An Inconvenient Truth is a provocative documentary on global warming by director

Davis Guggenheim. The film, based on the multi-media presentation given by

former Vice President Al Gore in over 1,000 cities around the world in recent years,
presents a disturbing picture of the destruction that global warming is doing to the
earth and the horrific future that we are facing if global warming is not addressed.
Despite some serious weaknesses, anyone who is concerned about the future must
see this film and join in discussion, debate, and action over what is needed to save
the planet.
At a time when believing in scientific truth is under attack, and when the Bush
administration is gagging government scientists from telling the truth, censoring
official reports, and sabotaging international treaties, An Inconvenient
Truth defends, popularizes and makes accessible to millions the basic science of
global warming. Because of this, the film has come under attack. Right-wing talk
show host Glenn Beck compared An Inconvenient Truth, to Nazi propaganda.
Holman Jenkins wrote in the Wall Street Journal: Mr. Gores narrative isnt science,
but science fiction.
The movie presents scientific concepts and evidence about global warming in a
clear, concise and often entertaining way. It features great nature photography,
graphs, and animation to visually express complex evidence. It even has a clip
from Futurama.
Effects of Global Warming
I cant think of another movie in which the display of a graph elicited gasps of
horror, but when the red lines showing the increasing rates of carbon-dioxide
emissions and the corresponding rise in temperatures come on screen, the effect is
jolting and chilling, A. O. Scott writes in the New York Times review of the movie. In
the movie Gore shows a graph that demonstrates a link between CO 2 levels and
temperature over the last 600,000 years as revealed by samples from polar ice
cores.1 During this entire period CO2 levels have varied between 180 and 280 parts
per million (ppm). The level today is nearly 400 ppm, well above anything that has
been seen in over a half million years. And Gore points out that the CO 2 levels will
rise to 600 ppm if something isnt done quickly.
Gore describes the dramatic changes taking place in the world as a result of global
warming. He shows pictures taken 15 to 30 years ago of glaciers that have existed
for the last 10,000 years or more and compares them to pictures taken in the last
year or two. It is shocking to see the rate at which the glaciers are disappearing!
The film shows the famous snows of Kilimanjaro in 1970. A picture from 2005
shows only a tiny sliver of ice remaining.
The movie describes how many new scientific studies are confirming that warmer
water in the top layer of the ocean caused by global warming is producing more

powerful hurricanes. While it is not possible to attribute any specific storm, like
Katrina, to the effects of global warming, an MIT study indicated that as a whole
major storms spinning in both the Atlantic and the Pacific since the 1970s have
increased in duration and intensity about 50%.2 And all of this means hardship and
suffering for the people.
While in the world as a whole it appears that global warming has contributed to a 20
percent increase in rain over the last 100 years. However this increase in
precipitation is not uniform, and some areas of the world have suffered from
drought.
It was striking to see the role this drought plays in the horrors now going on in
Africa, which are generally written off in the imperialist press as the inevitable
nightmares of uncivilized people that the West has no responsibility for. Famine is
killing many children and putting millions of lives at risk in the Niger area. In Darfur,
a horrific genocide is being carried out. While the causes leading to the genocide
and famine are complex, a contributing factor to these nightmare situations is
changes brought on by global warming. Lake Chad, once the sixth largest lake in the
world, which has shrunk to one-twentieth of its former size, with sand dunes
covering its bed. The disappearance of the lake has led to collapsed fisheries, lack
of irrigation and crop failures, and millions displaced by hunger.
While the climate changes produced by global warming are beginning to show
themselves today in shocking ways, these are just a glimmer of the changes that
scientists predict may come about due to global warming: mass extinction of
species, flooding in coastal areas due to melting polar ice, spread of infectious
diseases, and the destruction of coral reefs caused by rising CO 2 in the oceans
water.
The destruction of glaciers due to global warming does not mean only that our
children may never be able to see a glacier. The Himalayan glaciers, which provide
more than half of the drinking water for over 40% of the worlds population, are
among the most affected by global warming. Within the next 50 years these people
may face a massive drinking water shortage as well as food shortages due to lack of
irrigation.
This is a one scary movie, made all the more so because the threats it depicts are
real. And, unlike so many summer blockbusters, no superhero is going to come to
save the day.
A Profound Disconnect
There is a profound disconnect between the analysis Al Gore has of the problem of
global warming and the political program that he advocates for dealing with it. One
minute Gore is talking about the magnitude of the crisisof the possibility of large
coastal sections of countries being floodedand the next he is saying that the

