Did Al Gore do it for you?

Last week, at a screening room in Soho, I watched the film heralded as the tipping point in efforts to protect the planet. Apart from a dodgy moment in the middle when swirling arrows on world maps got the better of me and I started to drift off to a place where man-made global catastrophe wasn't round the corner, Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, thumped its message home.

Shamefully – and in spite of sitting directly behind eco-crusader Zac Goldsmith (please don’t tell) - I cannot remember what the arrows were representing at that particular point (something about rising sea temperatures?). It had been a long day, and I can assure you that this reflects on the phenomenal powers of a glass of wine and a comfy cinema chair, rather than Al Gore’s shortcomings.

Indeed I take my hat off to anyone who can make a documentary centred on a lecture about global warming. And get bums on seats. The film has already grossed $23 million in the States; after 13 weeks, four million Americans have seen it. Whether it will speak as powerfully to us over here remains to be seen.

Gore’s message is targeted more at oil companies (and the politicians in their pockets) and Americans late to come to the green party than eco-conscious Brits. It answers the straw-clutching arguments of sceptics who have not yet accepted that humans are contributing to global warming. I like to believe that it is a step behind the point that we’ve reached in the UK, outlining the problems instead of offering solutions.

Still, I worry it is the people who already talk fluent green who will rush to see it. As for those who really need a basic lesson in the do’s and don’ts of global warming, will they pay just under a tenner to see a politician giving a slideshow when they could be getting down with Kiefer Sutherland and Michael Douglas in The Sentinel at a neighbouring cinema?

I hope so, I really do. If you can reassure me, please do. It's just that, although it is a bold call to arms, I’m not sure what kind of action it will stimulate. Tell me you, your family, your Granny and the dog rushed to see it and it has changed your lives. Tell me all about the alterations you have made as a result of seeing it. Lifetime supplies of energy-saving light bulbs bought? Car keys cast into the bin? I am all ears. Finally, can someone tell me why Mr Gore decided to do all the talking to camera from airports and estate cars? I sincerely hope he balances the carbon emissions involved in being on the global lecture circuit. And yes, I know I'm sounding like an eco-bore.

Comments

[Andrew Harmsworth]

I saw this last month in San Diego, in a cinema that was half full - of Americans. It was worth going just to see their responses! I, too, worry that in the UK it will be watched largely by people who already know enough to know that we've got to do something now - rather than by those who don't. On the other hand, it will also get watched by lots of school kids! The Film Education website has support resources for teachers, and during National Schools Film Week "An Inconvenient Truth" will be showing:

http://www.filmeducation.org/aninconvenienttruth/index.html

I'll be watching the film again in the UK in just over a week - with a bunch of sixth form students, and hopefully their Headmaster. It will be interesting to see their responses!

[Brian Loveday]

OK. So I’ve been an environmental sceptic for a long time. It’s not that I disagree with the what might be, but wholly because of the untruths and spin of the current pack of western governments on other important issues. I would welcome a layman’s view of the stated problem, what we can do as individuals, rather than the scientific and sometimes confusing graph, chart and a shed loads of technical information approach. Recycling has in the main, been a feature of my life since childhood, only then is was known as “waste not, want not.” I don’t make unnecessary journeys in my car, my household has always favoured showers to baths, windows are all double-glazed, loft insulated and cavity walls insulated. Despite my scepticism, I’ve exchanged all my light bulbs with the energy-efficient type. I’ve got rid of the dishwasher and have an efficient heating system. My beloved has always cycled to work, combining shopping with her daily journey. I don’t know whether all of this helps the planet or not, but my scepticism is not tempered by huge price increases in my utility and fuel bills. I do not see the benefits of saving money for doing all of the above and often wonder about the green bandwagon that everyone, particularly the energy providers, seems to boarding with only the pound/dollar in mind.

[Francesca Saunders]

"An inconveniet truth" should be mandatory! How else is everyone going to find out just how bad the state of our poor planet has become? Certainly it should be shown in schools and colleges. At the end of the film, more could have been done to inform the pubic how each individual can make their own contribution - for example, switching off unecessary lights, not leaving electrical equipment on stand-by to mention only two. It does say recycle, but even more important is not to create the demand in the first place. If you MUST go to a Cafe where they give you a drink in a plastic or paper container, take your own and reuse it. Ditto napkins. I could go on, but don't want to start sending people to sleep! If anyone wants to eamail me they are welcome to do so on fs.pal@blueyonder.co.uk
The important thing to remember is that lots of us making small changes will make a difference and any knowledge or practices we have we should pass on to as many people as possible. Finally, if we shit in our nest, we don't have another one to fly to.

