This review has been a long time coming – I saw
An Inconvenient Truth for the first time over a month ago, and I was eager to review it, but I wanted to see it again before writing about it. After I did, the Oilers made it to the
Stanley Cup Finals, and anyone who knows me knows how stoked I was about the Oilers making it as far as they did.
Anyway, I've now seen An Inconvenient Truth three times, and every time I watch the movie, I come away with something new about Al Gore and global warming. (See the movie's trailer on the right side of this blog.) Before I get to the review, a few words about Gore.
I had him all wrong. I was unhappy with the way he ran his campaign in 2000 - I so desperately wanted him to beat George W. Bush, because I feared what Bush would do to the country (and many of those fears have been realized). I think he didn't respond quickly and effectively enough to some of Bush's lies during the campaign, a few of which were whoppers. Because of those feelings, I felt Gore was a wimp. I no longer feel that way.
Whether it was "losing" the
election in 2000 or for some other reason, Gore has kind of come into his own as an activist and elder statesman. I'm impressed, and it's why, at this early stage,
I support Gore for the Democratic nomination in 2008. But, there'll be much more on that topic in the coming months.
A Republican friend of mine asked me right before I saw the movie for the first time what Gore's scientific credentials were. It seemed like a fair question at the time, but the more I think about it, the more I realize it was an attempt to call into question Gore's expertise on global warming. Let's lay that to rest right now. After writing two books, consulting with numerous scientists (many of whom are worldwide leading experts on climate change), it's not a stretch to say that Gore, while not a scientist, has done plenty of homework, background and research on global warming. He’s traveled to the North Pole and Antarctica and has consulted with climate change experts around the world about this movie and his books.
Psst - to probably about 99 percent of the American public, it's safe to say this: He knows a helluva lot more about global warming than you do.
On to the movie. The documentary is mostly a multimedia presentation of Gore discussing the startling facts about climate change to an audience. It might not sound exciting, but it's not supposed to be – it’s intended to be informative, and on that count the movie succeeds in dramatic fashion.
Gore starts the movie with some humor: “I used to be the next president of the United States.” After lots of laughter from the audience, he deadpans, “I don’t think that’s very funny,” then he laughs. Where was this Gore during the 2000 election? I like him with a sense of humor – it helps his message resonate. When someone lacking charisma tries to appeal to the masses, his delivery and manner distract from the message, no matter how important his words are. This was one of Gore’s biggest problems in 2000; how often did we hear people decry his "wooden" manner? Too often. He certainly isn’t “personality plus” now, but it’s a big improvement over his former persona.
Gore continued about the 2000 election:
“It was a hard blow, but what do you do? You make the best of it. It brought into clear focus the mission I had been pursuing all these years and I started giving the [global warming] slideshow again.”
Those were the most heartfelt words I’ve heard from him about the election in quite some time. He’s a bigger man than me; I would have had a very difficult time recovering from such a devastating, bitter defeat.
Following his discussion on the 2000 election, Gore wasted no time facing his foes and taking on his critics.
He quickly acknowledges that global warming cuts a wide swath across the political spectrum in a bipartisan way. There are people in Congress, in both parties, said Gore, who keep global warming at arm’s length, because if they acknowledged the problem, there would be dramatic consequences and politicians would have to make some very tough choices, and that’s not politically convenient.
But, he states, “This isn't a political issue; it's a moral issue," and I couldn’t agree more. “If we allow [global warming through the dramatic increase in greenhouse gases] to happen, it’s deeply unethical,” said Gore. Too bad that most politicians in this country simply aren’t listening. Take a look at some of these facts, and
everyone in this country should be listening.
Many critics or doubters of global warming suggest that the recent spate of hot years is just an aberration; that these cycles happen all the time. Yes, they do, but not like they have in the past two decades.
To wit, 10 of the hottest years on record have all occurred in the last 14 years, and the hottest of all was 2005. Think about that for a second –
the hottest year on record. Last year, over 200 cities and towns in the United States set all-time temperature records.
