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An Inconvenient Truth



 
 
An Inconvenient Truth is a 2006
2006 in film

The year '2006 in film' involved some significant events. Releases of sequels took place with Saw III, Superman Returns, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Ice Age: The Meltdown, Casino Royale , Clerks II, X-Men: The Last Stand, Mission: Impossible III, Final Destination 3 and Scary Movie 4....
 documentary film
Documentary film

Documentary film is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to "document" reality. Although "documentary film" originally referred to movies shot on film stock, it has subsequently expanded to include video and new media productions that can be either direct-to-video or made for a televis...
 about global warming
Global warming

Global warming is the increase in the Instrumental temperature record of the Earth's near-surface air and the oceans since the mid-twentieth century and its projected continuation....
 directed by Davis Guggenheim
Davis Guggenheim

Philip Davis Guggenheim is an United States film director and Film producer.Guggenheim is the son of Charles Guggenheim and Marion Guggenheim....
, presented by former United States Vice President
Vice President of the United States

The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office in the United States of America created by the Constitution of the United States....
 Al Gore
Al Gore

Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. is an United States environmentalism activist who served as the List of Vice Presidents of the United States Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President of the United States Bill Clinton....
. The film premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival
2006 Sundance Film Festival

The 2006 Sundance Film Festival was held from 19 January to 29 January, 2006. It was held in Park City, Utah, Utah with screenings in Salt Lake City, Utah; Ogden, Utah; and the Sundance Ski Resort....
 and opened in New York
New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
 and Los Angeles
Los Ángeles

Los ?ngeles is the Capital of the Biob?o Province, in the municipality of the same name, in Regions of Chile VIII , in the center-south of Chile....
 on May 24, 2006. The film was released on DVD
DVD

DVD, also known as "Digital Versatile Disc" or "Digital Video Disc,"is a popular optical disc data storage device media format. Its main uses are video and data storage....
 by Paramount Home Entertainment
Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture production company and distribution company, located on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, California....
 on November 21, 2006. A companion book by Gore, An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It
An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It

An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It is a 2006 text by Al Gore released in conjunction with the film An Inconvenient Truth....
, reached #1 on the paperback nonfiction New York Times bestseller list on July 2, 2006. The documentary won Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature and for Best Original Song.

Earning $49 million at the box office
Box office

A box office is a place where Ticket s are sold to the public for admission to a venue. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall, or at a wicket ....
 worldwide, An Inconvenient Truth is the fourth-highest-grossing documentary film to date in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 (in nominal dollars
Real versus nominal value

In economics, nominal value refers to any price or value expressed in money of the day, as opposed to real value, which adjusts for the effect of inflation....
, from 1982 to the present), after Fahrenheit 9/11
Fahrenheit 9/11

Fahrenheit 9/11 is an award-winning 2004 in film documentary film by United States filmmaker Michael Moore. The film takes a critical look at the presidency of George W....
, March of the Penguins, and Sicko
Sicko

Sicko is a 2007 in film documentary film by American filmmaker Michael Moore. The film investigates the American health care system, focusing on its health insurance and pharmaceutical industry....
.

Synopsis
An Inconvenient Truth focuses on Al Gore and his travels in support of his efforts to educate the public about the severity of the climate crisis.






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An Inconvenient Truth is a 2006
2006 in film

The year '2006 in film' involved some significant events. Releases of sequels took place with Saw III, Superman Returns, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Ice Age: The Meltdown, Casino Royale , Clerks II, X-Men: The Last Stand, Mission: Impossible III, Final Destination 3 and Scary Movie 4....
 documentary film
Documentary film

Documentary film is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to "document" reality. Although "documentary film" originally referred to movies shot on film stock, it has subsequently expanded to include video and new media productions that can be either direct-to-video or made for a televis...
 about global warming
Global warming

Global warming is the increase in the Instrumental temperature record of the Earth's near-surface air and the oceans since the mid-twentieth century and its projected continuation....
 directed by Davis Guggenheim
Davis Guggenheim

Philip Davis Guggenheim is an United States film director and Film producer.Guggenheim is the son of Charles Guggenheim and Marion Guggenheim....
, presented by former United States Vice President
Vice President of the United States

The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office in the United States of America created by the Constitution of the United States....
 Al Gore
Al Gore

Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. is an United States environmentalism activist who served as the List of Vice Presidents of the United States Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President of the United States Bill Clinton....
. The film premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival
2006 Sundance Film Festival

The 2006 Sundance Film Festival was held from 19 January to 29 January, 2006. It was held in Park City, Utah, Utah with screenings in Salt Lake City, Utah; Ogden, Utah; and the Sundance Ski Resort....
 and opened in New York
New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
 and Los Angeles
Los Ángeles

Los ?ngeles is the Capital of the Biob?o Province, in the municipality of the same name, in Regions of Chile VIII , in the center-south of Chile....
 on May 24, 2006. The film was released on DVD
DVD

DVD, also known as "Digital Versatile Disc" or "Digital Video Disc,"is a popular optical disc data storage device media format. Its main uses are video and data storage....
 by Paramount Home Entertainment
Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture production company and distribution company, located on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, California....
 on November 21, 2006. A companion book by Gore, An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It
An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It

An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It is a 2006 text by Al Gore released in conjunction with the film An Inconvenient Truth....
, reached #1 on the paperback nonfiction New York Times bestseller list on July 2, 2006. The documentary won Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature and for Best Original Song.

Earning $49 million at the box office
Box office

A box office is a place where Ticket s are sold to the public for admission to a venue. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall, or at a wicket ....
 worldwide, An Inconvenient Truth is the fourth-highest-grossing documentary film to date in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 (in nominal dollars
Real versus nominal value

In economics, nominal value refers to any price or value expressed in money of the day, as opposed to real value, which adjusts for the effect of inflation....
, from 1982 to the present), after Fahrenheit 9/11
Fahrenheit 9/11

Fahrenheit 9/11 is an award-winning 2004 in film documentary film by United States filmmaker Michael Moore. The film takes a critical look at the presidency of George W....
, March of the Penguins, and Sicko
Sicko

Sicko is a 2007 in film documentary film by American filmmaker Michael Moore. The film investigates the American health care system, focusing on its health insurance and pharmaceutical industry....
.

Synopsis


An Inconvenient Truth focuses on Al Gore and his travels in support of his efforts to educate the public about the severity of the climate crisis. Gore says, "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." The film closely follows a Keynote
Keynote (software)

Keynote is a presentation program application developed as a part of the iWork productivity suite by Apple Inc. Keynote 5 was announced on January 6, 2009 and is the most recent version....
 presentation (dubbed "the slide show") that Gore presented throughout the world. It intersperses Gore's exploration of data and predictions regarding climate change
Climate change

Climate change is any long-term significant change in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region over an appropriately significant period of time....
 and its potential for disaster with Gore's life story.

