An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

Being nominated for an Academy Award surely gave another boost to the already growing momentum of this important film. The documentary follows former US vice president Al Gore on his tour of slideshows around the world. Gore expounds on the effects of global warming and the scientifically predicted long-term consequences of releasing CO₂ into our atmosphere and oceans.

I was particularly touched by the effects of losing our polar ice caps, which are remnants of the ice age (or the flood). They would not be recuperated in a winter or two. The balance between increased rainfall (floods) in some areas and drought in other areas is also startling.

I found it interesting that the film only lightly touched on the use of coal, and the bulk of that time was focused on China. An PRI program I listen to called Open Source had a program on Nov 14, 2006 about coal in the US. 40% of carbon emissions are from coal powered electrical plants. One interviewee said that if they stopped coal usage, we wouldn't have to reduce oil based emissions to lower carbon emissions.

Other reactions to the film were more spiritual. I fear that many Christians will believe the skeptics of this inconvenient truth based on the idea that many of these same scientists who are revealing the catastrophic future are also atheists and evolutionists. Some may also accept that the world is ending soon, so why should mankind delay apocalypse (some would call it the glory).

Al Gore is almost magically gracious in his words about the current Bush administration and their inactivity on the global warming issue. I haven't resolved that one, but I was struck by it and I hope that many Republicans are too.

I hope that I can be as gracious toward people who downplay the facts about greenhouse gases for economic reasons. Again, I can't resolve why anyone would let the planet be burned up so that big companies can make billions of dollars and so that they can keep their jobs in the oil and coal sectors. The jobs are certainly transferable and the money is to be made in renewable resources and renewable energy... like geothermal energy for instance...

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