Last year also set some other not so wonderful records – the highest ever-recorded number of Atlantic hurricanes; the highest ever recorded number of typhoons in Japan; and also an all-time tornado record in the United States. Scientists have literally been rewriting textbooks – it was thought that a hurricane could never hit South America, because the water temperature is too cold that far south. But, no more; a hurricane hit Brazil last year. Brazil! It's not a reach to say this anomaly occurred in part because of warmer ocean temperatures.
And do we need to even talk about
Katrina (above), the storm that will forever be burned into America’s consciousness as our costliest natural disaster in history? Gore talks about Katrina in the movie, and critics have been quick to jump all over him, claiming that Gore stated that Katrina happened as a result of global warming. But, that’s
not what he said. (Sounds like another "
I invented the Internet" distortion to me.) What he
does say in the movie is that warmer ocean temperatures contribute to much stronger storms such as Katrina, because warm water is like rocket fuel for hurricanes.
To illustrate that last point, it’s useful to remember Katrina’s track – it was a category 1 storm when it first made landfall in Florida, but as it passed over the peninsula and hit the much warmer waters of the Gulf of Mexico, it gained ferocious strength and quickly turned into a Category 5 hurricane.
Some of the statistics from the 2003 heat wave that scorched many parts of the globe are pretty eye opening, too, and Gore ticks them off in the movie. The heat wave killed 35,000 people in India, and the highest temperature ever recorded in that country also occurred that summer – 122 degrees Fahrenheit. Last year, 37” of rain fell on Mumbai, India,
in 24 hours, yet another all-time record.
And how about the recent flooding that the Mid-Atlantic has experienced? Last week, a tropical system dropped over a foot of rain on the Baltimore/Washington area, resulting in Biblical-like floods. Pennsylvania hasn’t been spared, either, as the Delaware, Susquehanna and
Schuylkill rivers have all jumped their banks from fierce rains. In Monroe Country (where I was born), 7.02 inches of rain fell in a 24-hour period last week. In less than two years, there have been four record-breaking storms that have resulted in brutal flooding in eastern Pennsylvania. Recent flood levels are equaled only by the infamous
’55 flood.
“This is unprecedented,” said meteorologist Ben Gelber in
The Pocono Record. “It’s remarkable.”
Why all of these examples? Because, as Gore reasons in the movie, these storms will become more and more frequent as the Earth heats up and the climate changes, and no one on the planet will be able to escape it.
Global warming has many far-reaching consequences, and Gore outlines many of them, and they are worth noting here.
Species loss is now occurring at 1,000 times the normal background rate, and it’s because rising temperatures adversely affect the ecosystem. Hotter temperatures are resulting in an increase in mosquitoes, ticks, lice, rodents and other pests, and unfortunately, these aid in the spread of new diseases, as well as old ones previously thought to be controlled or eliminated, such as
SARS, West Nile, Malaria and Polio.
The West Nile Virus arrived on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in 1999, and it was all the way across the continental United States in six years.
Right now, the areas we all need to look at with concern are Greenland, Antarctica and the North Pole. All three are undergoing radical changes.
But first, it’s worth noting what Gore states the melting ice in these areas does to the planet and how it affects all of us. Ice and snow in these areas act like a giant mirror, reflecting 90 percent of the sun’s rays back out of the atmosphere. However, water absorbs 90 percent of the sun’s rays. So, as water warms and melts more ice, there is a greater absorption of the sun’s rays, raising water temperature, which melts more ice, and so on. It’s a giant snowball effect, if you’ll pardon the pun.
As a result, says Gore, there is now a faster buildup of heat at the North Pole than anywhere else on Earth. That should be the single-most frightening thing that people take from all of the statistics on climate change.