It weaves in events that changed his world view, including his college education with early climate expert Roger Revelle
Roger Revelle

Roger Randall Dougan Revelle was a scientist and scholar who was instrumental in the formative years of the University of California, San Diego and was one of the first scientists to study global warming and the movement of Earth's tectonic plates....
 at Harvard University
Harvard University

Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the Colonial Colleges institution of higher learning in the United States....
, his sister's death from lung cancer
Lung cancer

Lung cancer is a disease of uncontrolled cell growth in tissue of the lung. This growth may lead to metastasis, which is the invasion of adjacent tissue and infiltration beyond the lungs....
 and his young son's near-fatal car accident. For comic effect, Gore also uses a clip from the Futurama
Futurama

Futurama is an Animated cartoon United States Situation comedy created by Matt Groening, and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company....
 episode "Crimes of the Hot
Crimes of the Hot

?Crimes of the Hot? is the eighth episode of the fourth production season of the television show Futurama. It originally aired in North America on November 10, 2002 as the season premiere of Futuramas fifth broadcast season....
" to explain global warming. Gore refers to his loss to George W. Bush
George W. Bush

George Walker Bush served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He was the 46th List of Governors of Texas from 1995 to 2000 before being United States presidential inauguration as President on January 20, 2001....
 in the 2000 United States presidential election
United States presidential election, 2000

The United States presidential election of 2000 was a contest between United States Democratic Party candidate Al Gore, then-Vice President of the United States, and United States Republican Party candidate George W....
 as a "hard blow" yet subsequently "brought into clear focus, the mission [he] had been pursuing for all these years."
Palebluedot
In the slide show, Gore reviews the scientific opinion on climate change
Scientific opinion on climate change

National and international Academy of Sciences and professional body have assessed the current scientific opinion on climate change, in particular recent global warming....
, discusses the politics
Politics of global warming

The politics of global warming have involved policy decisions, legislation, and political debate over the science of and response to global warming....
 and economics of global warming
Economics of global warming

The economics of global warming refers to the projected size and distribution of the economics Cost-benefit analysis of global warming, and to the economic impacts of actions aimed at the mitigation of global warming....
, and describes the consequences he believes global climate change will produce if the amount of human-generated greenhouse gases is not significantly reduced in the very near future. A centerpoint of the film is his examination of the annual temperature and CO2 levels for the past 650,000 years in Antarctic
Antarctica

Antarctica is Earth's southernmost continent, overlying the South Pole. It is situated in the Antarctica of the southern hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean....
 ice core samples
Ice core

An ice core is a core sample from the accumulation of snow and ice over many years that have re-crystallized and have trapped air bubbles from previous time periods....
.

The film includes segments intended to refute critics who say that global warming is unproven or that warming will be insignificant. For example, Gore discusses the possibility of the collapse of a major ice sheet
Ice sheet

An ice sheet is a mass of glacier ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than 50,000 square kilometer . The only current ice sheets are in Antarctica and Greenland; during the last glacial period at Last Glacial Maximum the Laurentide ice sheet covered much of Canada and North America, the Wisconsin glaciation ice sheet covered n...
 in Greenland
Greenland

Greenland is a member country of the Kingdom of Denmark located between the Arctic Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago....
 or in West Antarctica
West Antarctica

West Antarctica, or Lesser Antarctica is one of the two major regions of Antarctica, lying on the Pacific Ocean side of the Transantarctic Mountains and comprising Marie Byrd Land, Ellsworth Land, and the Antarctic Peninsula....
, either of which could raise global sea levels by approximately 20 feet (6 m), flooding coastal areas and producing 100 million refugees. Melt water from Greenland, because of its lower salinity
Salinity

Salinity is the saltiness or dissolved salt content of a body of water. Salinity in Australian English and North American English may also refer to the salt in soil ....
, could then halt the currents that keep northern Europe warm and quickly trigger dramatic local cooling there. It also contains various short animated projections of what could happen to different animals more vulnerable to climate change, like polar bears, who are drowning at a vastly faster rate because they are finding less and less substantial ice to rest on. The documentary ends with Gore arguing that if appropriate actions are taken soon, the effects of global warming can be successfully reversed by releasing less CO2
Carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalent bond to a single carbon atom. It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure and exists in Earth's atmosphere in this state....
 and planting more vegetation to consume existing CO2. Gore calls upon his viewers to learn how they can help him in these efforts.

Gore's book of the same title was published concurrently with the theatrical release of the documentary. The book contains additional information, scientific analysis, and Gore's commentary on the issues presented in the documentary. A 2007 documentary entitled An Update with Former Vice President Al Gore features Gore discussing additional information that came to light after the film was completed, such as Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the costliest Atlantic hurricane, as well as one of the five deadliest, in the history of the United States....
, coral reef
Coral reef

Coral reefs are aragonite structures produced by living organisms. In most reefs the predominant organisms are colonial cnidarian that secrete an exoskeleton of calcium carbonate....
 depletion, glacial earthquake activity on the Greenland ice sheet
Greenland ice sheet

The Greenland ice sheet is a vast body of ice covering 1.71 million km?, roughly 80% of the surface of Greenland. It is the second largest ice body in the World, after the Antarctic Ice Sheet....
, wildfires, and trapped methane gas release associated with permafrost
Permafrost

In geology, permafrost or permafrost soil is soil at or below the freezing point of water for two or more years. Ice is not always present, as may be in the case of nonporous bedrock, but it frequently occurs and it may be in amounts exceeding the potential hydraulic saturation of the ground material....
 melting.

Scientific basis

The film's thesis is that global warming is real, potentially catastrophic, and human-caused
Attribution of recent climate change

Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientific method mechanisms responsible for relatively recent changes observed in the Earth's climate....
. Gore presents specific data that supports the thesis, including:

  • The Keeling curve
    Keeling curve

    The Keeling Curve is a chart showing the variation in concentration of Earth's atmosphere carbon dioxide since 1958. It is based on continuous measurements taken at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii under the supervision of Charles David Keeling....
    , measuring CO2 from the Mauna Loa Observatory
    Mauna Loa Observatory

    The Mauna Loa Observatory is an Earth's atmosphere baseline station on Mauna Loa, on the Hawaii . Since 1957 MLO has been continuously monitoring and collecting data relating to atmospheric change, and is known especially for their continuous emissions monitoring system of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, which is sometimes referred to...
    .
  • The retreat of numerous glaciers is shown in before-and-after photographs (see Retreat of glaciers since 1850
    Retreat of glaciers since 1850

    The retreat of glaciers since 1850, worldwide and rapid, affects the availability of fresh water for irrigation and domestic use, mountain recreation, animals and plants that depend on glacier-melt, and in the longer term, the level of the oceans....
    ).
  • A study by researchers at the Physics
    Physics

    Physics is the natural science which examines basic concepts such as energy, force, and spacetime and all that derives from these, such as mass, charge, matter and its Motion ....
     Institute at the University of Bern and the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica presenting data from Antarctic ice cores showing carbon dioxide concentrations higher than at any time during the past 650,000 years.
  • Temperature record since 1880 showing that the ten hottest years ever measured in this atmospheric record have all occurred in the last fourteen years.
  • A 2004 survey by Naomi Oreskes
    Naomi Oreskes

    Naomi Oreskes is a Professor of History and Science Studies at the University of California San Diego....
     of 928 peer-reviewed scientific articles on global climate change published between 1993 and 2003. The survey, published as an editorial in the journal Science
    Science (journal)

    Science is the academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is considered one of the world's most prestigious scientific journals....
    , found that every article either supported the human-caused global warming consensus or did not comment on it.