problem of global warming can be solved fairly easily by producing more energyefficient cars and by individuals conserving energy by turning down their
thermostats and turning off the lights.
While an analysis of Gores motives in making this film and how it may fit into the
strategy of the Democratic Party in 2006 or 2008 are beyond the scope of this
review, we do need to be clear that Al Gore himself is a representative of the
capitalist/imperialist class in the United States and approaches the issue of global
warming from that perspective. It is not fundamentally a question of whether Gore
really cares about global warming or is using the issue for political purposes. The
central point is that Gores class position and perspective blind him from being able
to really get to the truth of the causes and solutions to the global warming crisis.
In his analysis of the root causes behind the climate crisis, Gore cites three issues:
rapid population growth, increased technology, and peoples thinking about the
environment. While these factors are part of the picture, what Gore leaves out is
actually the central point: that global warming and the destruction of the
environment is rooted in a global system of capitalism and imperialism, where
production is determined not by social needs or environmental sustainability but by
profitability and where a few countries dominate the world economy.
For example, Gore talks about how almost 30% of the CO 2 released into the
atmosphere each year is the result of burning brushland for subsistence agriculture
and wood fires for cooking. But the burning of forests is not being done by peasants
in the third world for no reason. It is happening because imperialist globalization is
forcing people off of lands where their families have farmed for centuries and, in
order to survive, people are driven by necessity to burn down forests for farmland.
While Gore cites statistics that show that the U.S. is responsible for over 30 percent
of global warming, he does not question the division of the world where the United
States, with four and a half percent of the worlds population, account for such a
huge percentage of the worlds energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
Besides the morality of such a small percentage of the worlds population
consuming such a large amount of the worlds resources, it is doubtful that such a
lopsidedness in the world is sustainable from an ecological standpoint.
Gore does not situate the problem within the current necessity facing U.S.
imperialism. These are not times where imperialism is likely to pump large amounts
of resources into retooling industry with a green orientation! The strategic goals of
the U.S. today are centered around restructuring the world, with U.S. control of the
Middle East and, in particular, the large oil reserves there, central to their plans. And
the Bush regime is willing to wage unbounded war in the pursuit of this goal.
Urgently Needed: Real Resistance to Stop Global Warming

Gore begins the movie by saying that dealing with global warming is a moral
imperative. He asks us to think about what we will tell our children who have
inherited an earth that has been ravaged and destroyed. While An Inconvenient
Truth is valuable in sounding the alarm about global warming, the solutions that it
poses do not meet the moral imperative of what is really necessary to deal with the
problem. If things are left on the level of the political program put forward by Gore
in the movie, it will be very bad for the environment and for the people.
Much more is demanded of us than conserving energy or voting for Democratic
Party politicians. It is necessary to break out of the stifling confines of voting and
protest-as-usual and to go up against and reverse the current trajectory of U.S.
society. To do this will require millions of people in the streets saying that we will not
accept a government that is destroying the future of the planet in pursuit of profit
and global domination and that is suppressing scientific evidence when it conflicts
with their political agenda.
As the call from The World Cant Wait Drive Out the Bush Regime says, The point
is this: history is full of examples where people who had right on their side fought
against tremendous odds and were victorious. And it is also full of examples of
people passively hoping to wait it out, only to get swallowed up by a horror beyond
what they ever imagined. The future is unwritten. WHICH ONE WE GET IS UP TO
US.
Only Revolution Can Save the Planet
From the standpoint of higher economic forms of society [socialism and
communism], private ownership of the globe by single individuals will appear quite
as absurd as private ownership of one man by another. Even a whole society, a
nation, or even all simultaneously existing societies taken together, are not owners
of the globe. They are only its possessorsthey must hand it down to succeeding
generations in an improved condition.
Karl Marx, Capital
About the time when capitalism was first putting humanity on the road to the risk of
global warming we face today, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels wrote in
the Communist Manifesto, Modern bourgeois society with its relations of
production, of exchange and of property, a society that has conjured up such
gigantic means of production and of exchange, is like a sorcerer who is no longer
able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells.
Over 150 years later the truth of this statement still stands out sharply when
confronting the issue of global warming.
While we need to fight every possible battle to force companies and especially
governments to implement measures that can make a big difference, nothing short