If
either Greenland or the
West Antarctic Ice Sheet at the South Pole melted (not all of Antarctica,
just the Western Ice Sheet), ocean levels would rise by by an estimated 20 feet for either one. What would 20 feet do? Gore illustrates the effects, and they aren't pretty. People in Bangladesh; Calcutta, India; Beijing and Shanghai, China; and the Netherlands, one of Europe's “low countries,” would all be displaced. The refugee displacement from a 20-feet rise in sea level would be about 40 million people. Gore brings up an important point when considering this possibility – there’s huge hardship when 200,000 people are displaced during a disaster or war in Africa or Europe. Just begin to imagine the horrible possibilities if 200 times that amount of people had to head to higher ground.
Earlier in the review, I mentioned how Gore has visited both poles as part of his research on global warming. In the movie, he mentioned two experiences worth sharing.
He traveled to the
North Pole in a nuclear submarine to see firsthand what the Navy has been reporting for years – that the ice is thinning at a dramatic rate. Since 1957, the Navy has kept meticulous records of North Pole ice, because submarines can only surface if ice thickness is 42 inches or less. For years, Gore lobbied the Navy to have its ice thickness records declassified, and the Navy finally agreed.
The findings? Brace yourself. Since 1970, ice thickness has decreased by 40 percent, and two recent studies have shown that in 30 to 50 years, North Pole ice will completely disappear in summertime. Got your attention yet?
In
Antarctica, scientists can drill cores in the ice and analyze the atmosphere, just like scientists can read tree rings. By examining these ice cores, scientists can go back 650,000 years to measure all sorts of readings, including carbon dioxide levels. Gore said scientists can read some many subtleties in these cores.
"And they showed me and ice core, and I couldn't believe it, but they pointed to a core and could tell when the U.S. Congress passed the
Clean Air Act, and you can see it - a clear difference in the ice," said Gore. In other words, scientists could tell when the world's biggest polluter stopped polluting so much.
Many
doubting Thomases regarding climate change point to the fact that temperature is cyclical; that it goes up and down over thousands of years. It does. But, going back 650,000 years, scientists who have examined these ice cores have found that carbon dioxide level has
never gone above 300 parts per million, even during the cyclical warming years. Until now, where it currently sits measures nearly 400 parts per million, and rising fast. Scared yet? Keep reading.
Global warming is having effects in the United States, too. Warmer weather sucks the moisture out of the soil, and global warming dramatically increases this evaporation, said Gore. We take our food supply for granted, but what would happen if we lost even 25 percent of our growing capacity? I shudder at the thought.
President Bush likes to tout the idea of ethanol as a solution to our energy problems. What would happen if millions of acres are too dry to even grown enough to feed Americans, much less grow corn for ethanol? It's doubtful this administration has even considered such a scenario, since it won't even acknowledge the existence of global warming as a problem. While Republicans dicker, the Earth cooks.
Speaking of energy solutions, Bush has been beating the
ANWR drum since he got into office, often expressing his desire to turn the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge over to his oil buddies. I often crack up when I hear Bush say he's confident the area could be explored for oil reserves in "an environmentally friendly way." Anyone remember the
Exxon Valdez? Oops.
Anyway, the reason I bring up ANWR - here's a statistic from the movie that would make oil exploration of the area difficult: 35 years ago, the tundra was frozen an average of 225 days per year. Because of warmer temperatures and permafrost melting, that average is now below 75 days. Trucks would have difficulty traveling over the region to get oil and other supplies in and out of ANWR with the mucky, melted permafrost. There's a bit of irony there - getting more oil out of the ground that will ultimately make Earth's temperature rise is now more difficult because temperatures have risen.
Gore talks about two dramatic examples of expansive bodies of water and what higher temperatures have done: Lake Chad and the Aral Sea.
Lake Chad, a formerly enormous body of water in Africa that borders Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria, has decreased dramatically in size. In the 1960s, the lake measured some 420,046,926 miles, but it now encompasses less than 1,398,085 miles. Some of the lake's disappearance has to do with demands on the lake’s water and its sources of water, but it’s also related to hotter temperatures and droughts from climate change. The lake nearly dried up in 1908 and 1984, so is the lake’s disappearance entirely from climate change? You decide. Gore thinks so, and I’m inclined to agree that it’s at least a piece of the incredibly complex puzzle of global warming.