The Associated Press
Associated Press

The Associated Press is an Media of the United States news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, Radio station and Television station stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staffers....
 contacted more than 100 climate researchers and questioned them about the film's veracity. All 19 climate scientists who had seen the movie said that Gore conveyed the science correctly. Professor Brian Soden, however, expressed concern about the coverage of topics for which there was not a scientific consensus, indicating "I thought the use of imagery from Hurricane Katrina was inappropriate and unnecessary in this regard, as there are plenty of disturbing impacts associated with global warming for which there is much greater scientific consensus." Gore cited Kerry Emanuel
Kerry Emanuel

Kerry Emanuel is an United States professor of meteorology currently working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. His work in atmospheric dynamics is well regarded among the meteorological community....
's 2005 report in Nature
Nature (journal)

Nature is a prominent scientific journal, first published on 4 November 1869. Although most scientific journals are now highly specialized, Nature is one of the few journals, along with other weekly journals such as Science and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that still publishes original research articles ac...
 on hurricane intensity increasing with the increase of global mean temperatures.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, at the time chaired by Senator
United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism United States Congress, the lower house being the United States House of Representatives....
 Jim Inhofe
Jim Inhofe

James Mountain "Jim" Inhofe is an United States politician from Oklahoma. A member of the Republican Party , he currently serves as the Senior Senator United States Senate from Oklahoma....
 (R-OK
Oklahoma

Oklahoma is a U.S. state and a sovereignty located in the South Central United States and Southern United States of the United States of America ....
) issued a press release criticizing the Associated Press's findings. Inhofe's statement that "global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people" appears in the film. The majority of climate researchers have rejected Inhofe's views. Eric Steig, a climate scientist writing on RealClimate
RealClimate

RealClimate is a commentary site on climatology by a group of climate scientists for the interested public and journalists. It aims to provide a quick response to developing stories and provide the context sometimes missing in mainstream commentary....
, lauded the film's science as "remarkably up to date, with reference to some of the very latest research." Michael Shermer
Michael Shermer

Michael Brant Shermer is an American science writer, historian of science, founder of The Skeptics Society, and Editor in Chief of its magazine Skeptic , which is largely devoted to investigating and debunking pseudoscience and supernatural claims....
, scientific author and founder of The Skeptics Society
The Skeptics Society

The Skeptics Society is a nonprofit, member-supported organization devoted to promoting scientific skepticism and resisting the spread of pseudoscience, superstition, and irrationality beliefs....
, wrote in Scientific American
Scientific American

Scientific American is a popular science science magazine, published since August 28, 1845, making it one of the oldest continuously published magazines in the United States....
 that a lecture that Gore gave "shocked me out of my doubting stance".

Origins/Production

According to Gore, he became interested in global warming when he took a course at Harvard University
Harvard University

Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the Colonial Colleges institution of higher learning in the United States....
 with Professor Roger Revelle
Roger Revelle

Roger Randall Dougan Revelle was a scientist and scholar who was instrumental in the formative years of the University of California, San Diego and was one of the first scientists to study global warming and the movement of Earth's tectonic plates....
, one of the first scientists to measure carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalent bond to a single carbon atom. It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure and exists in Earth's atmosphere in this state....
 in the atmosphere. Later, when Gore was in Congress, he initiated the first congressional hearing on the subject. Gore's 1992 book, Earth in the Balance
Earth in the Balance

Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit is a 1992 in literature written by Al Gore, published in June 1992, shortly before he was elected Vice President of the United States in the U.S....
, dealing with a number of environmental topics, reached the New York Times bestseller list.

As Vice President during the Clinton Administration, Gore pushed for the implementation of a carbon tax
Carbon tax

A carbon tax is an environmental tax on emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. It is an example of a ecotax.Carbon atoms are present in every fossil fuel and are released as CO2 when they are burnt....
 to modify incentives to reduce fossil fuel consumption causing fossil fuel to last longer and thereby decrease emission of greenhouse gases in the short term but not long term; it was partially implemented in 1993. He helped broker the 1997 Kyoto Protocol
Kyoto Protocol

The Kyoto Protocol is a Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , an international environmental treaty produced at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development , informally known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 3–14 June 1992....
, an international treaty designed to curb greenhouse gas
Greenhouse gas

Greenhouse gases are gases in an atmosphere that Absorption and Emission radiation within the Infrared#Different regions in the infrared range....
 emissions. However, it was not ratified in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 after a 95 to 0 vote in the Senate
United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism United States Congress, the lower house being the United States House of Representatives....
. The primary objections stemmed from the exemptions the treaty gives to China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
 and India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
, whose industrial base and carbon footprint are growing rapidly, and fears that the exemptions would lead to further trade imbalances and offshoring arrangement with those countries.

Gore also supported the funding of a satellite called Triana
Triana (satellite)

Deep Space Climate Observatory is a NASA satellite proposed in 1998 by then-Vice President of the United States Al Gore for the purpose of earth observation....
, which would have provided an image of the Earth 24 hours a day, over the internet. The concept reportedly came to Gore in a dream. During his 2000 Presidential Campaign
Al Gore presidential campaign, 2000

Al Gore, the List of Vice Presidents of the United States Vice President of the United States under Bill Clinton, announced his candidacy for President of the United States in Carthage, Tennessee, Tennessee on June 16, 1999....
, Gore ran, in part, on a pledge to ratify the Kyoto Protocol
Kyoto Protocol

The Kyoto Protocol is a Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , an international environmental treaty produced at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development , informally known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 3–14 June 1992....
.

After his defeat in the 2000 presidential election
Al Gore presidential campaign, 2000

Al Gore, the List of Vice Presidents of the United States Vice President of the United States under Bill Clinton, announced his candidacy for President of the United States in Carthage, Tennessee, Tennessee on June 16, 1999....
 by George W. Bush
George W. Bush

George Walker Bush served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He was the 46th List of Governors of Texas from 1995 to 2000 before being United States presidential inauguration as President on January 20, 2001....
, Gore returned his focus to the topic. He edited and adapted a slide show presentation he had compiled years earlier, and began featuring the slide show in presentations on global warming across the U.S. and around the world. At the time of the film, Gore estimated he had shown the presentation more than one thousand times.

Producers Laurie David
Laurie David

Laurie David is an United States environmentalism. She serves as a trustee on the Natural Resources Defense Council and a member of the Advisory Board of the Children's Nature Institute and is a contributing blogger to the The Huffington Post....
 and Lawrence Bender
Lawrence Bender

Lawrence Bender is an American film producer. He rose to fame by producing Reservoir Dogs in and has produced all of Quentin Tarantino's films since with the exception of Death Proof....
 saw Gore's slide show in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
 after the 2004 premiere of The Day After Tomorrow
The Day After Tomorrow

The Day After Tomorrow is a 2004 Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction film that depicts the catastrophic effects of both global warming and global cooling....
. Inspired, they met with director Davis Guggenheim
Davis Guggenheim

Philip Davis Guggenheim is an United States film director and Film producer.Guggenheim is the son of Charles Guggenheim and Marion Guggenheim....
 about the possibility of making the slide show into a movie. Guggenheim, who was skeptical at first, later saw the presentation for himself, stating that he was "blown away," and "left after an hour and a half thinking that global warming [was] the most important issue. . . . I had no idea how you’d make a film out of it, but I wanted to try," he said.

In 2004, Gore contacted Duarte Design to visually enhance his presentation. The design firm "condensed his material, incorporated new data and stories and employed new media, such as video and animation."

