The inconvenience of the truth

OneWorld UK

By Daniel Nelson

Weve had Mark Lynas book, High Tide: News from a Warming World, David Attenboroughs TV programme on Are We Changing Planet Earth?, and as OneWorld UKs London listing page shows, a rising tide of talks and discussions on climate change. Now here comes the Al Gore global warming roadshow on film.

The defeated US presidential contender has delivered his climate change lecture more than 1,000 times in the US, and has polished every dramatic pause, every humorous aside, every gently ironic anecdote.

But even with big auditoriums, 1,000 lectures dont reach enough people, given the need to change minds and lives quickly.

The film, An Inconvenient Truth, will help speed up the proselytising.

"Gore understood that while he had been getting his message out to thousands of people with his show, a movie could potentially get the message out to millions", said producer Lawrence Bender recalling his first meeting with Gore.

"He would have to be on the road 365 days a year to reach even a fraction of the people who need to be reached, and there just isnt time", he added.

Its essentially a film of the lecture, with additional footage and interviews not just disappearing glaciers and intensifying hurricanes, but personal episodes from Gores life, such as the car accident that almost killed his son and the contrast between idyllic days on his fathers tobacco farm and the lung cancer death of one of his sisters.

Despite the apparent dullness of a film of a lecture, its compelling viewing. Gores lecture itself uses cartoons, graphics and film clips hes a politician, after all, schooled in managing the media. In addition, the facts of climate change are themselves dramatic, especially when so clearly and vividly presented.

The aim of the film, which opens in UK later this year, is to change minds. It will, though the main effect may well be to strengthen minds that are already made up or at least sympathetic to the cause.

Gore, who comes over a sincere, likeable man, has said he is also keen to ensure that "we dont go from denial to despairOur civilisation is still in a state of category five denial over this issue. But the denial is beginning to give way. As it yields to widespread recognition that we face an imminent planetary emergency, we must guard against the illusion that the crisis is too big to solve."

His commitment is so great (and not recent: it began in his college days) that it is a pity he didnt do more in office: unkind critics have noted that US emissions rose faster during his vice-presidential term than at any other four-year period in US history. He is like many other leaders who seem interested in changing the world only after their official time is up.

And the title? "Some truths are hard to bear, because if you really hear them and understand that they are in fact true then you have to change. And change can be quite inconvenient."

* Official website

* Setting the Record Straight on Global Warming