An Inconvenient Truth is a 2006
documentary filmDocumentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
directed by
Davis GuggenheimPhilip Davis Guggenheim is an Academy Award-winning American film director and producer. His credits as a producer and director include Training Day, The Shield, Alias, 24, NYPD Blue, ER, Deadwood, and Party of Five and the documentaries An Inconvenient Truth and Waiting for 'Superman...
about former
United States Vice PresidentThe Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
Al GoreAlbert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
's campaign to educate citizens about
global warmingGlobal warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
via a comprehensive slide show that, by his own estimate, he has given more than a thousand times.
Premiering at the
2006 Sundance Film FestivalThe 2006 Sundance Film Festival was held from 19 January to 29 January 2006. It was held in Park City, Utah with screenings in Salt Lake City, Utah; Ogden, Utah; and the Sundance Resort. It was the 22nd iteration of the Sundance Film Festival, and the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the...
and opening in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
on May 24, 2006, the documentary was a critical and box-office success, winning 2 Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature and
Best Original SongThe Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . It is presented to the songwriters who have composed the best original song written specifically for a film...
. The film also earned $49 million at the
box officeA box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....
worldwide, becoming the sixth-highest-grossing documentary film to date in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
The idea to document his efforts came from
Laurie DavidLaurie David is an American environmental activist. 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 Huffington Post.-Personal life:David was born as Laurie Ellen Lennard, and...
who saw his presentation at a
town-hall meeting on global warming which coincided with the opening of
The Day After TomorrowThe Day After Tomorrow is a 2004 American science-fiction disaster film that depicts the catastrophic effects of global warming in a series of extreme weather events that usher in global cooling which leads to a new ice age. The film did well at the box office, grossing $542,771,772 internationally...
. David was so inspired by Gore's slide show that she, with
Lawrence BenderLawrence Bender is an American film producer. He rose to fame by producing Reservoir Dogs in 1992 and has since produced all of Quentin Tarantino's films with the exception of Death Proof....
, met with Guggenheim to adapt the presentation into a film.
Since the film's release,
An Inconvenient Truth has been credited for raising international public awareness of
climate changeClimate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
and reenergizing the
environmental movementThe environmental movement, a term that includes the conservation and green politics, is a diverse scientific, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues....
. The documentary has also been included in science curricula in schools around the world, which has spurred some controversy.
Synopsis
An Inconvenient Truth focuses on Al Gore and on 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 documents a Keynote presentation (which Gore refers to as "the slide show") that Gore has presented throughout the world. It intersperses Gore's exploration of data and predictions regarding
climate changeClimate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
and its potential for disaster with his own life story.
The former vice president opens the film by greeting an audience with a joke: "I am Al Gore; I used to be the next President of the United States." Gore then begins his slide show on climate change; a comprehensive presentation replete with detailed graphs, flow charts and stark visuals. Gore shows off several majestic photographs of the Earth taken from multiple space missions,
EarthriseEarthrise is a famous photograph taken on the 1968 Apollo 8 space mission.Earthrise may also refer to:* Earthrise , a computer game by Interstel...
and
The Blue MarbleThe Blue Marble is a famous photograph of the Earth taken on December 7, 1972, by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft at a distance of about ....
. Gore notes that these photos dramatically transformed the way we see the Earth, helping spark modern environmentalism.
Following this, Gore shares anecdotes that inspired his interest in the issue, including his college education with early climate expert
Roger RevelleRoger 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 UniversityHarvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, his sister's death from
lung cancerLung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
and his young son's near-fatal car accident. Gore recalls a story from his grade-school years, where a fellow student asked his geography teacher about
continental driftContinental drift is the movement of the Earth's continents relative to each other. The hypothesis that continents 'drift' was first put forward by Abraham Ortelius in 1596 and was fully developed by Alfred Wegener in 1912...
; in response, the teacher called the concept the "most ridiculous thing [he'd] ever heard." Gore ties this conclusion to the assumption that "the Earth is so big, we can't possibly have any lasting, harmful impact on the Earth's environment." For comic effect, Gore uses a clip from the
FuturamaFuturama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...
episode "
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. The episode was written by Aaron Ehasz and directed by Peter Avanzino...