Duarte designer, Ted Boda detailed the extensive work that went into the creation of Gore's slides: "As a designer for the presentation, Keynote
Keynote (software)

Keynote is a presentation program application developed as a part of the iWork productivity suite by Apple Inc. Keynote 5 was announced on January 6, 2009 and is the most recent version....
 was the first choice to help create such an engaging presentation. Apple's Keynote anti-aliases its fonts and graphics, scales vector
Vector

Vector may refer to:...
 objects and supports QuickTime
QuickTime

QuickTime is a multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, media clips, sound, text, animation, music, and QuickTime VRs....
 videos easily and without any plug-ins. Duarte used a combination of Keynote's graphics and graph tools, Illustrator
Illustrator

An illustrator is a graphic artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text....
, Photoshop, AfterEffects (for more complex animations) and dropped in numerous videos from different sources to complete his presentation. Some of the videos dropped were up to 1920x1080 (HD), they played and scaled extremely well and was something our team could not even begin to think about doing in PowerPoint."

The majority of the film was shot on 4:4:4 HDCAM
HDCAM

HDCAM, introduced in 1997, is an High-definition video version of Betacam, using an 8-bit Discrete cosine transform compressed 3:1:1 recording, in 1080i-compatible downsampled resolution of 1440×1080, and adding 24p and 23.976 Progressive segmented Frame modes to later models....
. According to director Guggenheim, a vast array of different film formats were used: "There’s 35mm and 16mm. A lot of the stuff on the farm I just shot myself on 8mm film. We used four Sony F950 HDCAM
HDCAM

HDCAM, introduced in 1997, is an High-definition video version of Betacam, using an 8-bit Discrete cosine transform compressed 3:1:1 recording, in 1080i-compatible downsampled resolution of 1440×1080, and adding 24p and 23.976 Progressive segmented Frame modes to later models....
s for the presentation. We shot three different kinds of prosumer
Prosumer

Prosumer is a portmanteau formed by contracting either the word professional or producer with the word consumer. The term has taken on multiple conflicting meanings: the business sector sees the prosumer as a market segment, whereas economists see the prosumer as having greater independence from the mainstream economy....
 HD, both 30 and 24. There’s MiniDV, there’s 3200 black-and-white stills, there’s digital stills, some of them emailed on the day they were taken from as far off as Greenland. There was three or four different types of animation. One of the animators is from New Zealand and emailed me his work. There’s JPEG stuff."

Reception


Box office

The film opened in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
 and Los Angeles
Los Ángeles

Los ?ngeles is the Capital of the Biob?o Province, in the municipality of the same name, in Regions of Chile VIII , in the center-south of Chile....
 on May 24, 2006. On Memorial Day
Memorial Day

Memorial Day is a United States Federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May . Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S....
 weekend, it grossed an average of $91,447 per theater, the highest of any movie that weekend and a record for a documentary, though it was only playing on four screens at the time.

At the 2006 Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival

The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in the state of Utah, in the United States. It is the largest Independent film cinema festival in the U.S....
, the movie received three standing ovation
Standing ovation

A standing ovation is a form of applause where members of a seated audience stand up while applauding. This is done on special occasions by an audience to show their approval and is done after extraordinary performances of particularly high acclaim....
s. It was also screened at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival

The Cannes Film Festival , founded in 1946, is one of the world's oldest, most influential and prestigious film festivals alongside Venice Film Festival and Berlin Film Festival....
 and was the opening night film at the 27th Durban International Film Festival
Durban International Film Festival

The Durban International Film Festival is an annual film festival that takes place in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. It presents over 300 screenings celebrating the best in South African, African and international cinema....
 on June 14, 2006. An Inconvenient Truth was the most popular documentary at the 2006 Brisbane International Film Festival
Brisbane International Film Festival

St.George Bank Brisbane International Film Festival held in Brisbane provides a focus for film culture in Queensland, Australia. The festival has taken place since 1992 and focuses on films from the Asia-Pacific region....
.

The film has grossed over $24 million in the U.S. and over $49 million worldwide as of June 3, 2007, making it the fourth-highest-grossing documentary in the U.S. to date (after Fahrenheit 9/11
Fahrenheit 9/11

Fahrenheit 9/11 is an award-winning 2004 in film documentary film by United States filmmaker Michael Moore. The film takes a critical look at the presidency of George W....
, March of the Penguins and Sicko
Sicko

Sicko is a 2007 in film documentary film by American filmmaker Michael Moore. The film investigates the American health care system, focusing on its health insurance and pharmaceutical industry....
).

Al Gore has stated, "Tipper
Tipper Gore

Mary Elizabeth Aitcheson Gore is an author, photographer, former Second Lady of the United States, and the wife of Al Gore. She is referred to as "Tipper." She is also well known for her active role in the Parents Music Resource Center and voiced a strong opinion against records with profane language, especially in the heavy metal genre....
 and I are devoting 100 percent of the profits from the book and the movie to a new bipartisan educational campaign to further spread the message about global warming." Paramount Classics committed 5% of their domestic theatrical gross from the film to form a new bipartisan climate action group, Alliance for Climate Protection
Alliance for Climate Protection

The Alliance for Climate Protection is an organization founded in the United States in 2006 aiming to "persuade people of the importance, urgency and feasibility of adopting and implementing effective and comprehensive solutions for the global warming"....
, dedicated to awareness and grassroots organizing.

Reviews

The film received a generally positive reaction from film critics. It garnered a "certified fresh" 93% rating at Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films. The name derives from the historical clich? of throwing tomatoes and other produce at stage performers if a performance was particularly bad....
 (as of May 21, 2007), with a 94% rating from the "Cream of the Crop" reviewers. At Metacritic
Metacritic

Metacritic is a website that collates reviews of music albums, console game, film, television program, DVDs, and books. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged....
, which assigns a normalized
Normalization

Broadly, normalization is any process that makes something more normal, which typically means conforming to some regularity or rule, or returning from some state of abnormality....
 rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average
Weighted mean

The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others....
 score of 75, based on 32 reviews. Film critics Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert

Roger Joseph Ebert born June 18, 1942) is an United States film criticism and screenwriter.He is known for his film review column and for two television programs Sneak Previews and At the Movies , which he co-hosted for a combined 23 years with Gene Siskel....
 and Richard Roeper
Richard Roeper

Richard Roeper is an United States journalist and film critic for The Chicago Sun Times. He also co-hosted the television series At the Movies with Roger Ebert from 2000?2008....
 gave the film "two thumbs up". Ebert wrote: "In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to."

Film critic David Edelstein
David Edelstein

David Edelstein is the chief film critic for New York Magazine, as well as the film critic for NPR's Fresh Air and CBS Sunday Morning....
 called the film, "One of the most realistic documentaries I've ever seen--and, dry as it is, one of the most devastating in its implications." David Remnick
David Remnick

David Remnick is an United States journalist, writer, and magazine editing. As a reporter for the The Washington Post, he also served as the paper's Moscow correspondent....
 added that while it was "not the most entertaining film of the year...it might be the most important" and a "brilliantly lucid, often riveting attempt to warn Americans off our hellbent path to global suicide." New York Times reviewer A.O. Scott thought the film was "edited crisply enough to keep it from feeling like 90 minutes of C-Span
C-SPAN

C-SPAN is an United States cable television Television network dedicated to airing non-stop coverage of government proceedings and public affairs programming....
 and shaped to give Mr. Gore's argument a real sense of drama," and "as unsettling as it can be," Scott continued, "it is also intellectually exhilarating, and, like any good piece of pedagogy, whets the appetite for further study."