of making revolution in every country when the opportunity arises and overthrowing
the global imperialist system can fully unleash the powers of humanity to face this
problem. The magnitude of global warming crosses all geographic, national, cultural
and social boundaries, and the solution lies in a radical political and social rupture
with the world as it is now organized.
1. CO2 or carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas that traps heat from the sun in
the atmosphere contributing to global warming. Levels of CO 2 in the atmosphere are
increased when fossil fuels, oil and natural gas are burned, when forests are burned
or cut down and when cement is produced.
2. This is similar to the relationship between lung cancer and smoking. Someone
may have lung cancer and may have smoked for 20 years but you cannot say with
certainty that the smoking caused the cancer, because some people who never
smoked and get lung cancer, while others may smoke for many years and never get
cancer. But you can say that overall the more someone smokes the more likely they
are to get cancer and that the smoking rate in the population as a whole directly
effects the rate of lung cancer. For more on the relation between global warming
and hurricanes see the series of articles, Hurricanes, Climate Change, and Global
Warming, by AWTW News Service reprinted in Revolution.
*****
From the Bush Crimes Commission:
Suppressing the Evidence for Global Warming is a Crime Against Humanity
The Bush Crimes Commission, which heard testimony in 2005 and 2006, found the
Bush Administration guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity for its actions
on global warming, as well as in other areas. In its preliminary findings the
Commission wrote: The testimony of scientists and the scientific reports and other
documents submitted during the inquiry support a conclusion that the Bush
Administration has committed crimes against humanity by its environmental
policies and practices. These policies and practices appear to support corporate
interests while denying the overwhelming evidence that greenhouse gas emissions
are irreversibly damaging the world environment and causing present day injury to
people throughout the world.
Daphne Wysham, director of the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network, a
project of the Institute for Policy Studies, testified before the Commission saying,
Secrecy enforced by repression has been the foundation of public deception on
climate change. Illegal gags have sprung so routinely throughout the government
bureaucracy that weather experts are gagged from talking to the media because
they might talk about global warming. She also documented efforts to dismantle
the decades-long multi-lateral U.N. framework convention on climate change.

She went on to describe the effect of these actions: according to the United Nations,
160,000 people are dying every year as a result of climate change related to floods,
hurricanes, droughts, disease, and food shortages.
Ted Glick of the Climate Crisis Coalition concluded his testimony to the Commission
saying: For the last five years Bush has engaged in a deliberate, willful and
reckless course of action, which is causing great damage to the ecosystem upon
which all forms of life on this planet depend. The extensive disruption of the basis
for all life, the destruction of our natural environment done willfully and with full
understanding of the consequences is I believe the greatest crime that could ever
be committed.

A Thematic Synopsis of An Inconvenient Truth

An Inconvenient Truth is not divided into chapters or sections. Its biographical

pieces are
meant to augment or illustrate Al Gores presentation on global warming by
connecting
global issues to personal stories, and do not separate the presentation into discrete
sections. Thus the divisions (as well as many titles) included below are my own, and
are
intended to help you figure out which parts of the book pertain to your line of
inquiry.

Page numbers are indicated in parentheses.

Introduction (8-11)
An overview of Al Gores personal stake in the environment, the situations that led
him
to put together An Inconvenient Truth, and his vision of the planetary crisis as a
generational challenge that will allow humans to rise above their differences.

Our Planet in Crisis: Greenhouse Gases and Global Warming (12-37)

A review of how greenhouse emissions contribute to global warming.

A Scientific Hero: Roger Revelle (38-41)

A brief review of the work of Professor Roger Revelle, one of Gores teachers at
Harvard
and a pioneer scientist who connected human expansion to the increased levels of
CO2 in
the Earths atmosphere.

Melting Glaciers (42-67)

An overview of receding glaciers from around the world, from Mount Kilimanjaro in
Tanzania to Glacier National Park in Montana to Upsala Glacier in Patagonia.