" to describe the
greenhouse effectThe greenhouse effect is a process by which thermal radiation from a planetary surface is absorbed by atmospheric greenhouse gases, and is re-radiated in all directions. Since part of this re-radiation is back towards the surface, energy is transferred to the surface and the lower atmosphere...
. Gore refers to his loss to
George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
in the
2000 United States presidential electionThe United States presidential election of 2000 was a contest between Republican candidate George W. Bush, then-governor of Texas and son of former president George H. W. Bush , and Democratic candidate Al Gore, then-Vice President....
as a "hard blow" yet one which subsequently "brought into clear focus, the mission [he] had been pursuing for all these years."
Throughout the movie, Gore discusses the
scientific opinion on climate changeThe predominant scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth is in an ongoing phase of global warming primarily caused by an enhanced greenhouse effect due to the anthropogenic release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases...
, as well as the present and future
effects of global warmingThis article is about the effects of global warming and climate change. The effects, or impacts, of climate change may be physical, ecological, social or economic. Evidence of observed climate change includes the instrumental temperature record, rising sea levels, and decreased snow cover in the...
and stresses that climate change "is really not a political issue, so much as a moral one", describing 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. Gore also presents
Antarctic ice coringAn ice core is a core sample that is typically removed from an ice sheet, most commonly from the polar ice caps of Antarctica, Greenland or from high mountain glaciers elsewhere. As the ice forms from the incremental build up of annual layers of snow, lower layers are older than upper, and an ice...
data showing CO
2 levels higher now than in the past 650,000 years.
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 sheetAn ice sheet is a mass of glacier ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than 50,000 km² , thus also known as continental glacier...
in
GreenlandGreenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
or in
West AntarcticaWest Antarctica, or Lesser Antarctica, one of the two major regions of Antarctica, is the part of the continent that lies within the Western Hemisphere including the Antarctic Peninsula.-Location and description:...
, either of which could raise global sea levels by approximately 20 feet, flooding coastal areas and producing 100 million refugees. Melt water from Greenland, because of its lower
salinitySalinity is the saltiness or dissolved salt content of a body of water. It is a general term used to describe the levels of different salts such as sodium chloride, magnesium and calcium sulfates, and bicarbonates...
, 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.
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
CO2Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
and planting more vegetation to consume existing CO
2. Gore calls upon his viewers to learn how they can help him in these efforts. Gore concludes the film by saying:
"Each one of us is a cause of global warming, but each one of us can make choices to change that with the things we buy, the electricity we use, the cars we drive; we can make choices to bring our individual carbon emissions to zero. The solutions are in our hands, we just have to have the determination to make it happen. We have everything that we need to reduce carbon emissions, everything but political will. But in America, the will to act is a renewable resource."
During the film's end credits, a
diaporamaA Diaporama is a photographic slideshow, sometimes with accompanying audio. The word shares etymological roots with the English words diorama and panorama, both of which come from the Greek root horama, meaning "a view." Salon columnist Camille Paglia used the term as early as March 2008 when she...
pops up on screen suggesting to viewers things at home they can do to combat climate change, including "recycle", "speak up in your community", "try to buy a
hybrid vehicleA hybrid vehicle is a vehicle that uses two or more distinct power sources to move the vehicle. The term most commonly refers to hybrid electric vehicles , which combine an internal combustion engine and one or more electric motors.-Power:...
" and "encourage everyone you know to watch this movie."
Gore's
book of the same titleAn Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It is a 2006 book by Al Gore released in conjunction with the film An Inconvenient Truth. It is published by Rodale Press in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, in the United States.Based on Gore's lecture tour on the topic...
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 KatrinaHurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
,
coral reefCoral reefs are underwater structures made from calcium carbonate secreted by corals. Coral reefs are colonies of tiny living animals found in marine waters that contain few nutrients. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, which in turn consist of polyps that cluster in groups. The polyps...
depletion, glacial earthquake activity on the
Greenland ice sheetThe Greenland ice sheet is a vast body of ice covering , roughly 80% of the surface of Greenland. It is the second largest ice body in the world, after the Antarctic Ice Sheet. The ice sheet is almost long in a north-south direction, and its greatest width is at a latitude of 77°N, near its...
, wildfires, and trapped methane gas release associated with
permafrostIn geology, permafrost, cryotic soil 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...
melting.