The
Aral Sea is an even more dramatic example than Lake Chad. In 1960, the Sea was the world’s fourth largest lake, with an area of 2,873,220,393 miles. Today, the lake encompasses 182,972,441 miles, less than 25 percent of its original size, and still shrinking. It has shrank so far, in fact, that the sea has split in two – the North and South Aral Seas. The southern sea has all but been abandoned, but the northern section is being revitalized somewhat.
Like Lake Chad, the causes of the sea's dramatic changes aren’t exclusive to global warming, including abuse and neglect by the former Soviet Union by extensive irrigation on the rivers that feed into the Aral, but you’re kidding yourself if you think global warming is not playing at least a part. People, when huge bodies of water start disappearing, something's wrong.
These boats that sit stranded in the sand are located on a former canal that was desperately dug to try to keep the two separated Aral Seas connected. The effort failed, as water levels have dropped dramatically.
###So, many ask, why the renewed concern about global warming in the United States? There are many reasons, but perhaps no larger one than this – we are the biggest producer of greenhouse gases in the world – no country even comes close. As Gore points out, we belch 30.3 percent of the world's greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every year. That’s more than South America, Europe and Asia combined. Ouch!
Here's a radical thought - maybe it's one of the reasons we are so hated in the world. (A Republican like Ann Coulter would immediately interpret this as "RJ hates America." People like her can pucker up and kiss my ass.) As a country, we are preachy about so many things, but consider this - why the hell should other countries implement measures to curb global warming when the political leaders of the biggest polluter of all sit in defiant denial? We need to adopt a leadership position now, so countries like India and China do the same.
As I've blogged before, if those two countries are indifferent to global warming this century, start buying canoes. You'll need them.
So, you might be thinking, “Well, let’s get going then! Let’s reverse this trend and stop this madness.” Oh, if only it were that easy. There are two obstacles to that happening in the United States – the oil companies and, as I just mentioned, politicians. The two are undeniably linked.
Take, for instance,
James Inhofe, the Republican Senator from Oklahoma (and chairman of the
Environment and Public Works Committee). He was
quoted on the Senate floor on July 28, 2003 regarding global warming:
"Much of the debate over global warming is predicated on fear, rather than science,” calling global warming “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."
What a
douche. (And who the fuck decided to make him chairman of the Env't & Public Works Committee?!? That would be brainiac Republicans who rule Congress. Brilliant choice, people!) I wonder where the cash is coming from to compel him to utter such ridiculous bullshit? His hot air doesn't help global warming, that's for sure.
However, in An Inconvenient Truth, Gore has a much more delicious example of political denial.
Phil Cooney was appointed by President George W. Bush on January 20, 2001 as chief of staff for White House Council on Environmental Quality. Like many of Bush’s appointees (Hi again,
Brownie!), it’s useful to look at his past to understand his brilliant decisions while on the job for the Bush administration.
Before joining the Bush administration, Cooney worked as a lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute’s oil & gas lobby, where he defended Exxon following the
Valdez disaster in 1989. Admirable work, and that’s someone I would definitely want working on my team to deal with environmental issues large and small. It’s important to note that Cooney is a lawyer who holds a bachelor’s degree in economics, with no scientific training whatsoever. Predictably, it didn’t take him long to begin his, ahem, “magic.”
In 2005, it was revealed that Cooney radically altered reports on climate change in 2002 and 2003. As Gore states in the movie, this was a very big embarrassment to the White House, and on June 14, 2005, Cooney resigned, only to be hired by
ExxonMobile the very next day. But, as is the case with so many embarrassing things with this administration, let’s just get mad at
The New York Times for reporting it, not for the actual fuck up. It’s not the administration’s fault, it’s the newspapers for reporting it, right? Jackasses.