On the other hand, journalist Ronald Bailey
Ronald Bailey

Ronald Bailey is the science editor for Reason . He was born in San Antonio, Texas and raised in Washington County, Virginia, and attended the University of Virginia, where he earned a B.A....
 argued in the libertarian magazine Reason
Reason (magazine)

Reason is a libertarianism monthly magazine from the Reason Foundation.Reason was founded in 1968 by Lanny Friedlander as a more-or-less monthly Mimeograph machine publication....
 that although "Gore gets [the science] more right than wrong," he exaggerates the risks. Some reviewers were also skeptical of Gore's intent, wondering whether he was setting himself for another Presidential run. Boston Globe writer Peter Canello criticized the "gauzy biographical material that seems to have been culled from old Gore campaign commercials." Phil Hall
Phil Hall (US writer)

Phil Hall is an American writer, publicist and actor. He is best known for his work as a contributing editor for the online magazine Film Threat, where he has championed independent and underground cinema....
 of Film Threat
Film Threat

Film Threat is a magazine and a webzine about independent film, published and edited by Chris Gore. However, the webzine also reviews DVDs of mainstream films such as Man of La Mancha , to which Phil Hall gave a favorable review contrary to those of most critics....
 gave the film a negitive review, saying "An Inconvenient Truth is something you rarely see in movies today: a blatant intellectual fraud."

In "extensive exit polling" of "Inconvenient Truth" audiences in conservative suburban markets like Plano, Irvine, Dallas and Long Island, 92 percent rated "Truth" highly and 87 percent of the respondents said they'd recommend the film to a friend.

Awards

The film has received a number of awards worldwide.
  • The film won the 2007 Academy Award for Documentary Feature
    Academy Award for Documentary Feature

    The Academy Awards for Documentary Feature is among the most prestigious awards for documentary films....
     and Best Original Song for Melissa Etheridge
    Melissa Etheridge

    Melissa Lou Etheridge is an Academy Award-winning and two-time Grammy Award-winning United States rock music singer-songwriter and musician....
    's "I Need to Wake Up
    I Need to Wake Up

    "I Need to Wake Up" is an Academy Award-winning song by Melissa Etheridge, written for the 2006 in film documentary film An Inconvenient Truth....
    ". It is the first documentary to win a best original song Oscar.
  • It has often been erroneously reported by many members within the various news and entertainment media outlets that Al Gore himself had won the Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth but it was actually Davis Guggenheim
    Davis Guggenheim

    Philip Davis Guggenheim is an United States film director and Film producer.Guggenheim is the son of Charles Guggenheim and Marion Guggenheim....
     who was the Nominee and Recipient of the Academy Award.


  • The film received special recognition from the Humanitas Prize
    Humanitas Prize

    The Humanitas Prize is an award for film and television writing intended to promote human dignity, meaning, and freedom. It began in 1974 with Father Ellwood "Bud" Kieser — also the founder of Paulist Productions — but is generally not seen as specifically directed toward religious cinema or TV....
    , the first time the organization had handed out a Special Award in over 10 years.


  • 2007 Stanley Kramer Award - The Producers Guild of America; recognizes "work that dramatically illustrates provocative social issues".


  • The President’s Award 2007 - The Society for Technical Communication
    Society for Technical Communication

    The Society for Technical Communication or STC is a professional society for the advancement of the theory and practice of technical communication....
     "for demonstrating that effective and understandable technical communication, when coupled with passion and vision, has the power to educate—and change—the world."


  • For his wide-reaching efforts to draw the world’s attention to the dangers of global warming including An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore, along with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
    Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

    The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a scientific intergovernmental body tasked to risk management of climate change caused by human activity....
     (IPCC), has won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize
    Nobel Peace Prize

    The Nobel Peace Prize is one of five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel. According to Nobel's will , the Peace Prize should be awarded "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for :wikt:fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the h...
    .


The film won many awards for Best Documentary:

  • Academy Awards (The Oscars) 2007 February 25, 2007
  • Chicago Film Critics Association - 2006-12-28
  • Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association - 2006-12-18
  • Florida Film Critics 2006 - 2006-12-22
  • Kansas City Film Critics Awards 2006 January 2, 2006
  • Las Vegas Film Critics Society 2006 - 2006-12-18
  • National Board of Review - 2006-12-06
  • New York Film Critics Online - 2006-12-10
  • New York Film Critics Society - 2006-12-12
  • Ohio Film Critics Awards 2006 - 2007-01-11
  • Oklahoma Film Critics Circle Awards 2006
  • Online Film Critics Society 2006
  • Phoenix Film Critics Circle 2006
  • Satellite Awards 2006 (Nominated) December 18, 2006
  • St. Louis Film Critics Awards 2006 January 07, 2007
  • Toronto Film Critics Association Awards 2006 (Nominated) December 19, 2006
  • Utah Film Critics Awards 2006 December 28, 2006
  • Washington D.C. Film Critics Association 2006 December 10, 2007


Best Non-Fiction:
  • National Society of Film Critics - 2007-01-06


The related album also won Best Spoken Word Album at the 51st Grammy Awards
51st Grammy Awards

The 51st Annual Grammy Awards took place on February 8, 2009, and was broadcast in HD on CBS in the United States at 8 pm EST/PST. The nominations were announced on a special concert airing on CBS on December 3, 2008, and were then posted on the official website....
.

Political response

The documentary has been generally well-received politically in many parts of the world and is credited for raising further awareness of global warming internationally, prompting calls for more government action in regard to the climate. Several colleges and high schools have begun to use the film in science curricula, though at least one US school district put temporary restrictions on its use in the classroom.

Government

  • Then-president George W. Bush
    George W. Bush

    George Walker Bush served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He was the 46th List of Governors of Texas from 1995 to 2000 before being United States presidential inauguration as President on January 20, 2001....
    , when asked whether he would watch the film, responded: "Doubt it." He later stated that "And in my judgment we need to set aside whether or not greenhouse gases have been caused by mankind or because of natural effects, and focus on the technologies
    Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate

    The Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, also known as APP, is an international non-treaty agreement among Australia, Canada, India, Japan, the People's Republic of China, South Korea, and the United States announced July 28 2005 at an Association of South East Asian Nations Regional Forum meeting and launched o...
     that will enable us to live better lives and at the same time protect the environment." Gore responded that "The entire global scientific community has a consensus on the question that human beings are responsible for global warming and he [Bush] has today again expressed personal doubt that that is true." White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino stated that “The president noted in 2001 the increase in temperatures over the past 100 years and that the increase in greenhouse gases was due to certain extent to human activity”.
  • In September 2006, Gore traveled to Sydney, Australia to promote the film. Then-Australian Prime Minister, John Howard
    John Howard

    John Winston Howard, Order of Australia was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He is the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Robert Menzies....
     said he would not meet with Gore or agree to Kyoto
    Kyoto Protocol

    The Kyoto Protocol is a Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , an international environmental treaty produced at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development , informally known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 3–14 June 1992....
     because of the movie: "I don't take policy advice from films." Former Opposition Leader Kim Beazley
    Kim Beazley

    Kim Christian Beazley, Order of Australia , son of Kim Edward Beazley, is an Australian politician and academic, who was Leader of the Australian Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1996 to 2001 and from 2005 to 2006....
     joined Gore for a viewing and other MP
    Member of Parliament

    A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative of the voters to a parliament. In many countries the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a unique title, such as senate, and thus also have unique titles for its members, such as senators....
    s attended a special screening at Parliament House
    Parliament House, Canberra

    File:Parliament House, Canberra.jpgParliament House is the meeting place of the Parliament of Australia. It is located in Canberra, the capital of Australia....
     earlier in the week. After winning the general election a year later, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
    Kevin Rudd

    Kevin Michael Rudd is the 26th and current Prime Minister of Australia of Australia and federal leader of the centre-left Australian Labor Party ....
     ratified Kyoto in his first week of office, leaving the United States the only industrialized nation in the world not to have signed the treaty.