A Turning Point (68-71)

The story of Gores sons accident and how it led Gore to reevaluate his public
service
and to focus on the global environment.

Heatwaves, Hurricanes, Flooding, and Drought (72-121)

An examination of the consequences of rising temperatures, starting with an

overview of
recent heatwaves in the United States, and continuing with the connection between
increased ocean temperatures and the frequency and intensity of hurricanes, which
may
bring enormous human and economic loss, as in the case of Hurricane Katrina. The
section then explains the connection between warmer temperatures and increased
precipitation, which causes floods, and the connection between warmer
temperatures and
relocated precipitation, which causes droughts.

Concrete and Countryside (122-125)

A description of Gores life as a child, divided between life in the city and life in a
farm
in Tennessee, where he learned about caring for the land from his father.

Melting Ice Caps I: The Arctic (126-137)

A description of the accelerated melting of the Arctic ice shelves followed by an
examination of how permafrost thaw endangers the infrastructure of the land and
threatens to release even more carbon into the atmosphere.

From Pole to Shining Pole (138-141)

An overview of the places Gore has visited in his attempts to actually witness the
effects
of global warming. The effects are most dramatic at the North and South poles.

Global Climate Change (142-157)

The segment opens with an example of how the increase in temperature has
possibly
affected life in the Arctic: the melting of the ice shelves may be causing the rise in
the
deaths of polar bears by drowning. Also, the melting of the Arctic ice could cause
changes in current ocean patters, resulting in drastic climate change in the North
Atlantic.
In addition, changing the climate of specific areas could mean changing their
ecology, as
invasive alien species begin to populate the new environments.

Across the Wilderness (158-161)

Extrapolating from his numerous camping trips to national parks and forests, Gore
speculates that humanity treats nature as trivial because it has lost its contact with
it.

Species Loss and Disease Vectors (162-175)

A review of species endangered due to global warming followed by a description of
the
threat to marine life due to changes in the oceans chemistry followed by an
overview of
the increased risk that new types of disease will emerge.

Melting Ice Caps II: Antarctica, Greenland, and Rising Sea Levels (176-209)
The segment opens with an example of how the increase in temperature has
possibly
affected life in Antarctica: the melting of the ice shelves may be causing the decline
of

the Emperor penguin population, as the sea ice on which they nest becomes thinner
and
drifts out to sea. Also, since melting ice is one of the main reasons for rising sea
levels
worldwide, the drastic melting of Antarctica and/or Greenland could cause sea
levels to
rise between 18 and 20 feet.

Serving for the Public Good (210-213)

Drawing from his fathers public service in Congress as well as his own, Gore
explains
how public service imbues the individual with the spirit of freedom that defines
American democracy.

Human Civilization and Ecology I (214-255)

An overview of the three main factors that have radically changed humanitys
relationship to the environment: the population explosion, the scientific and
technological
revolution, and humans inability to comprehend the severity of the current climate
crisis.
One reason for this lack of understanding is that climate change happens gradually
over
time, so it is hard for humans to notice that it is happening.
My Sister (256-259)
The story of Gores sister, who fought and died from lung cancer, as an example of
how
difficult it is for individuals to understand how accepted behaviors such as smoking
may
be harmful and even deadly in the long run.

Human Civilization and Ecology II (260-283)

Disinformation is a second reason why humans are often unable to comprehend the
severity of the current climate crisis. In fact, there is a gulf between what the
scientific
community knows about global warming and what certain governments, such as the
Bush-Cheney administration, and certain corporations, such as Exxon Mobil,
disseminate
about global warming. Moreover, we are slow in changing policies because we
believe
that environment-friendly products would be a strain on the economy, or because
we
believe the crisis to be so big, that nothing can be really done about it.

The Politicization of Global Warming (283-286)

An explanation of how global warming is an inconvenient and expensive truth for
certain
powerful people and companies that profit from not changing their current
environmental
practices.

Solving the Planetary Crisis (288-321)

The book ends with a call to Americans to continue the countrys tradition of doing
great
deeds, even when they are difficult. Gores call is followed by a review of what
individuals can do to solve the climate crisis, from switching to green power to
consuming less and conserving more to taking political action.