I could write pages on this, but I will keep this short and simple. See this film. I had known that Al Gore has long been a proponent of sound environmental policy, but I didn’t see the level of his passion until viewing his new film. It is factual and balanced. I’m sure that there are many minor points that people could have issue with, but everything that I saw was spot on. Only the people who did the research that he presents the results of have any room to dispute points made.
I’m a nearly PhD level chemist and the son of a retired union negotiator, so I can smell bullshit a mile away. What Mr. Gore presents in this movie is not bullshit. He’s not saying anything new. If you are an informed person you will have heard about 80% of what he says in the film and the rest will not surprise you. It’s the presentation that is the key and who is saying it. The film revolves around a “slide show” (Gore’s words) that he has been presenting the last few years all around the world. Interwoven with the presentation scenes are narration by Gore about his reasons and motivations for his passion. He opens with the striking image of the Earth taken on one of the first Apollo missions. “Earthrise,” with the Earth rising above the horizon of the Moon soon follows. The audience is asked to take a moment to see the awe of our home. After the set up the fact some rolling one after another. Some blame is placed, but Gore’s pointing fingers at all of us. The end is one of hope. Things can be done and they are within our reach. Gore points out that we have all of the tools right now, we just have to make the decision to use them, and the United States has a unique opportunity the yet again bring change and something new to the world. One of the last pictures is again of the Earth, taken from from a satellite (probably one of the Pioneer’s) exiting the solar system. The Earth is a little blue dot, just a few pixels in area. In all the black, that little dot of blue is all we have.
Gore has sent decades thinking about this problem, has talked to the people who have done the research, and been to the places where the problem is happening. The Navy let him go in a nuclear sub to the North Pole for goodness sake. Give him 1.5 hours of an open mind and I think that you will agree that he makes a very convincing case. I viewed a screening at the Coolidge Corner Theater in Brookline, MA, hardly the epic center of the current American conservatism. People did applaud at the end of the film as if relieved that somebody was finally standing up and saying something. In row behind me were three seniors, I’d say they were 75 plus. After the movie was over the guy at the end turned to the two women he was with and say “Let’s walk home tonight.”
