NEW YORK (AP) - For some, "An Inconvenient Truth" may pose an inconvenient question: What's more important, loving the planet or hating Al Gore?
Fortunately, this is a non-issue for the many earthlings who already have embraced Gore's documentary for expressing so well what everyone needs to know - global warming is a looming threat to a planet we are all forced to share, even when we act as if we live in different worlds.
Opening in theatres last year, then available on DVD a few months later, "An Inconvenient Truth" makes its TV premiere in the United States on Sunday on the cable network Showtime. (In Canada it airs April 6 on Movie Central and the Movie Network.)
This is two weeks after its director, Davis Guggenheim, won the best documentary Oscar, stirring up detractors who sneer at Gore's crusade as "a convenient lie" while lumping him with crackpots, lefties and that Hollyweird crowd.
What a moment in the life of the planet, when saving Mother Earth is co-opted as a wedge issue.
But viewers who have not yet seen "An Inconvenient Truth" (and are open to the prospect that the Earth isn't flat and never was) will likely find the film thought-provoking, even motivational.
Built around Gore's so-called "slide show" - actually a souped-up PowerPoint presentation he says he has given at least a thousand times worldwide - "An Inconvenient Truth" is more than a concert film. It weaves in personal glimpses of the former U.S. congressman, senator, vice-president and 2000 presidential winner-but-loser that further enhance and humanize Gore's message.
Underpinning it all is the scientific conclusion that growing amounts of fuel emissions are trapping heat in the thickening atmosphere and causing the melting of the polar ice caps, higher temperatures, heavier rainstorms, more and bigger hurricanes and other climate changes already being measured and potentially calamitous.
During the 96-minute film, Gore stands before panoramic graphics that show alarmingly increased population figures and skyrocketing carbon dioxide levels. He has then-and-now photos that show the disappearing snows of Mount Kilimanjaro and the ebbing glaciers of Glacier National Park.
He has computer simulations that project the impact of melting ice in Antarctica and Greenland. Large parts of Florida, for instance, could be under water. Same for a vast swatch of Calcutta and Bangladesh that 60 million people call home.
Sobering stuff. (And Gore's half-hour update that follows the film is no more rosy.)
But "An Inconvenient Truth" isn't depressing. Despite facts and figures, photos and video that build a strong case for time running out, there's no scolding, no guilt-tripping.
While Gore allows that "I've been trying to tell this story for a long time and I feel as if I've failed to get the message across," he offers a non-accusatory reason why lawmakers thus far have largely shirked their duty.
"There are good people who are in politics in both parties who hold this at arm's length," he explains, "because if they acknowledge and recognize it, then the moral imperative to make big changes is inescapable." What they need, he says, is a shove by the voters.
Another surprise from "An Inconvenient Truth," it's entertaining, in the way any dose of clarity provides a boost. And it's accessible to a wide audience. My 12-year-old son, who ordinarily chooses sports and cartoons as his TV fare but insisted on renting "An Inconvenient Truth," was riveted by it.
One explanation? He liked the straight talk.
Consider Gore's attempt to clear up the misconception that global warming is a theory still open to debate. He cites a study that sampled all the scientific articles on global warming from the past decade. How many took exception to the scientific consensus that global warming is a serious threat? Not one of them, he says.
Then he turns to a study of articles published by consumer media the past 14 years. Fully half of those stories, he says, cast doubt on the truth of global warming.
How did the message get so garbled between the lab and the living room? Gore has his ideas, including a campaign to debunk global warming he likens to past efforts to represent smoking as safe.
But Gore reminds his audience it's not too late to get with the program and to get the word out.
"When the warnings are accurate and based on sound science," he tells an audience in Shanghai, "then we as human beings, whatever country we live in, have to find a way to make sure that the warnings are heard and responded to."
This bears out one final, very welcome, surprise in the film: Gore's infectious faith.
"We already know everything we need to know to effectively address this problem," he declares, just as he declared on the Oscar telecast and, surely, a thousand other times.
Will people learn soon enough that the truth isn't too inconvenient? That's the film's big cliffhanger, and maybe the world's.
vendredi 9 mars 2007
Director: Global Warming is a Big 'Scam'
A controversial documentary that questions global warming aired on British television last night.
The film, "The Great Global Warming Scandal," dismisses the notion that climate change is being caused by human activity.
Film director Michael Durkin says that global warming is "the biggest scam of modern times," and he backs this up by featuring scientists from places such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and NASA.
"…global warming.we're just being told lies," said Durkin.
One major piece of evidence that is used to prove that CO2 causes global warming are the ice core samples from Antarctica.
They show that, for hundreds of years, global warming has been accompanied by higher levels of CO2 in the atmosphere.
In 'The Great Global Warming Swindle,' Al Gore claims that this evidence proves the global warming theory -- but paleoclimatologist Professor Ian Clark explains in the British documentary that it actually shows the opposite.
Professor Clark fully acknowledges that recent increases in atmospheric CO2 are caused by humans, but he says he just doesn't see any evidence that the man-made C02 increases are driving the warming trend.
Scientists in the program also raise another discrepancy with the official theory, showing that most recent global warming occurred before 1940, when global temperatures then fell for four decades. It was only in the late 1970s that rising temperatures became more the norm.