[sushil_yadav]

The link between Mind and Social / Environmental-Issues.

The fast-paced, consumerist lifestyle of Industrial Society is causing exponential rise in psychological problems besides destroying the environment. All issues are interlinked. Our minds cannot be peaceful when attention-spans are down to nanoseconds, microseconds and milliseconds. Our minds cannot be peaceful if we destroy nature.

Emotion is what we experience during gaps in our thinking.
If there are no gaps there is no emotion.
Today people are thinking all the time and are mistaking thought (words/ language) for emotion.

When society switches-over from physical work (agriculture) to mental work (scientific/ industrial/ financial/ fast visuals/ fast words ) the speed of thinking keeps on accelerating and the gaps between thinking go on decreasing.

There comes a time when there are almost no gaps. People become incapable of experiencing/ tolerating gaps.

Emotion ends. Man becomes machine.

A society that speeds up mentally experiences every mental slowing-down as Depression / Anxiety.
A ( travelling )society that speeds up physically experiences every physical slowing-down as Depression / Anxiety.
A society that entertains itself daily experiences every non-entertaining moment as Depression / Anxiety.

sushil_yadav

[Brian Loveday]

I've now seen the film "An Inconvenient Truth" and Al Gore has done it for me - but only a little bit. His presentation is excellent - he is a politician at heart - and he puts forward a good case. But, yet again, the whole thing suffers from graphitis and the clips showing huge chunks of the polar ice cap falling into the sea are old news. Yes, we know the oil will eventually run dry, but any replacement energy source won't hit the pumps until that happens, because the oil companies will see to that. By the way, just what did happen to the car that ran on water featured in "Tomorrow's World" that the late Raymond Baxter told us about all those years ago? In all too familiar U.S. style, Mr. Gore then went on to tell us about his young son who was severely injured by a car and his elder sister who died of lung cancer. These were tragic events in his and his family's lives and I had to wonder why these so very personal heart-felt moments were included in his film. After “one thousand” presentations, it seems to me that Mr. Gore is on the 2008 political campaign trail and this platform may well do it for him.

[Gareth Kane]

I thought it was brilliant - especially where the presentation and the backstory collided in his sister's death from lung cancer and his father stopping growing tobacco.

What I didn't like was the 'action' bit relegated to the closing credits. I've dug up a clip of Gore expanding on that and cracking some gags. I've posted it at http://eco-living.blogspot.com/2006/10/al-gore-video.html.

[David Meyerson]

Just to let you know that the website www.aninconvenientemail.org has just launched. The idea started after I saw the Al Gore movie An Inconvenient Truth two weeks ago at the Swiss Cottage Odeon in London. I wanted to actually do something to tackle global warming rather than just 'applaud' and go home.

The aim of the website is to encourage people to email big businesses and politicians to be more green. There's a forum and downloadable posters as well as a downloadable viral email which people are encouraged to forward on to their friends.

Al Gore really likes the idea and will be mentioning the site in interviews as something that's happened as a result of the movie. Also the web design team made the website quickly and for a fraction of the price as they believed in the project. There are also open letters for Tony Blair, Richard Branson and others on the forum which I will be personally sending to them.

I have also asked, through mutual friends, Bob Geldof, Dave Stewart, Annie Lennox, Johnny Borrell (of Razorlight) and Melvyn Bragg to check out the website and possibly write a comment in the discussion section. And I'm also getting the posters put up in university computer rooms across the UK!

[janclancey]

Its about time that politions of our time woke up and faced the fact that we are killing our planet all for the sake of money we work on a global economy but we have to change the shift of our thinking to a global community each affecting the lives of the othe we need to abolish cash and barter between countries for things we neeed for things they need not sold things that are created just to sell reduce societies.We need to use our reserves for sustaining the remains of life after the planet has changed.James Lovelock portrays a very chilling veiw to our future if we dont take great care

[Dawn]

I bought a scooter due to that movie and I have changed out my bulbs to CFL's
Now I need incentive to cut down on my 30 minute showers

[Desmond Taylor]

How that charlatan Al Gore became St Al Gore the Green defies any common sense. His 'book' has been refuted by everyone. His comments about 40,000 species becoming extinct each year was plagiarised from 'A Sinking Ark'. Also since been discredited. Actual specie gone since 1600AD, about 1000. The German Envo minister is up to 54,750 per year. Where do you people get these ideas from. A vision is a hard thing to eliminate.Maybe I could come up with a 12 step plan.