After discussing Cooney in the movie, Gore rolls out a gem of a quote that is perfect in describing the whole idea of a guy like Cooney rewriting climate change reports, and it’s by Upton Sinclair:
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.
Well said.
The real problem with global warming is the concerted effort on the part of the oil companies to confuse, scare and manipulate the public. They are well funded and relentless.
According to Gore, (and it’s awfully hard to argue), their objective is to reposition global warming as theory, not as fact. Is it working? To a certain extent, yes.
Gore cites a recent massive study of 928 peer-reviewed articles on global warming, which represented 10 percent of all of the articles (and I believe it was over a year’s time). Of those articles, guess what number disagreed that there was a problem with global warming?
Zero. A large number of articles, and zero disagreement.
Another study over that same time period examined 636 articles in the popular press. The percentage of articles that said that global warming may be a problem? Try 53 percent. So, the gusher of bullshit that oil companies are showering on us is working, to some extent, on mental midgets like James Inhofe, President Bush’s environmental advisors, and probably a Republican near you.
This short passage, from an article on CNN's Web site, should tell you what you need to know about the diverging views of President Bush, who wants us to be skeptical about global warming, and Gore, who knows we shouldn't be. Take a read:
"New technologies will change how we live and how we drive our cars, which all will have the beneficial effect of improving the environment," Bush said. "And in my judgment we need to set aside whether or not greenhouse gases have been caused by mankind or because of natural effects and focus on the technologies that will enable us to live better lives and at the same time protect the environment." Gore said the causes of global warming should not be ignored. "Why should we set aside the global scientific consensus?" Gore said, his voice rising with emotion. "Is it because ExxonMobil wants us to set it aside? Why should we set aside the conclusion of scientists in the United States, including the National Academy of Sciences, and around the world including the 11 most important national academies of science on the globe and substitute for their view the view of ExxonMobil. Why?"Get that whole story from CNN
Here.
I have to take yet another shot at the president, for (shock!) a broken campaign promise from the 2000 campaign. He ran on the promise that if elected, he would implement a
mandatory cap on carbon emissions, the principle greenhouse gas. Upon taking office, just about overnight, he announced that he would implement
voluntary greenhouse gas limits on big offenders, like power companies that burn fossil fuel. What's next, Mr. President - pedophiles as daycare workers?
Thanks for not letting us forget the president's broken promises, Al. During one of the movie's more poignant moments, Gore states, “Our principle obstacle is political dogma. Yes, politicians make decisions that will largely affect the way we go, but a baking Earth will cook us all.
“Our ability to live is what is at stake,” continues Gore. And that ability has no political party.
He brings up another example that’s too apropos to ignore. Many opponents or disbelievers to global warming reform say that “we can’t protect the environment without hurting the economy,” said Gore. “They say that Chinese and Japanese automakers will sweep in and steal market share from American automakers.” Psst - they're doing it anyway.
However, according to Gore, American automakers can’t even sell some of their cars in China,
because they don’t meet the pollution standards. In China! Automakers and members in Congress on both sides of the aisle have opposed raising mileage standards for years, particularly on the biggest polluters of all - SUVs. Now, it’s coming back to bite politicians, SUV drivers and car companies in the ass, particularly Ford and GM.
Hey GM, keep churning out your Hummers. Same with you, Ford – how many millions did you make from sales of Excursions and Explorers in the feel-good ‘90s? All of those SUV drivers can choke on those high gas prices now. They aren’t getting any sympathy from me,
but those SUVs are belching out millions of tons of emissions every year, and that affects us all.
Predictably, the
Swiftboating of Gore has begun, and it seems the more successful the movie is, the more pissed off Republicans and the few remaining opponents of global warming become. (And it’s looking to be one of, if not the highest grossing documentary of all time.)
My favorite half-baked witticism comes from David Harsanyi, a walking, talking asshole from the Denver Post, who tries to be clever by writing in a
June 5 article:
Al Gore (not a scientist) has definitely been heard - and heard and heard. His documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," is so important, in fact, that Gore crisscrosses the nation destroying the atmosphere just to tell us about it.