Background
Origins
Gore became interested in global warming when he took a course at
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
with Professor
Roger RevelleRoger 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 dioxideCarbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
in the atmosphere.
Later, when Gore was in Congress, he initiated the first congressional hearing on the subject in 1981. Gore's 1992 book,
Earth in the BalanceEarth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit is a 1992 book written by Al Gore, published in June 1992, shortly before he was elected Vice President in the 1992 presidential election...
, 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 taxA carbon tax is an environmental tax levied on the carbon content of fuels. It is a form of carbon pricing. Carbon is present in every hydrocarbon fuel and is released as carbon dioxide when they are burnt. In contrast, non-combustion energy sources—wind, sunlight, hydropower, and nuclear—do not...
to encourage energy efficiency and diversify the choices of fuel better reflecting the true environmental costs of energy use; it was partially implemented in 1993. He helped broker the 1997
Kyoto ProtocolThe Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , aimed at fighting global warming...
, an international treaty designed to curb
greenhouse gasA greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone...
emissions. The treaty was not ratified in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
after a 95 to 0 vote in the
SenateThe United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
. The primary objections stemmed from the exemptions the treaty gave to
ChinaChinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and
IndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, whose
industrial baseIndustry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
and
carbon footprintA carbon footprint has historically been defined as "the total set of greenhouse gas emissions caused by an organization, event, product or person.". However, calculating a carbon footprint which conforms to this definition is often impracticable due to the large amount of data required, which is...
have grown rapidly, and fears that the exemptions would lead to further trade imbalances and offshoring arrangement with those countries.
Gore also supported the funding of the ill-fated satellite called
TrianaDeep Space Climate Observatory is a NASA satellite proposed in 1998 by then-Vice President Al Gore for the purpose of Earth observation. It is intended to be positioned at the Earth's Lagrangian point, at a distance of 1.5 million kilometers...
, which would have provided an image of the Earth 24 hours a day, over the internet and would've acted as a barometer measuring the process of global warming. During
his 2000 presidential campaignAl Gore, the 45th Vice President of the United States under Bill Clinton, announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States in Carthage, Tennessee on June 16, 1999. Gore became the nominee of the Democratic Party for the 2000 presidential election on August 17, 2000...
, Gore ran, in part, on a pledge to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
The slide show
After his defeat in
the 2000 presidential electionThe United States presidential election of 2000 was a contest between Republican candidate George W. Bush, then-governor of Texas and son of former president George H. W. Bush , and Democratic candidate Al Gore, then-Vice President....
by
George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
, Gore returned his focus to the topic. He edited and adapted a slide show 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.
Producer David saw Gore's slide show in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
at a global warming town-hall meeting after the May 27, 2004 premiere of
The Day After TomorrowThe Day After Tomorrow is a 2004 American science-fiction disaster film that depicts the catastrophic effects of global warming in a series of extreme weather events that usher in global cooling which leads to a new ice age. The film did well at the box office, grossing $542,771,772 internationally...
. Gore was one of several panelists and he showed a ten-minute version of his slide show.
Inspired, David assembled a team, including producer Lawrence Bender and former president of
eBayeBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
Jeffrey SkollJeffrey Skoll is a Canadian-born engineer and internet entrepreneur who lives in Los Angeles, California. With an estimated net worth of $US 3.2 billion , Skoll was ranked by Forbes as the 7th wealthiest Canadian and 347th in the world.He was the first employee and also first president of internet...
, who met with Gore about the possibility of making the slide show into a movie. It took some convincing. The slide show, she says, "was his baby, and he felt proprietary about it and it was hard for him to let go."
David said the box office returns weren't important to her. "None of us are going to make a dime." What is at stake, she says, "is, you know, the planet."
David and Bender later met with director Davis Guggenheim, to have him direct the film adaptation of his slide show. 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 enlisted Duarte Design to condense and update his material and add video and animation. As designer Ted Boda described the work: "As a designer for the presentation,
KeynoteKeynote is a presentation software 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 for the Macintosh. It adds new themes, transitions and animations, and the ability to control the slideshow...
was the first choice to help create such an engaging presentation.
Initially reluctant of the film adaptation, Gore said after he and the crew were into the production of the movie, the director, Guggenheim, earned his trust.
