An Inconvenient Truth Film - Movie Review Example

A synopsis An “Inconvenient Truth” is a movie about global warming for which Al Gore won an Oscar and it helped him also win a Nobel Prize. The audience for this movie is anybody, for the movie did not use a lot of scientific jargon that is difficult for the lay person to understand. It also used a lot of humor to get its point across, including a cute skit featuring characters that looked like they belonged in The Simpsons. There were a lot of graphics and other visual aids to keep it interesting, and the movie did not attempt to talk over anybody's head, nor was it condescending. Therefore, the intended audience was anybody who is interested in this subject, along with individuals who may not be interested in the subject, but need to be persuaded. Global warming skeptics, however, are not necessarily the intended audience for this documentary, as their concerns are given short shrift and barely even mentioned. They will not be convinced by this documentary, nor would they enjoy it, most likely, so they are not the intended audience. It seemed to be more for the converted and those sitting on the fence. The purpose of this movie is to convince everybody that global warming exists, and that man is responsible for it, and it is really a call to action to try to stop it. There is a contingency out there who believes that man does not cause global warming, that global warming does not exist and that, even if it does, there is nothing that we can do about it. The purpose of this movie is to debunk this, and show that not only that man is responsible for global warming but that we can do something about it. One of the more effective parts of the movie showed how each one of the efforts that environmentalists encourage us to put forth helps, and how, if we combine all these efforts, we can decrease global warming to 1970s levels. The purpose is to educate everybody about global warming, and show exactly what global warming does to our planet and our ecosystem and what we can expect in the future if it continues unabated. The perspective of this movie is from the point of view of Al Gore, who has been a passionate environmentalist since he was a young senator. Therefore, the facts are slanted to back up his perspective, with very little facts presented for the other side. That said, Gore does have powerful facts, and he uses enough visual aids to get his point across very effectively, and it is difficult to argue with his perspective. The opinion of this movie is very powerfully that global warming is real, it is caused by man, and that we can do something about it. Three facts in the movie One of the statements that was checked was the statement that the United States has less fuel efficiency standards than all other countries, even China, and that the fuel efficiency standards for the United States in 10 years will match what China's fuel efficiency standards are today. From the research, this statement seems to be true. Right now, China's fuel efficiency standards are 35.8 MPG, and they plan to increase their fuel efficiency standards to 42.2 MPG by 2015 (Treacy, 2009; Bradsher, 2009; Blanco, 2009). Therefore, this statement is true – China's fuel efficiency standards are, at the present, virtually the same as what the US standards will be in five years. The other statement that was evaluated was that all scientists agree that global warming exists, that CO2 emissions are responsible for this, and that this is a serious problem. That one seems, at first blush, to be inaccurate, and a research of this fact bears this out. One report states that 650 scientists have signed on to a senate minority report that claims that there is not a consensus on the cause of global warming (Watson, 2008). Moreover, at least two reports debunking global warming theories have been published on the internet by scientists. One of these reports is by Dr. Patrick Michaels, who is described as a “leading climatologist,” who stated that “[t]his idea that most of the warming is due to greenhouse gases caused by man just isn’t right” (Majestic, 2010). A Dr. David Evans, who is a mathematician and an engineer, has written on how the earth has started a cooling trend that will continue until around 2030 (Evans, 2009). Therefore, it would seem that this particular statement is misleading at best. The third statement that was evaluated was that global warming increases hurricane strength. Since this documentary was made in 2005, which was an unusually heavy hurricane that featured the infamous Hurricane Katrina, it makes logical sense that this movie would highlight the effect that global warming has on hurricane strength. However, it seems that, since 2005, there have not been terribly strong hurricanes, so it seems that this particular statement would not be true. And, after studying some of the research on this topic, there does not seem to be a consensus. One article pointed out that 2005 was a very heavy year for hurricanes, but that it was an aberration. In the same article, there were scientists saying the opposite – that global warming does cause stronger hurricanes, and that they are expected to get still stronger (Lyons, 2010). Another article states that storms will actually decline in