Zoha Rizwan

07210
International Relations
23rd March, 2016

THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH (2006)

As contrary to general perception of audience, The Inconvenient Truth is not a
documentary reflecting only Al Gores personal and political achievements and
setbacks, but is an eloquent attempt to explain one of the most pressing issues of
all times, in a simple and effective manner- one that is easy to comprehend even for
people with minimum geological knowledge. Another misconception that Al Gore
corrects about himself is that he is not a speaker, passionate enough to engage his
audience. But, throughout the documentary, with the meaningful coherence drawn
between the issue and how Al Gore attempted to solve them through a political
framework, the slide show puts forwards not only myths about global warming, but
also ways to handle the calamity. The documentary was released in 2006 and
received raving reviews about its no political stance on an issue that has roots in
politics.
The documentary starts with Al Gore working on his slide shows and then
addressing a group of listeners, beginning his slide show with the different pictures
of Earth taken from different satellites and space missions: Apollo 8 (1968), Apollo
17 (1972) and Galileo. He then jokes on about how one of his classmates in junior
school once commented about all continents being one big mass of land, and how
the geology teacher shunned the student for making such a ridiculous remark. Al
Gore, then continues with Carl Sagans comment on atmosphere as the most
vulnerable part of the system, thin enough to be changed in terms of composition.
The traditional scientific theory of global warming, in very theoretical terms,
revolves around this atmospheric layer. With the increasing levels of air pollution,
the ozone layer is becoming thicker and now traps more infrared rays than it should.
This thus raises the temperature around Earth, and as well as leads to global
warming. However there is more to this than just the trapping of infrared rays: how
is this caused, what are the consequences and how can these be resolved?
When one of Al Gores professors started measuring CO 2 levels in 1958, he noticed a
trend that could have detrimental effects for the entire human race. By 1968, it was
clear that the carbon emissions were on an exponential rising trend. With this
knowledge, he started pursuing the political struggle for establishing laws to control
carbon emissions per person, and eventually as a nation. In 1984, he took his
finding to Senate where he thought Congressmen would be supportive of his
theories but his efforts were futile, in 1992 he was successful in convincing them for
a Carbon Tax, and in 1997 he was involved in the establishment of the controversial
Kyoto conference, which was later ratified by many nations, except US and
Australia. There are most horrific images shown in the slide show of famous natural
spots and how they have been affected with global climate changes such as
Kilimanjaro, Glacier National Park, and Columbia Glacier- where the ice has melted
so much that there are pools of freshly melted water. This ice melting could lead to
water shortage for the people living in Central and East Asia, with 40 percent of
them using melted glacier water from the Himalayas. The message is worldwide,

the ice has stories to tell. The carbon and oxygen isotopes can be broken down and
measured for carbon concentration. The skeptics say it is a cyclical phenomenon
occurring from medieval times but in recent years it has hiked. As scientific research
shows, there is a strong correlation between temperature and CO 2 concentration
leading to global warming. The levels for the first time ever in hundreds of years
have crossed 300 particles per million, leaving the cycle unnatural. This has thus
become a moral issue rather than a political one- an ethical dilemma.
Al Gore also reflects on his faith on the democratic system and how the reaction of
the Congress was not so democratic when Al Gore brought up these concerns. The
life changing moment was always Al Gores sons accident in 1989, bringing him to
a realization of how he can make his years at Earth useful- by trying to learn about
Earth and by visiting Antarctica, South Pole, and Amazon and collaborating with
scientists to understand the real issue. He emphasized on the possibility and ability
of human nature to lose something they take for granted, which might not be there
for our children.
As the documentary was released in 2006, Al Gore mentioned that 2005 was had
the highest temperatures in 5 consecutive years and this trend is expected to
continue. In 2003, there was a heat wave in Europe and India, with worldwide
temperatures rising, even in the oceans. The higher the temperature in the oceans,
the stronger the storms and hence it is no surprise that Hurricane Jeanne, Hurricane
Frances, Hurricane Ivan all occurred in 2004. US tornadoes and Japan typhoons
touched new records. The first ever hurricane in South Atlantic touched the coasts
of Brazil in 2004. And then there was Katrina on August 26, 2005, which got
stronger as it swept through the warmer waters, causing more damage than
expected. This is because as water temperatures rise, wind velocity and moisture
content also rise. This brings up an important consideration: how do we react to the
warnings of leading scientists? This calls for urgency as we no longer have the
luxury to make up for out past mistakes. Al Gore after losing to Bush in 2006, went
ahead with his real mission in life, finding ways to tackle global warming.
The flipside of the picture is that more global warming leads to more precipitation
and more storms and not only US and Europe but also Asia has been subject to this
phenomenon in the form of high levels of rains and floods. On the other hand,
global warming causes more droughts due to soil erosion and Dar-e-Fur and Niger
are the worst instances of this. Global warming not only increases precipitation but
also relocates it.
Al Gore moves forward to talk about the two canaries in coal mine. The first one is
the Arctic icecap. The permafrost in near the Arctic regions has started melting and
has been causing destruction. In Alaska, spring now comes earlier and falls arrives
later, impacting the thickness of snow/tundra there. In the North Pole, the ice cap
has diminished 40% in 40 years and if it continues at the same rate, in 50-60 years
this will be completely gone. This melting is caused by sunrays that hit the ocean
which absorbs more than 90% of it unlike ice which bounces 90%. The surrounding
water gets warmers and speeds up the entire process. The Arctic icecap helps Earth
keep lower temperatures but as it melts there is faster build-up of heat in that very
region, leading to habitat destruction of polar bears too.