  • In the United Kingdom
    United Kingdom

    The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
    , Conservative
    Conservative Party (UK)

    The Conservative and Unionist Party, more commonly known as the Conservative Party, is a conservative political party in the United Kingdom....
     Leader of the Opposition
    Leader of the Opposition (UK)

    The Leader of the Opposition in the United Kingdom is the politician who leads Official Opposition . There is also a Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords....
     David Cameron
    David Cameron

    David William Donald Cameron is the current leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition in the United Kingdom. He has occupied both positions since December of 2005....
     urged people to see the film in order to understand climate change.


  • In Belgium
    Belgium

    * A small German-speaking Community of Belgium exists in eastern Wallonia. Belgium's linguistic diversity and related political and cultural conflicts are reflected in the history of Belgium and a complex Communities and regions of Belgium....
    , Margaretha Guidone
    Margaretha Guidone

    Margaretha 'Maggie' Guidone is a housewife from Helmond living in Kapellen, Belgium who recently became famous in Flanders because of her campaign for the environment and against global warming....
     persuaded the entire Belgian government to see the film.


  • In Costa Rica
    Costa Rica

    Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the east and south, the Pacific Ocean to the west and south and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
    , Al Gore met with president Oscar Arias
    Óscar Arias

    ?scar Rafael de Jes?s Arias S?nchez is the current List of Presidents of Costa Rica of Costa Rica, and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for his efforts to end civil wars then raging in several Central American countries....
    , and was well received by other politicians and the local media.


  • In Germany
    Germany

    Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
    , German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel bought 6,000 DVDs of An Inconvenient Truth to make it available to German schools.


  • In Spain
    Spain

    Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
    , after a meeting with Gore, prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
    José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero

    Jos? Luis Rodr?guez Zapatero , better known by his Spanish naming customs Zapatero, is the current Prime Minister of Spain . Zapatero has won two consecutive elections, Spanish legislative election, 2004, and Spanish general election, 2008, after his Spanish Socialist Workers' Party won a plurality of seats in the Congress of Deputies...
     said the government will make An Inconvenient Truth available to schools. Gore received the Prince of Asturias Prize in 2007 for international cooperation.


Education

  • In Burlington
    Burlington, Ontario

    Burlington is a city located at the western end of Lake Ontario, lying between the north shore of Lake Ontario and the ridge of the Niagara Escarpment....
    , Ontario
    Ontario

    Ontario is a Provinces and territories of Canada located in the Central Canada part of Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area....
    , Canada
    Canada

    Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
    , the Halton District School Board
    Halton District School Board

    The Halton District School Board serves public school students throughout Halton Region, Ontario, including the municipalities of Burlington, Halton Hills, Milton and Oakville....
     has made An Inconvenient Truth available at schools and as an educational resource.
  • The film has also been made available as an educational resource in Argentina
    Argentina

    Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is a country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city....
     and other Latin American countries.
  • The film will be science curriculum for fourth and sixth-year students in Scotland
    Scotland

    conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
    , as a joint initiative between Learning and Teaching Scotland
    Learning and Teaching Scotland

    Learning and Teaching Scotland is a Scottish public body and is the main organisation for the development and support of the Scottish curriculum and is at the heart of all major developments in Education in Scotland, moving education forward with its partners....
     and ScottishPower.


Other

  • In August 2006, the Wall Street Journal revealed that a YouTube
    YouTube

    YouTube is a Video hosting service website where users can upload, view and share video clips. Three former PayPal employees created YouTube in February 2005....
     video lampooning Gore and the movie, titled Al Gore's Penguin Army, appeared to be astroturfing
    Astroturfing

    Astroturfing is a word in American English describing formal politics, advertising, or public relations campaigns seeking to create the impression of being spontaneous "grassroots" behavior, hence the reference to the Artificial turf, AstroTurf....
     by DCI Group
    DCI Group

    DCI Group is an United States lobbying and public relations firm. Its client list includes some of the largest US corporations, including several Dow Jones Industrial Average companies....
    , a Washington PR firm.


Controversy


The Dimmock case

As part of a nationwide "Sustainable Schools Year of Action" launched in late 2006, the UK Government, Welsh Assembly Government
Welsh Assembly Government

The Welsh Assembly Government was firstly an executive body of the National Assembly for Wales, consisting of the First Minister of Wales and his Cabinet from 1999 to 2007....
 and Scottish Executive
Scottish Executive

The Scottish Government is the Executive arm of the Government of Scotland. It was established in 1999 as the Scottish Executive, from the extant Scottish Office, and Scottish Executive remains its legal name under section 44 of the Scotland Act 1998....
 announced between January-March 2007 that copies of An Inconvenient Truth would be sent to all secondary school
Secondary school

Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of compulsory schooling, known as secondary education, takes place....
s in England
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
, Wales
Wales

native_name = Cymru|conventional_long_name = Wales|common_name = Wales|image_flag = Flag of Wales 2.svg|national_motto = ...
 and Scotland
Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
. The UK Government's distribution of the film was challenged in May 2007 in the High Court of Justice
High Court of Justice

The High Court of Justice is, together with the Crown Court and the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, part of the Courts of England and Wales ....
 by a group of global warming skeptics, notably Viscount Monckton
Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley

Christopher Walter Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley is a United Kingdom politician and business consultant, policy advisor, writer, and inventor....
. The plaintiffs sought an injunction
Injunction

An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order, whereby a party is required to do, or to refrain from doing, certain acts. The party that fails to adhere to the injunction faces civil or criminal penalties and may have to pay damages or accept sanctions for failing to follow the court's order....
 preventing the screening of the film in English schools. They argued that schools are legally forbidden to promote partisan political views in the teaching of any subject in school and, when dealing with political issues, are required to provide a balanced presentation of opposing views.

On 10 October 2007, Mr Justice Burton, after explaining that the requirement for a balanced presentation does not warrant that equal weight be given to alternative views of a mainstream view, ruled that it was clear that the film was substantially founded upon scientific research and fact, albeit that the science is used, in the hands of a talented politician and communicator, to make a political statement and to support a political program. The film could then, on that basis, be shown, provided an accompanying explanation was given of its scientific errors, in order to prevent political indoctrination.

The judge concluded "I have no doubt that Dr Stott, the Defendant's expert, is right when he says that: 'Al Gore's presentation of the causes and likely effects of climate change in the film was broadly accurate.'" On the basis of testimony from Robert M. Carter
Robert M. Carter

Robert M. "Bob" Carter,is an adjunct research professor in the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook University, Queensland and the University of Adelaide South Australia, Australia....
 and the arguments put forth by the claimant's lawyers, the judge also pointed to nine errors, i.e. statements that he found to depart from the mainstream. He also found that some of these errors arose in the context of alarmism and exaggeration in support of Al Gore's political thesis. Since the government had already accepted to amend the guidance notes to address these errors along with other points in a fashion that the judge found satisfactory, no order was made on the application.

The Minister of Children, Young People and Families, Kevin Brennan
Kevin Brennan (politician)

Kevin Denis Brennan is a United Kingdom politician. He is the Labour Party Member of Parliament for Cardiff West and a Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office with responsibilities for the Third Sector....
, declared the outcome a victory for the government, stating: "We have updated the accompanying guidance, as requested by the judge to make it clearer for teachers as to the stated Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change position on a number of scientific points raised in the film. Stewart Dimmock also declared victory but expressed dissatisfaction at the verdict, saying that "no amount of turgid guidance" could change his view that the film was unsuitable for the classroom. A spokesman for Gore said: "Of the thousands of facts in the film, the judge only took issue with just a handful. And of that handful, we have the studies to back those pieces up."