[Alexandra J, Palm Springs, CA]

And he also invented the internet, saved the whales and made dinner all at the same time....

[Dr. Self-Proclaimed Expert PhD.]

Such viscious humor, but well deserved, mmm nah, no one needs to be treated with disrespect.
I call myself the "Expert" cause I've done the work and study. What amazes me is the so-called experts that are largely quoted from are disingenuously missing the number of faces that mysteriously "stand" behind the claims that are made.
One major mistake and obvious blooper that some insincere self-proclaimer made up was some huge chunk of ice 5 miles by 5 miles in area broke of from an ice sheet in the far north. I got a quick estimation of the kind of force that it would take to break this free. The facts surrounding the severance, (including this sheet being directly connected to land glacier), no known signs of melting or weakening of the contiguous land or seaside portions of ice from any subtle heat. The most telling was the four seasons of temperature in that region. Mainly below ZERO. YES BELOW ZERO. Sea Ice continues to form at that temperature. To fly off at the first adrenalin rush and proclaim "GLOBAL WARMING" is as stupid as saying the British are still coming, sound the alarm. Did it ever occur to anyone that the ice sheet just got to heavy and the force of the glacier was the straw that broke the camels back? Hmmm where do they learn their science from anyway?
Al Gore does not believe in such nonsense as he spouts off. If he really did he would really live like it to really make a difference. Any intelligent man or woman will know that the amount of difference they could make if all internal/external combustion, burning, breathing, and you name it would only compond to a difference under 10% worldwide. Not enough to offset climactic change to make a difference in present or future temperatures. Even Al Gore had to admit that the so-called change in global temp's. could be as a result of a slight tilt in the axis of the earth. So what will change that? Certainly not GE that brings "good things to life". I even changed all my light bulbs to 5yr. Florecent in my house to experiment with lowering my electric bill. They cost a lot comparitively. Discovered that they are not as good for my vision. And since then have discovered their heavy metal waste hazard. I knew that but did not remember soon enough. O well maybe Al Gore will store the bad ones forever and a day for me in his huge houses that he only lives in ( one at a time ) ( that's right he is not a god ).
As for the Britains that contributed to this "Blog" of sorts. Your new law that forces you to change your whole house and lifestyle to the shear bankruptcy that it will create in your masses, it serves you right for not adhering to truth and good science, but clinging to every emotional blathering word the media forces down your throat. What next? Invite the terrorist's to stay with you? That seems to be the next trendy blather brewed up by the few rich and ignorant. They should be shamed by you and of themselves. I can hardly believe they are grown people, adults. They act childish in their smoke and mirrors selective reasoning. You think they don't hear the truth? They hear it but ignore it for money.
Do yourselves a favor and clear the manmade trash out your minds first. Then search for the real truth! It's not far from us all. It used to be common sense.

[Lisa Ross]

LOOK OVER THE DESCRIPTIONS OF THE FOLLOWING TWO HOUSES AND SEE IF YOU CAN TELL WHICH BELONGS TO AN ENVIRONMENTALIST.

HOUSE # 1:
A 20-room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house all heated by gas. In ONE MONTH ALONE this mansion consumes more energy than the average American household in an ENTIRE YEAR. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2,400.00 per month. In natural gas alone (which last time we checked was a fossil fuel), this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not in a Northern or Midwestern "snow belt," either. It's in the South.

HOUSE # 2:
Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university, this house incorporates every "green" feature current home construction can provide. The house contains only 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on arid high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in winter and cools it in summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas, and it consumes 25% of the electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Flowers and shrubs native to the area blend the property into the surrounding rural landscape.

HOUSE # 1 (20 room energy guzzling mansion) is outside of Nashville, Tennessee. It is the abode of that renowned environmentalist (and filmmaker) Al Gore.

HOUSE # 2 (model eco-friendly house) is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas. Also known as "the Texas White House," it is the private residence of the President of the United States, George W. Bush.

Yes, Bush is wealthy and can afford to incorporate energy saving elements that the average person could not. But Al Gore and every Hollywood star CAN. I wonder how many of them actually DO.

[Kim Coussell]

Hi there,

I have seen this film once and will be seeing it again next Tuesday 26th June at a special showing at the Prince Charles cinema in Soho. Ken Livingston will be there answering questions. Tickets are £10 and all profits go to Friends of the Earth.

I think each and every bit of education the general public can learn from is going to help us combat the issue of global warming. I think all efforts should be commended, even if it doesn't apply to our own personal tastes I think the best thing we can all do is make changes in our lives which is exactly what I did after being inspired by Al Gores film. I've had my 80's style spotlights in my flat changed into handing penants which hold energy saving bulbs and I'll be taking part in the London lights off event at 9pm on Thursday night, 21st June.