Production
When Bender first saw Gore's visual presentation he had concerns about connection with viewers, citing a "need to find a personal way in." In the string of interviews with Gore that followed, Gore himself felt like they "were making
Kill Al Vol. 3". Bender had other issues including a time frame that was "grueling" and needed to be done in "a very short period of time" despite many filming locations planned. These included many locations throughout the United States and also included
ChinaChinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. "It was a lot of travel in a very short period of time. And they had to get this thing edited and cut starting in January, and ready to screen in May. That’s like a seriously tight schedule. So the logistics of pulling it off with a low budget were really difficult, and if there’s one person who gets credit, it’s Leslie Chilcott, because she really pulled it together."
Technical aspects
The majority of the movie exhibits Gore delivering his lecture to an audience at a relatively small theater in Los Angeles. Gore's presentation was delivered on a 70-foot digital screen that Bender commissioned specifically for the movie.
While the bulk of the film was shot on 4:4:4
HDCAMHDCAM, introduced in 1997, is an High-definition video digital recording videocassette version of Digital Betacam, using an 8-bit DCT compressed 3:1:1 recording, in 1080i-compatible downsampled resolution of 1440×1080, and adding 24p and 23.976 PsF 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 HDCAMs for the presentation. We shot three different kinds of
prosumerProsumer is a portmanteau formed by contracting either the word professional or less often, producer with the word consumer. For example, a prosumer grade digital camera is a "cross" between consumer grade and professional grade...
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."
Guggenheim says while it would've been a lot easier to use one format, it would not have had the same impact. "Each format has its own feel and texture and touch. For the storytelling of what Gore’s memory was like of growing up on the farm, some of this 8mm stuff that I shot is very impressionistic. And for some of his memories of his son’s accident, these grainy black-and-white stills...have a feel that contrasted very beautifully with the crisp hi-def HD that we shot. Every format was used to its best potential. Some of the footage of Katrina has this blown-out video, where the chroma is just blasted, and it looks real muddy, but that too has its own kind of powerful, impactful feeling."
Scientific basis
The film's thesis is that global warming is real, potentially catastrophic, and
human-causedAttribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent changes observed in the Earth's climate...
. Gore presents specific data that supports the thesis, including:
- The Keeling curve
The Keeling Curve is a graph which plots the ongoing change in concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere since 1958. It is based on continuous measurements taken at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii under the supervision of Charles David Keeling. Keeling's measurements showed the...
, measuring CO2 from the Mauna Loa ObservatoryThe Mauna Loa Observatory is an atmospheric baseline station on Mauna Loa volcano, on the big island of Hawaii.-The observatory:Since 1956 Mauna Loa Observatory has been monitoring and collecting data relating to atmospheric change, and is known especially for the continuous monitoring of...
.
- The retreat of numerous glaciers
The retreat of glaciers since 1850 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...
is shown in before-and-after photographs.
- A study by researchers at the Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
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 is an American science historian, and Professor of History and Science Studies at the University of California San Diego. She has worked on studies of geophysics, environmental issues such as global warming, and the history of science...
of 928 peer-reviewed scientific articles on global climate change published between 1993 and 2003. The survey, published as an editorial in the journal ScienceScience is the academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is one of the world's top scientific journals....
, found that every article either supported the human-caused global warming consensus or did not comment on it. Gore also presented a 2004 study by Max and Jules BoykoffJules Boykoff is a professor and author. His research areas include social movements, the suppression of dissent, and the role of the mass media in US politics, especially regarding coverage of climate change issues...
showing 53% of articles that appeared in major US newspapers over a fourteen year period gave roughly equal attention to scientists who expressed views that global warming was caused by humans as they did to global warming skeptics, creating a false balanceFalse balance is a centuries old English phrase, found in the King James Bible to indicate a dishonest measurement....
.
The
Associated PressThe Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
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 accurately conveyed the science, with few errors.
William H. SchlesingerWilliam H. Schlesinger is a biogeochemist and the president of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, an independent not-for-profit environmental research organization in Millbrook, New York. He assumed this position after 27 years on the faculty of Duke University, where he served as the Dean...
, dean of the Nicholas School of Environment and Earth Sciences at
Duke UniversityDuke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
said "[Gore] got all the important material and got it right."