What his ham-handed analysis fails to consider is that Gore has probably offset his traveling by doing more things in other ways than Harsanyi has even considered possible. (And, judging from his idiotic piece on global warming, Harsanyi’s mind is probably capable of very little cogent analysis.) And Gore may not be a scientist, but he’s done worlds more research than you have, David, and he’s written two more books on the subject than you have.
I’m not done with Harsanyi yet. He continues in his column:
So next time you're with some progressive friends, dissent. Tell 'em you're not sold on this global warming stuff.
Back away slowly. You'll probably be called a fascist.
Don't worry, you're not. A true fascist is anyone who wants to take away my air conditioning or force me to ride a bike.
Oh yea, Harsanyi, people are forcing you to ride a bike, and Al Gore is knocking on your door now to pick up your air conditioner. People like Harsanyi don’t add to the discourse, they subtract from it, but that’s probably his goal, anyway.
You know what? This isn’t the first time Gore has been railroaded for his beliefs on the importance of protecting the environment. Take a read on then-President George H.W. Bush’s comments about Gore in late October 1992 (and it’s worth noting these words were uttered by an increasingly desperate president who knew he was going down in defeat):
This guy [Gore]
is so far out in the environmental extreme, we’ll be up to our necks in spotted owls and out of work for every American. This guy’s crazy! (A video clip of these comments is played in the movie. Hard to deny it when there's videotape, eh George? Like father, like son - environment be damned.)
Gore winds up the movie on a positive note, and it’s a good thing. I enjoyed and highly recommend An Inconvenient Truth (as if you didn’t know by now), but after hearing all of the dire predictions and statistics, I needed a dose of optimism and good news.
Just about every country on the planet has ratified or pledged to abide by the
Kyoto Protocol, save two; the United States and Australia. But, the good news is that many states and cities in America have passed resolutions to move toward Kyoto’s goals, including Pennsylvania.
Gore blows the horn of optimism when he reminds us of America’s many noteworthy accomplishments: we formed a nation after fighting a revolution; we made a moral decision to abolish slavery, deciding that we couldn’t be half slave and half free; we overcame adversity by fighting World War II in two theatres and defeating Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan; we desegregated schools; we’ve cured diseases, including polio; we landed men on the moon; we fought and succeeded in bringing down Communism; and best of all, we’ve already played an integral role in nearly solving another global environmental problem - the destruction of the ozone layer. We took the lead in getting almost every country to eliminate chloroflurocarbons, which destroy ozone.
We whipped those problems, so there’s plenty of reason to believe that we can beat this one, too. But, global warming is more serious and a more daunting task than all of the above put together and multiplied by a factor of 100.
“It’s time for us to rise again to secure our future,” says Gore. By “us,” I take it that he means all American citizens. It
is time for us to rise and take back our destiny from the repugnant oil companies and corporations (and the politicians who are in bed with them) who are determining our destiny for us,
without our consent.
“We have all the knowledge and technology we need to solve this problem, save political will,” says Gore.
“But in America, political will is a renewable resource!” You're damn right it is. A memorable line from a memorable movie.
We can do it, one person, one city, one state, one election at a time. We can and we must, or the consequences will be worse than anyone can possibly fathom. When I think of this journey that we must embark upon, I’m reminded of some great words by an American poet,
Dave Matthews. These lyrics, from
You Might Die Trying, brilliantly illustrate the coming journey of combating and ultimately defeating global warming. …
To change the world, start with one step / However small, the first step is hardest of all / Once you get your gait, you'll be walkin' tall / You said you never did, cuz you might die tryin'…
Well said, Dave.
I’d rather die tryin’ than die fryin’.
Get involved, people. The world is run by those who show up.
Labels: Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth, ANWR, Aral Sea, Dave Matthews, Exxon Valdez, Global Warming, Hurricane Katrina, James Inhofe, Kyoto Protocol, Lake Chad, Movie Review, Swiftboating