Well done to Al Gore for his massive efforts.

[Kim Coussell]

Hi there,

I have seen this film once and will be seeing it again next Tuesday 26th June at a special showing at the Prince Charles cinema in Soho. Ken Livingston will be there answering questions. Tickets are £10 and all profits go to Friends of the Earth.

I think each and every bit of education the general public can learn from is going to help us combat the issue of global warming. I think all efforts should be commended, even if it doesn't apply to our own personal tastes I think the best thing we can all do is make changes in our lives which is exactly what I did after being inspired by Al Gores film. I've had my 80's style spotlights in my flat changed into handing penants which hold energy saving bulbs and I'll be taking part in the London lights off event at 9pm on Thursday night, 21st June.

Well done to Al Gore for his massive efforts.

[arden]

Wait a moment, what happened to this,
"The cooling has already killed thousands of people in poor nations... If it continues, and no strong measures are taken to deal with it, the cooling will cause world famine, world chaos, and probably world war, and this could all come about by the year 2000." (Lowe Ponte, The Cooling, 1976)

How inconvenent is it to remind people of that untruth and why is this one any better? Because of Al Gore? The guy who for years after his sister's death praised tobacco growers in TN because it was convenient to get their votes?

One problem with Gore's film - the analogy of the icecubes in the glass to the world's oceans.

He claims melting floating ice (not contacting the bottom) in a glass of water OR in the world's oceans will NOT result in a rise in water levels due to the principle of 'displacement' (i.e.: Arcamedes' famous Greek bathtub discovery).

However, what he fails to realise is the expansion of the liquid water as it becomes warmer and the proclivity of its molecules to become more mobile. THIS factor will surely claim the shorelines of many landmasses if not the entire landmass of most low-lying nations.

He DOES have right, as sea ice melts, less sunlight is reflected back to space (blue/green water absorbs what white snow reflects) raising atmospheric temperatures (radiant heating) causing neighboring land-based ice to warm (convection heating).

However; as Greenland's ice-pack melts, contributing more saline-free water to the North Atlantic, the thermal conveyor (Gulf Stream) could fail to reach Western Europe leading to colder atmospheric temperatures throughout the EU - (hopefully) correcting the problem.

Supercomputer models aside - only time will tell.

[Brien Comerford]

Gore must become a vegetarian for credibility purposes. The inhumane beef, pork, lamb, poultry and fishing industries are responsible for massive air, water and land pollution that dramtically exacerbate global warming. They also destroy marine and terrestrial ecosystems. It's time for Al Gore to consume tofu and abstain from flesh-foods.

[Ben S]

You are all being suckered by Gore with his 'man made' goreball warming. He is an embarrassment, his film is full of lies and propaganda. Most climate scientists view him as a liability. Get used to giving your hard earned money to governments to waste on pathetic attempts to change the planets temperature (oh what is the correct temperature, let me think!!!!).
If you want to hear the other side of the story try for starters (I doubt you believers want to hear another side but I'll try):
http://nzclimatescience.net/
http://www.friendsofscience.org/index.php?id=11
http://icecap.us/index.php
http://envirotruth.org/96.html
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/

[roopa]

Dear ECO Worrier,
My good luck to have chanced upon you. I am an animal sobber from India as all that I can do is cry over all the wild animals and mighty treecovers that die due to our apathy to them. I am really touched by your intelligent gift ideas. Thanks a lot. would be ever so grateful for your newsletters. My email accompanies this comment

[Ed Loftus]

Al Gore has lied to us all on more than just this issue. This is the politician who, when caught taking bribe money from the Chinese government defended himself by asserting that as long as he was Vice-President there was "no prevailing authority" to investigate him. Oh yes, this is also the guy that "Love Story" was written about and that "invented the internet." His movie has been demonstrated to be full of misrepresentations and junk science. His whole man-made global warming crisis has already been disproven, though the leftist leaning press has yet to make it their duty to disseminate that information to the public. This is just the latest Progressivist scam to stampede the public into a panic in which they'll allow the greenshirts and their like to overthrow Constitutional limitations and seize the power to do all those wonderful things to remake America and the world into their ideal of a social-corporatist utopia. What they'll really do is wreck the world economy and bring about the deaths of tens of millions of third world victims. One hundred years from now the terms "ecologist" and "environmentalist" will carry the same foul taste as "Nazi" and "racist" do today.