Robert CorellRobert W. Corell is an American global climate scientist, Principal for the , an Ambassador for ClimateWorks, Professor II at the University of the Arctic’s new Institute of Circumpolar Reindeer Husbandry and a Professor II at the University of Tromso...
, chairman of the
Arctic Climate Impact AssessmentThe Arctic Climate Impact Assessment is a study describing the ongoing climate change in the Arctic and its consequences: rising temperatures, loss of sea ice, unprecedented melting of the Greenland ice sheet, and many impacts on ecosystems, animals, and people...
was also impressed. "I sat there and I'm amazed at how thorough and accurate. After the presentation I said, 'Al, I'm absolutely blown away. There's a lot of details you could get wrong.'...I could find no error."
Michael ShermerMichael 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 pseudoscientific and supernatural claims. The Skeptics Society currently has over 55,000 members...
, scientific author and founder of
The Skeptics SocietyThe Skeptics Society is a nonprofit, member-supported organization devoted to promoting scientific skepticism and resisting the spread of pseudoscience, superstition, and irrational beliefs. The Skeptics Society was originally founded as a Los Angeles-area skeptical group to replace the defunct...
, wrote in
Scientific AmericanScientific American is a popular science magazine. It is notable for its long history of presenting science monthly to an educated but not necessarily scientific public, through its careful attention to the clarity of its text as well as the quality of its specially commissioned color graphics...
that Gore's slide show "shocked me out of my doubting stance." Eric Steig, a climate scientist writing on
RealClimateRealClimate is a commentary site on climatology. The site's contributors are a group of climate scientists whose goal is to provide a quick response to developing stories and providing the context sometimes missing in mainstream commentary. The discussion is intended to be restricted to scientific...
, lauded the film's science as "remarkably up to date, with reference to some of the very latest research."
Ted Scambos, lead scientist from the
National Snow and Ice Data CenterThe National Snow and Ice Data Center, or NSIDC, is a United States information and referral center in support of polar and cryospheric research...
, said the film "does an excellent job of outlining the science behind global warming and the challenges society faces in the coming century because of it."
One concern among scientists in the film was the connection between hurricanes and global warming, which remains contentious in the science community. Gore cited five recent scientific studies to support his view. "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," said Brian Soden, professor of meteorology and oceanography at the University of Miami.
Gavin SchmidtGavin A. Schmidt is a climatologist and climate modeler at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. He works on the variability of the ocean circulation and climate, using general circulation models . He has also worked on ways to reconcile paleo-data with models...
, climate modeler for NASA, thought Gore appropriately addressed the issue.
"Gore talked about 2005 and 2004 being very strong seasons, and if you weren't paying attention, you could be left with the impression that there was a direct cause and effect, but he was very careful to not say there's a direct correlation," Schmidt said. "There is a difference between saying 'we are confident that they will increase' and 'we are confident that they have increased due to this effect,'" added Steig. "Never in the movie does he say: 'This particular event is caused by global warming.'"
Gore's use of long ice core records of CO
2 and temperature (from oxygen isotope measurements) in Antarctic ice cores to illustrate the correlation between the two drew some scrutiny; Schmidt, Steig and Michael E. Mann back up Gore's data. "Gore stated that the greenhouse gas levels and temperature changes over ice age signals had a complex relationship but that they 'fit'. Both of these statements are true," said Schmidt and Mann. "The complexity though is actually quite fascinating...a full understanding of why CO
2 changes in precisely the pattern that it does during ice ages is elusive, but among the most plausible explanations is that increased received solar radiation in the southern hemisphere due to changes in Earth’s orbital geometry warms the southern ocean, releasing CO
2 into the atmosphere, which then leads to further warming through an enhanced greenhouse effect. Gore’s terse explanation of course does not mention such complexities, but the crux of his point–that the observed long-term relationship between CO
2 and temperature in Antarctica supports our understanding of the warming impact of increased CO
2 concentrations–is correct. Moreover, our knowledge of why CO
2 is changing now (fossil fuel burning) is solid. We also know that CO
2 is a greenhouse gas, and that the carbon cycle feedback is positive (increasing temperatures lead to increasing CO
2 and CH
4), implying that future changes in CO
2 will be larger than we might anticipate." "Gore is careful not to state what the temperature/CO
2 scaling is," said Steig. "He is making a qualitative point, which is entirely accurate. The fact is that it would be difficult or impossible to explain past changes in temperature during the ice age cycles without CO
2 changes. In that sense, the ice core CO
2-temperature correlation remains an appropriate demonstration of the influence of CO
2 on climate."