In the United States

In the United States, 50,000 free copies of An Inconvenient Truth were offered to the National Science Teachers Association
National Science Teachers Association

The National Science Teachers Association , founded in 1944 and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, is an association of science teachers in the United States and is the largest organization of science teachers worldwide....
 (NSTA), which declined to take them. Laurie David, one of the film's producers, provided an email correspondence from the NSTA detailing that their reasoning was that the DVDs would place "unnecessary risk upon the [NSTA] capital campaign, especially certain targeted supporters," and that they saw "little, if any, benefit to NSTA or its members" in accepting the free DVDs. In public, the NSTA argued that distributing this film to its members would have been contrary to a long-standing NSTA policy against distributing unsolicited materials to its members. The NSTA also said that they had offered several other options for distributing the film but ultimately "[it] appears that these alternative distribution mechanisms were unsatisfactory." Laurie David has stated that NSTA Executive Director Gerry Wheeler promised in a telephone conversation to explore alternatives with NSTA's board for advertising the film but she had not yet received an alternative offer at the time of NSTA's public claim. She also said that she rejected their subsequent offers because they were nothing more than offers to sell their "commercially available member mailing list" and advertising space in their magazine and newsletter, which are available to anyone. She noted that in the past, NSTA had shipped out 20,000 copies of a 10-part video produced by Wheeler with funding provided by ConocoPhillips in 2003. NSTA indicated that they retained editorial control over the content, which David questioned based on the point of view portrayed in the global warming section of the video.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science
American Association for the Advancement of Science

The American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation between scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting science education and science outreach for the betterment of all humanity....
 publication ScienceNOW published an assessment discussing both sides of the NSTA decision in which it was reported that "David says NSTA's imprimatur [i.e. endorsement or sanction] was essential and that buying a mailing list is a nonstarter. 'You don't want to send out a cold letter, and it costs a lot of money,' she says. 'There are a thousand reasons why that wouldn't work.'."

In January 2007, the Federal Way (Washington State) School Board voted to require an approval by the principal and the superintendent for teachers to show the film to students and that the teachers must include the presentation of an approved "opposing view". The moratorium was repealed, at a meeting on January 23, after a predominantly negative community reaction.

Shortly thereafter, the school board in Yakima, Washington
Yakima, Washington

Yakima is a city in central Washington and the county seat of Yakima County, Washington, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 71,845 and a metropolitan population of 229,094....
, calling the film a "controversial issue", prevented the Environmental Club of Eisenhower High School
Eisenhower High School (Yakima, Washington)

D.D. Eisenhower High School in Yakima, Washington is a school named after U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower. It is one of four high schools in the Yakima School District with the others being Davis High School , Stanton Academy and O.I.C....
 from showing it, pending review by the school board, teachers, principal, and parents. It lifted the stay a month later, upon the approval by a review panel.

Criticism


Global warming skeptics
List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming

This article lists scientists who have stated disagreement with one or more of the principal conclusions of the mainstream scientific opinion on global warming. It should not be interpreted as a list of global warming skeptics....
 were critical of the film. Richard S. Lindzen
Richard Lindzen

Richard Siegmund Lindzen, Ph.D., is a Harvard trained atmospheric physics and the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at the MIT. Lindzen is known for his research in dynamic meteorology, especially Rossby wave....
 wrote in a June 26, 2006 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that Gore was using a biased presentation to exploit the fears of the public for his own political gain. Roy Spencer wrote an open letter to Gore criticizing his presentation of climate science in the film, asserting that the Arctic had a similar temperature in the 1930s before the mass emissions of carbon dioxide began. Timothy F. Ball
Timothy F. Ball

Timothy Francis Ball, Ph.D., is a retired university professor and List of scientists opposing the theory of global warming. He heads the Natural Resources Stewardship Project and is the former head of Friends of Science, a non-profit organization of global warming controversy....
 rejected Gore’s claim that there has been a sharp drop-off in the thickness of the Arctic ice cap since 1970, stating that the data was taken only from an isolated area of the Arctic and during a specific cooling period.

William Gray
William M. Gray

William M. "Bill" Gray is a pioneer in the science of forecasting hurricanes.In 1952 he received a Bachelor of Science degree in geography from George Washington University, and in 1959 a Master's degree in meteorology from the University of Chicago, where he went on to earn a Doctor of Philosophy in geophysical sciences in 1964....
 said of the movie: "We're brainwashing our children. They're going to the Gore movie An Inconvenient Truth and being fed all this. It's ridiculous." While discussing the companion book to the movie Gray said, "This is a slick propaganda book. The pictures are very good. But there are factual errors."

A March 13, 2007 article in The New York Times
The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper published in New York City. The largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States, "The Gray Lady"?named for its staid appearance and style?is regarded as a national newspaper of record....
 reported on concerns among some scientists about the tone and the accuracy of the film, noting that they "argue that some of Mr. Gore’s central points are exaggerated and erroneous." Gore's discussion of a rise in sea level of up to 20 feet, while not stating a timeframe, appears in contrast with a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a scientific intergovernmental body tasked to risk management of climate change caused by human activity....
 (IPCC), which predicts a maximum rise of 23 inches this century, excluding non-linear effects on ice sheets; although that too discusses the possibilities of higher rises if the ice sheets melt. The article also states that "a report last June by the National Academies seemed to contradict Mr. Gore’s portrayal of recent temperatures as the highest in the past millennium." The article quotes both defenders and critics of the film; Gore responds that scientists may disagree with him on some details, "but we do agree on the fundamentals."

The documentary film
Documentary film

Documentary film is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to "document" reality. Although "documentary film" originally referred to movies shot on film stock, it has subsequently expanded to include video and new media productions that can be either direct-to-video or made for a televis...
 The Great Global Warming Swindle
The Great Global Warming Swindle

The Great Global Warming Swindle is a documentary film that argues against the scientific opinion on climate change#Scientific consensus that global warming is "very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations"....
, broadcast on Channel 4
Channel 4

Channel 4 is a UK Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom television broadcaster which began transmissions on 2 November 1982. Although commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the #Channel Four Television...
 in the UK in 2007, brought together sceptical scientists and others who disagree with the IPCC position regarding human-caused global warming. The film claims that Gore misrepresented the data in An Inconvenient Truth, and contends that the actual relationship between carbon dioxide and the temperature
Attribution of recent climate change

Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientific method mechanisms responsible for relatively recent changes observed in the Earth's climate....
 is the other way round (that is, rise in temperature preceded an increase in carbon dioxide in the ice core
Ice core

An ice core is a core sample from the accumulation of snow and ice over many years that have re-crystallized and have trapped air bubbles from previous time periods....
 samples and therefore does so today). The claim that CO2 increases lag temperature increases in the historical ice core record is not disputed. The inference that the same relationship holds today, have been disputed by believer scientists and others such as John T. Houghton
John T. Houghton

Sir John Theodore Houghton Royal Society Order of the British Empire was the co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's scientific assessment working group....
, the British Antarctic Survey
British Antarctic Survey

The British Antarctic Survey is the United Kingdom's national Antarctic operator and has an active role in Antarctic affairs. BAS is part of the Natural Environment Research Council and has over 400 staff....
, Eigil Friis-Christensen
Eigil Friis-Christensen

Eigil Friis-Christensen is an expert in space physics, and Director of the Danish National Space Center.Friis-Christensen received a Cand. Mag....
, and the Royal Society
Royal Society

The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, or even the Royal, is a learned society for science that was founded in 1660 and is considered by most to be the oldest such society still in existence....
. The UK media regulator OfCom
Ofcom

The Office of Communications or, as it is more often known, Ofcom, is the independent regulator and competition authority for the communication industries in the United Kingdom....
 has since upheld some complaints against the programme (while rejecting others and declining to investigate the majority).