Those who created the documentary claim that this is a flaw in the CO2 theory because the post-war economic boom produced more CO2 -- so if human C02 causes global warming, it should have caused a rise in global temperatures.
Professor Paul Reiter of the Pasteur Institute in Paris adds that the influential United Nations report on Climate Change, that claimed humans were responsible, was a sham.
The report claimed to be the opinion of 2,500 leading scientists, but Prof. Reiter said it included names of scientists who disagreed with the findings and resigned from the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Prof. Reiter said that his name was removed form an assessment only when he threatened legal action against the panel.
"That is how they make it seem that all the top scientists are agreed," he said. "It's not true."
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He said that the report was finalized by government appointees.
The CO2 theory is further undermined by claims that billions of pounds is being provided by governments to fund greenhouse-effect research, so thousands of scientists know that their job depends on the theory continuing to be seen as fact.
Sources: Associated Press, Daily Mail
The film, "The Great Global Warming Scandal," dismisses the notion that climate change is being caused by human activity.
Film director Michael Durkin says that global warming is "the biggest scam of modern times," and he backs this up by featuring scientists from places such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and NASA.
"…global warming.we're just being told lies," said Durkin.
One major piece of evidence that is used to prove that CO2 causes global warming are the ice core samples from Antarctica.
They show that, for hundreds of years, global warming has been accompanied by higher levels of CO2 in the atmosphere.
In 'The Great Global Warming Swindle,' Al Gore claims that this evidence proves the global warming theory -- but paleoclimatologist Professor Ian Clark explains in the British documentary that it actually shows the opposite.
Professor Clark fully acknowledges that recent increases in atmospheric CO2 are caused by humans, but he says he just doesn't see any evidence that the man-made C02 increases are driving the warming trend.
Scientists in the program also raise another discrepancy with the official theory, showing that most recent global warming occurred before 1940, when global temperatures then fell for four decades. It was only in the late 1970s that rising temperatures became more the norm.
Those who created the documentary claim that this is a flaw in the CO2 theory because the post-war economic boom produced more CO2 -- so if human C02 causes global warming, it should have caused a rise in global temperatures.
Professor Paul Reiter of the Pasteur Institute in Paris adds that the influential United Nations report on Climate Change, that claimed humans were responsible, was a sham.
The report claimed to be the opinion of 2,500 leading scientists, but Prof. Reiter said it included names of scientists who disagreed with the findings and resigned from the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Prof. Reiter said that his name was removed form an assessment only when he threatened legal action against the panel.
"That is how they make it seem that all the top scientists are agreed," he said. "It's not true."
javascript:void(0)
Publier
He said that the report was finalized by government appointees.
The CO2 theory is further undermined by claims that billions of pounds is being provided by governments to fund greenhouse-effect research, so thousands of scientists know that their job depends on the theory continuing to be seen as fact.
Sources: Associated Press, Daily Mail
Inslee named to global warming panel
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., who has lobbied for a federal response to climate change equivalent to the Apollo space program, was named Friday to a special House panel charged with offering solutions to global warming.
"I look forward to being a voice from Washington state as the policy framework for this revolution is crafted,'' Inslee said in a statement after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed him.
Inslee will be one of 15 members of the new committee, which under House rules will only serve an advisory capacity. Other committees will be responsible for writing legislation.
Even with its limited reach, the new committee marks a major milestone in attacking a problem that is a major worry for Americans, according to polls.
"I have great faith in their ability to lead our efforts to confront these serious challenges,'' Pelosi said.
"Global warming and energy independence are urgent issues that have profound implications for our nation's economic competitiveness, national security, environmental quality and public health. The wide-ranging expertise of these members will be critical in finding viable solutions that stimulate our economy, promote jobs, and protect our environment.''
Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey will chair the committee. "We are facing an issue that will test the capacity of democracy to respond in time to affect the fate of the planet,'' Markey said.
"We have the technology, the ingenuity, and the experience to reverse the inexorable buildup of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. I look forward to working with my colleagues to find the consensus needed to move boldly and quickly.''
How much the committee -- and Congress -- will achieve on global warming is an open question.
The Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming will have two years and $3.7 million to attack the issue.
Rep. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin will be the committee's ranking Republican.
"I look forward to being a voice from Washington state as the policy framework for this revolution is crafted,'' Inslee said in a statement after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed him.
Inslee will be one of 15 members of the new committee, which under House rules will only serve an advisory capacity. Other committees will be responsible for writing legislation.
Even with its limited reach, the new committee marks a major milestone in attacking a problem that is a major worry for Americans, according to polls.
"I have great faith in their ability to lead our efforts to confront these serious challenges,'' Pelosi said.
"Global warming and energy independence are urgent issues that have profound implications for our nation's economic competitiveness, national security, environmental quality and public health. The wide-ranging expertise of these members will be critical in finding viable solutions that stimulate our economy, promote jobs, and protect our environment.''
Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey will chair the committee. "We are facing an issue that will test the capacity of democracy to respond in time to affect the fate of the planet,'' Markey said.
"We have the technology, the ingenuity, and the experience to reverse the inexorable buildup of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. I look forward to working with my colleagues to find the consensus needed to move boldly and quickly.''
How much the committee -- and Congress -- will achieve on global warming is an open question.
The Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming will have two years and $3.7 million to attack the issue.
Rep. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin will be the committee's ranking Republican.
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