Steig disputed Gore's statement that you can visibly see the effect that the United States Clean Air Act has had on ice cores in Antarctica. "One can neither see, nor even detect using sensitive chemical methods any evidence in Antarctica of the Clean Air Act," he said, but did note that they are "clearly recorded in ice core records from Greenland." Despite these flaws,
Steig said that the film got the fundamental science right and the minor factual errors did not undermine the main message of the film, adding "
An Inconvenient Truth rests on a solid scientific foundation."
Lonnie ThompsonLonnie Thompson , is an American paleoclimatologist and Distinguished University Professor in the School of Earth Sciences at The Ohio State University. He has achieved global recognition for his drilling and analysis of ice cores from mountain glaciers and ice caps in the tropical and sub-tropical...
, Earth Science professor at
Ohio State UniversityThe Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
, whose work on retreating glaciers was featured in the film, was pleased with how his research was presented. "It's so hard given the breadth of this topic to be factually correct, and make sure you don't lose your audience," Thompson said. "As scientists, we publish our papers in
Science and
Nature, but very few people read those. Here's another way to get this message out. To me, it's an excellent overview for an introductory class at a university. What are the issues and what are the possible consequences of not doing anything about those changes? To me, it has tremendous value. It will reach people that scientists will never reach."
John Nielsen-GammonJohn Nielsen-Gammon is an American meteorologist and climatologist. He is a Professor of Meteorology at Texas A&M University, and the Texas State Climatologist, holding both appointments since 2000. His research group uses a combination of observational and computational techniques to study the...
from
Texas A&M UniversityTexas A&M University is a coeducational public research university located in College Station, Texas . It is the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System. The sixth-largest university in the United States, A&M's enrollment for Fall 2011 was over 50,000 for the first time in school...
said the "main scientific argument presented in the movie is for the most part consistent with the weight of scientific evidence, but with some of the main points needing updating, correction, or qualification." Nielsen-Gammon thought the film neglected information gained from computer models, and instead relied entirely on past and current observational evidence, "perhaps because such information would be difficult for a
lay audience to grasp, believe, or connect with emotionally."
Steven Quiring, climatologist from Texas A&M University added that "whether scientists like it or not,
An Inconvenient Truth has had a much greater impact on public opinion and public awareness of global climate change than any scientific paper or report."
Box office
The film opened in New York City and Los Angeles on May 24, 2006. On
Memorial DayMemorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War...
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, the movie received three
standing ovationA standing ovation is a form of applause where members of a seated audience stand up while applauding after extraordinary performances of particularly high acclaim...
s. It was also screened at the
2006 Cannes Film FestivalThe 2006 Cannes Film Festival ran from May 17, 2006 to May 28, 2006. Twenty films from eleven countries were in competition for the Palme d'Or. The President of the Official Jury was Wong Kar-wai, the first Chinese director to preside over the jury....
and was the opening night film at the 27th
Durban International Film FestivalThe Durban International Film Festival is an annual film festival that takes place in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. It is one of the oldest and largest film festival in Southern African and presents over 200 screenings celebrating the best in South African, African and...
on June 14, 2006.
An Inconvenient Truth was the most popular documentary at the 2006
Brisbane International Film FestivalBrisbane 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 event offers films including features, documentaries, shorts, experimental, silent films...
.
The film has grossed over $24 million in the U.S. and over $49 million worldwide, making it the sixth-highest-grossing documentary in the U.S. to date, (from 1982 to the present).
According to Gore, "
TipperMary Elizabeth "Tipper" Gore , née Aitcheson, is an author, photographer, former second lady of the United States, and the estranged wife of Al Gore...
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 ProtectionThe Alliance for Climate Protection was founded in 2006 by Nobel laureate and former United States Vice President Al Gore. The Alliance is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization committed to educating the global community about the urgency of implementing comprehensive solutions to the climate crisis...