frequency, but get stronger as the planet warms up (Reilly, 2010). The third article stated definitively that storms have gotten stronger, but it looks at the average of storms over the period of two and a half decades, so it is difficult to tell from this article whether today's storms are really stronger than last year's storms, and the year before, and so on (Chang, 2010). Therefore, there is not a consensus on this. Intuitively, it seems that hurricanes are not getting stronger and that 2005 was an aberration, and there is some indication that this is true. At any rate, none of the articles definitively state that storms are getting worse, year by year, so this particular fact seems to be in doubt. What I learned Coming into this movie, I was not sure what to expect. My Republican father who is a big fan of Rush Limbaugh debunks the global warming theory, and there has been some controversy over some e-mails that global warming advocates apparently tried to cover up that did not support global warming theories. Although I tend to believe in global warming theories, there has been a sea change in opinion on the matter recently, or so it seems in the media, so a part of me started to believe that global warming is not real. However, this movie convinced me that global warming is real. There is just too much evidence to the contrary. Yes, the planet has warmed and cooled over the period of thousands of years, but not like it is now. To see the chart, where the temperatures have shot up, along with the CO2 levels, is convincing, as are the aerial shots of land masses that used to have permafrost that have now melted. It seems as if the global warming deniers are denying something that really cannot be denied – our planet is warming at a rapid rate, and there must be something done about it. The current rate of warming is not comparable to the earlier years when the earth warmed and cooled, because, in the earlier periods, the warming and cooling periods were much slighter – more like a child's roller coaster. Today's period is like the climb to a very large roller coaster in comparison, and the climb continues, unabated. I do not see how this can be denied. This is a very important issue. It is important, not just because the polar bears are drowning, but also because our planet is in danger. It is scary to see how the coasts will flood if Greenland continues to melt at the rate that hit is, and how many thousands of people will die or be displaced if this happens. This issue is hurting our ecosystem and killing our planet. It seems that our selfishness will leave no planet for our great-grandchildren to enjoy. It is truly sad that we have been so short-sighted about this issue – that we continue to buy big SUVs and Hummers without regard for what this does to the planet, and that we continue to burn coal, etc., instead of finding clean fossil fuels. Al Gore pointed out that there is money to be made in the new clean energy industry, and this is what we should be concentrating upon, not keep doing things the same way. It is like the people who drove a horse and buggy, and want to keep putting their dollars into technology that will improve the horse and buggy. Meanwhile, others are putting their dollars into an alternative to the horse and buggy, and these people led the way to the new transportation. Yes, people who were in the horse and buggy industry lost jobs – there were fewer blacksmiths and carriage drivers, for instance. But look at all the jobs that were created for the alternative. It can be same way with green technologies, if only we had enough innovators to see this. Treacy, M. (2009). China to Impose Stricter Gas Mileage Rules Than U.S. Yahoo! Green. Available at: http://green.yahoo.com/blog/ecogeek/1094/china-to-impose-stricter-gas-mileage-rules-than-u- s.html Bradsher, K. (2009). China Is Said to Plan Strict Gas Mileage Rules. The New York Times Online. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/business/energy-environment/28fuel.html Blanco, S. (2009). Heard about China's new 42 mpg standards? Get educated first. Available at: http:// green.autoblog.com/2009/05/29/heard-about-chinas-new-42-mpg-standards-get-educated-first/ Evans, D. (2009). Global Warming or Global Cooling? A New Trend in Climate Alarmism. Global Research.ca. Available at: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14504 Majestic. (2010). Climatologist: CO2 Poses No Threat To Human Welfare. Disinformation. Available at: http://www.disinfo.com/2010/05/climatologist-co2-poses-no-threat-to-human- welfare/ Watson, S. (2008). Over 650 Scientists Challenge Global Warming "Consensus" . Infowars.net. Available at: http://infowars.net/articles/december2008/101208Warming.htm Lyons, M. (2010). Scientists Agree Global Warming Boosts Hurricane Strength. Palm Beach Daily News. Available at: http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/content/news / 2010/02/27/lyons0228.html Reilly, M. (2010). Does Global Warming Cause Hurricanes? Discovery News. Available at: http://news.discovery.com/earth/does-global-warming-cause-hurricanes.html Chang, K. (2010). Strongest Storms Linked to Global Warming. The New York Times. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/04/world/americas/04iht-storm.4.15904244.html Read More