Earth climate is like an engine redistributing heat working in a nonlinear system.

Thus changes, can be gradual, but at times they might come suddenly. So an
average increase of 5F could lead to 1 increase in the equator region but 12 at
the poles. In the past when this happened, the glaciers in North America melted and
thus began the Ice Age, in no less than 10 years. However, glaciers of North
America are not there anymore. This also effects the cyclical seasons and impacts
bird hatching. As a result, the entire ecological system has been disturbed. The
number of frost days has increased, newer type of insects and pests are sprouting
damaging entire vegetation- such as the pine beetle damaging trees-, mosquitos
thriving better due to higher temperatures even in cities like Nairobi, thirty new
diseases have become common including SARS and Ebola virus, coral reefs are
bleaching and many fish species are in jeopardy. Thus the species extinction rate
today is 1000 times of faster than the natural background.
Al Gore also mentions the role of US in contributing to the problem, and the
governments attitude of procrastination as well as Bushs ways of defaming Al Gore
because of his stance on environmental protection.
The second canary in the coal mine is Antarctica which in the last 15-20 years has
been losing ice shelfs at an exponential rate. This as an alarm bell for global
warming as scientists who expected this to stay stable for another hundred years,
the Larsen ice shelf took only 35 days to melt. This simultaneous melting of sea
based and land based ice has led to floods in the nearby areas, leading to massive
evacuations to countries such as New Zealand. In West Antarctica, which was again
deemed to be stable, as well as in Greenland, sea levels has risen by almost 20 feet.
The water that seeps through crevasses and moulins actually lubricates the ice from
the bedrock causing movement. This leads to a general decrease in land area with
millions of people being relocated. With the increasing population growth rate, this
could cause serious problems in the near future. Consider 1.3 billion people, surging
economies, all coming down to tatters and rags because of global warming. China
like the US faces the same dilemma.
Al Gore outlines three major factors that lead to the collision between our
civilization and the Earth.
1. Population
The world population has already crossed the 2billion mark and by 2050 is
expected to cross 9.1billion, with the highest contribution coming from
developing countries. There is more pressure on earth for sustenance of
these people in terms of food, water, vegetation etcetera, which is also a
cause of deforestation and forest burning.
2. Scientific and Technological Revolutions
Old habit combined with new technologies have dramatically altered
consequences as these technologies are bigger than human scale. For
instance, the advent if nuclear warfare methods, powerful tools for
agriculture, irrigation methods- all have their benefits but come with their
own share of problems. Thus the risk with these technologies is higher and
sometimes beyond human control. 30.3% of the contribution to global

warming is by the US with the highest levels of carbon emission per person at
5.60 tons of carbon.
3. Way of Thinking
Al Gore comments on the human capability to ignore the worse
consequences once again. He comments on the ability of our collective
nervous systems to give no response and reaction even after realizing how
grave the situation until and unless we face a personal loss. Human nature
takes time to connect dots and that time is sometimes too late to take any
action.
Al Gore also mentions 3 major misconceptions about this entire issue of global
warming.
1. A Real Problem or Not?
According to Al Gore, this misconception is created deliberately by a group of
people who want to relocate global warming as a theory than a fact in order
to create doubts, what would thus create controversy. With evidence of
scientific articles, Al Gore proves that the say of scientists matters much
more than the articles published by popular press. They present two opposing
views to a real problem. He also mentions the science fraud when NASA tried
to silence a climate expert. The facts they covered led them to what is the
inconvenient truth. There is also the mention of Philip Cooney who worked in
the White House, and was blamed for editing a memo by the EPA about
global warming, without any scientific training whatsoever.
2. Choice between Economy and Earth?
The question is not what to choose, but is there really a choice? Will there be
any economies if the Earth itself is not there. If we do the right, morally
correct thing, we will have lots of jobs and opportunities to move forward.
3. The problem is too big to do anything.
The reason for this misconception is the human tendency to jump from denial
to despair without actually doing anything substantial. Al Gore in his slide
show thus shows the impact of using efficient resources and how it will help
to reach levels of emission lower than those in the 1970s. For this, he
believes, there is a need for political will which in America is a renewable
resource. We, according to him are the cause and we have a choice- what we
need is the determination.
In the end, Al Gore concludes by listing milestones regarding women rights,
individual liberty, revolution, polio, landing on moon, end of communism to set high
hopes for solving this issue. Because this time, our home is at stake. It is a moral
issue to rise again, to save our future for our children, or else they will blame us for
the repercussions.
All in all, separating truth from fiction and making accurate connections from
misunderstanding is the key- but when they are accurate and based on science,
then we as human beings are responsible for react to these problems. The same
applies for the case of Global Warming.