An inconvenient bore-how much do you care about the environment?
Regan Lane
Issue date: 11/7/08 Section: Features
After watching An Inconvenient Truth, the 2006 documentary on global warming, I have decided I would rather have a root canal than sit through another hour of Al Gore speaking.
Despite the fact that his ideas may be based on truth, An Inconvenient Truth features the former Vice President parading around under the guise of an all knowing environmental scientist. The documentary ultimately asserts that because of technology and our refusal to admit our own wrongdoing, we are doomed. The temperature will rise exponentially and our children's children will be forced to live on the North Pole, which at that point in time will have the same average temperature that the equator does today.
I am not dismissing Al Gore's theories; there may be some basis for his views. The delivery is what threw me off. Instead of using first hand accounts of scientists, Al Gore filled his documentary with sappy personal stories and close-up shots of his face contorted in deep reflection. Aside from that, the film is utterly boring. I am not sure what the hype was about-in a lot of ways it was a glorified power point presentation.
Al Gore's film ended up winning two academy awards-Best Documentary and Best Music-and was an official selection at both Sundance and Cannes. To put the icing on the cake for Gore, he took home the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his work in the climate change crisis.
The documentary does present a compelling display of evidence, just in the wrong way. Al Gore is a bad actor and needs to step down from his pedestal if he ever wants to convert those who do not believe global warming exists-or matters-(my parents included).
At the end of the film Al Gore gives a list of ten things that you can do to stop global warming. My housemates vary in their concerns for the environment, but all of us agreed that many of Gore's "ten things to do" are either not satisfying enough for the sacrifice or just plain expensive. I personally do not foresee myself changing my driving habits or using less hot water, but I do try to recycle. The overall message of the film is good-at some point environmental issues do become an ethical responsibility, I guess. Unfortunately in An Inconvenient Truth, the data gets muddled when mixed with self aggrandizement.
Despite the fact that his ideas may be based on truth, An Inconvenient Truth features the former Vice President parading around under the guise of an all knowing environmental scientist. The documentary ultimately asserts that because of technology and our refusal to admit our own wrongdoing, we are doomed. The temperature will rise exponentially and our children's children will be forced to live on the North Pole, which at that point in time will have the same average temperature that the equator does today.
I am not dismissing Al Gore's theories; there may be some basis for his views. The delivery is what threw me off. Instead of using first hand accounts of scientists, Al Gore filled his documentary with sappy personal stories and close-up shots of his face contorted in deep reflection. Aside from that, the film is utterly boring. I am not sure what the hype was about-in a lot of ways it was a glorified power point presentation.
Al Gore's film ended up winning two academy awards-Best Documentary and Best Music-and was an official selection at both Sundance and Cannes. To put the icing on the cake for Gore, he took home the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his work in the climate change crisis.
The documentary does present a compelling display of evidence, just in the wrong way. Al Gore is a bad actor and needs to step down from his pedestal if he ever wants to convert those who do not believe global warming exists-or matters-(my parents included).
At the end of the film Al Gore gives a list of ten things that you can do to stop global warming. My housemates vary in their concerns for the environment, but all of us agreed that many of Gore's "ten things to do" are either not satisfying enough for the sacrifice or just plain expensive. I personally do not foresee myself changing my driving habits or using less hot water, but I do try to recycle. The overall message of the film is good-at some point environmental issues do become an ethical responsibility, I guess. Unfortunately in An Inconvenient Truth, the data gets muddled when mixed with self aggrandizement.
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