Influences on popular culture


  • Prior to An Inconvenient Truth being released, Al Gore was parodied in the South Park
    South Park

    South Park is an United Statesn animation situation comedy, notorious for its toilet humour, surrealism, and often black comedy, which satirizes Subject matter in South Park including religion, politics, violence, abuse, sexuality, and mental disorder....
     episode “ManBearPig
    ManBearPig

    "ManBearPig" is sixth episode of the List of South Park Episodes#Season 10: 2006 of Comedy Central's South Park. It originally aired on April 26, 2006....
    ,” which ends with Al Gore exclaiming his intention to make a film starring himself in which he will try to save the world from the ManBearPig, a "half man, half bear, half pig". Gore laughed off this sensationalized depiction of him, saying "Their comic sensibility is aimed at a different demographic than the one I inhabit, but I still find a lot of what they do hilarious." Gore makes a second appearance on South Park in the episode "Imaginationland Episode III
    Imaginationland Episode III

    "Imaginationland Episode III", or "Moistening of the Scrotum" , is episode 1112 of Comedy Central's animated TV series South Park. It originally aired on October 31, 2007....
    ", where he argues that the American government must nuke Imaginationland (where all the imaginary characters live, including ManBearPig) in order to destroy ManBearPig.
  • During the movie, Al Gore shows a clip from the Futurama
    Futurama

    Futurama is an Animated cartoon United States Situation comedy created by Matt Groening, and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company....
     episode "Crimes of the Hot
    Crimes of the Hot

    ?Crimes of the Hot? is the eighth episode of the fourth production season of the television show Futurama. It originally aired in North America on November 10, 2002 as the season premiere of Futuramas fifth broadcast season....
    " dealing with global warming; Al Gore was a guest star in that episode (though not present in the clip.) While not the credited author of this episode, his daughter, Kristin Gore Cusack
    Kristin Gore

    Kristin Carlson Gore is an United States author and screenwriter. She is the second daughter of Al Gore and Tipper Gore and the sister of Karenna Gore Schiff....
    , was on the Futurama
    Futurama

    Futurama is an Animated cartoon United States Situation comedy created by Matt Groening, and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company....
     writing staff and worked as a story editor. In addition, Gore stars in a faux trailer made by the Futurama cast and crew titled, A Terrifying Message from Al Gore.
  • Stephen Colbert
    Stephen Colbert

    Stephen Tyrone Colbert is an United States comedian, Satire, actor and writer, known for his ironic style , and for his deadpan comedic delivery....
    , on The Colbert Report
    The Colbert Report

    The Colbert Report is a Peabody Award- and Emmy Award-winning American news satire television program that airs from 11:30 p.m. to 12:00 midnight Eastern Time Zone each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central in the United States and on both The Comedy Network and CTV Television Network in Canada....
    , also parodied the critics of An Inconvenient Truth on 19 July 2006. Entitled "The Convenientest Truth", Colbert created his own presentation that argued for the positive effects of global warming, using his signature humor tactics to satirize the conservative response to Gore's presentation.
  • In The Simpsons Movie
    The Simpsons Movie

    The Simpsons Movie is a 2007 in film Cinema of the United States animated cartoon comedy film based on the animated television series The Simpsons....
    , An Inconvenient Truth is parodied when Lisa Simpson
    Lisa Simpson

    Lisa Marie Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She is the middle child, and eldest daughter, of the Simpson family....
    , presenting dangers of the pollution of Lake Springfield to Springfield's residents in a style similar to Gore, fails to properly operate a scissor lift intended to lift her up in order to show a spike of data on a projected graph regarding global warming. The title of her presentation is An Irritating Truth. Mayor Quimby's initial response was to buy a new scissor lift until Lisa revealed that she put the polluted lake water in the audience's drinking glasses, convincing them to immediately fix the pollution problems.
  • Although the phrase “an inconvenient truth,” or variations thereof were in fairly common use before the film, it has become a common descriptive expression in the English
    English language

    English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
     vernacular since the film's title was announced, appearing in journalism, blogs, and elsewhere.
  • In an episode of The Replacements, when an evil villain realizes that his plot to melt Antarctica will eventually backfire, Riley asks him if "the truth is too inconvenient".
  • The episode of the TV shows Scrubs
    Scrubs (TV series)

    Scrubs is an Emmy Award and Peabody Award-winning American comedy-drama that premiered on October 2, 2001, on NBC. It was created by Bill Lawrence and is produced by ABC Studios ....
     My Inconvenient Truth
    My Inconvenient Truth

    "My Inconvenient Truth" is the 142nd episode of the American sitcom Scrubs . It aired as Episode 3 of Season 7 on November 8, 2007, during NBC's Go Green Week....
     parodies the title. Also the character The Janitor
    Janitor (Scrubs)

    Janitor is a fictional character, played by actor Neil Flynn in the United States comedy-drama Scrubs ....
     is inspired, after being shown the movie by lawyer Ted Buckland
    Ted Buckland

    Theodore "Ted" Buckland, Esq., is a fictional character in the NBC/American Broadcasting Company United States comedy-drama Scrubs , played by Sam Lloyd ....
    , to be more environmentally friendly.


See also

  • Global warming
    Global warming

    Global warming is the increase in the Instrumental temperature record of the Earth's near-surface air and the oceans since the mid-twentieth century and its projected continuation....
  • List of documentaries
    List of documentaries

    This is a list of documentary film found here on Wikipedia that is arranged in alphabetical order. The earliest documentary listed is Fred Ott's Sneeze from the year 1894, Which also is the first Film ever copyrighted in North America....
  • Live Earth
    Live Earth

    Live Earth is an annual event developed to combat global warming....
  • Paramount Classics
  • Participant Productions
    Participant Productions

    Participant Media is an United States production company, whose initial movies have gained critical acclaim and major film awards. The movies are typically based on current events and topical subjects, and presented in such a way to inspire and compel social change....
  • The 11th Hour
    The 11th Hour (film)

    The 11th Hour is a 2007 in film feature film documentary film, created, produced and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, on the state of the natural environment....
    , a film regarding the same subject
  • The Great Global Warming Swindle
    The Great Global Warming Swindle

    The Great Global Warming Swindle is a documentary film that argues against the scientific opinion on climate change#Scientific consensus that global warming is "very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations"....
  • Timeline of environmental events
    Timeline of environmental events

    The timeline of environmental events is a historical account of events that have shaped humanity's perspective on the environment. This timeline includes some major natural events, human induced disasters, environmentalists that have had a positive influence, and environmental legislation....
  • United Kingdom Climate Change Bill
    United Kingdom Climate Change Bill

    The Climate Change Act became law in the UK on 26 November 2008. It makes it the duty of the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change to ensure that the net UK carbon account for all six Kyoto greenhouse gases for the year 2050 is at least 80% lower than the 1990 baseline....


External links