eventually have, but at the end I feel I came out with new knowledge. He used very good tactics to keep the audience interested through graphs, personal stories, and jokes. Even if people went in having a disapproving view of Al Gore he gave enough information and facts that they could not be against him. Mixing a documentary and a slide show was a good way to present information and have viewers gain knowledge, but in an interesting way.

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2006/05/al-gores-movie/

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/globalwarming/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060601/REVIEWS/60517002