, 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 TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
(as of May 21, 2007), with a 94% rating from the "Cream of the Crop" reviewers. At
MetacriticMetacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 75%, based on 32 reviews.
Film critics
Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
and
Richard RoeperRichard E. Roeper is an American columnist and film critic for The Chicago Sun-Times and now a co-host on The Roe Conn Show on WLS-AM...
gave the film "two thumbs up". Ebert said, "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," calling the film "horrifying, enthralling and [having] the potential, I believe, to actually change public policy and begin a process which could save the Earth."
New York MagazineNew York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
critic
David EdelsteinDavid 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. He lives in Brooklyn, New York....
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."
The New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
s David RemnickDavid Remnick is an American journalist, writer, and magazine editor. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for his book Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire. Remnick has been editor of The New Yorker magazine since 1998. He was named "Editor of the Year" by Advertising Age in 2000...
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-SPANC-SPAN , an acronym for Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, is an American cable television network that offers coverage of federal government proceedings and other public affairs programming via its three television channels , one radio station and a group of websites that provide streaming...
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."
Bright Lights Film JournalBright Lights Film Journal is an online popular-academic film magazine, with a left-leaning critical orientation, based in Portland, Oregon, United States. It is edited and published by Gary Morris....
critic Jayson Harsin declared the film's aesthetic qualities groundbreaking, as a new genre of slideshow film.
NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
climatologist James E. Hansen said that with An Inconvenient Truth
, "Al Gore may have done for global warming what Silent SpringSilent Spring is a book written by Rachel Carson and published by Houghton Mifflin on 27 September 1962. The book is widely credited with helping launch the environmental movement....
did for pesticides. He will be attacked, but the public will have the information needed to distinguish our long-term well-being from short-term special interests."
On the other hand, several reviews criticized the film on scientific and political grounds. Journalist Ronald BaileyRonald Bailey is the science editor for Reason magazine. 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 libertarianLibertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
magazine ReasonReason is a libertarian monthly magazine published by the Reason Foundation. The magazine has a circulation of around 60,000 and was named one of the 50 best magazines in 2003 and 2004 by the Chicago Tribune.- History :...
that although "Gore gets [the science] more right than wrong," he exaggerates the risks.
Global warming skeptics were vocally critical of the film, such as MIT physicist Richard S. LindzenRichard Siegmund Lindzen is an American atmospheric physicist and Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Lindzen is known for his work in the dynamics of the middle atmosphere, atmospheric tides and ozone photochemistry. He has published more than...
, who 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.
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 HallPhil Hall is an American writer. He is a contributing editor for the online magazine Film Threat.-Writing:Hall works as an editor for Zackin Publications, editing a monthly mortgage-banking magazine called Secondary Marketing Executive....
of Film ThreatFilm Threat is a former print magazine and, now, webzine which focuses primarily on independent film, although it also reviews DVDs of mainstream films and Hollywood movies in theaters. It first appeared as a photocopied zine in 1985, created by Wayne State University students Chris Gore and André...
gave the film a negative review, saying "An Inconvenient Truth
is something you rarely see in movies today: a blatant intellectual fraud."
Conservative commentator Glenn BeckGlenn Edward Lee Beck is an American conservative radio host, vlogger, author, entrepreneur, political commentator and former television host. He hosts the Glenn Beck Program, a nationally syndicated talk-radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks...
aired a one-hour special, Exposed: Climate of Fear
, as a counterpoint to Gore's film with viewpoints of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming. "Yes, Al Gore, there is another credible side," Beck said. "An Inconvenient Truth
is a study in absolutes, a one-sided argument devoid of any gray area."
In "extensive exit polling" of An Inconvenient Truth
in "conservative suburban markets like Plano and Irvine (Orange County), as well as Dallas and Long Island", 92 percent rated "Truth" highly and 87 percent of the respondents said they'd recommend the film to a friend.
Accolades
An Inconvenient Truth
has received many different awards worldwide.
The film won the 2007 Academy AwardsThe 79th Academy Awards ceremony , honored the best films of 2006 and took place on February 25, 2007 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on ABC. Ellen DeGeneres hosted the ceremony for the first time. The producer was Laura Ziskin. The announcers were Don LaFontaine and Gina Tuttle.The nominees were...
for Best Documentary Feature and Best Original SongThe Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . It is presented to the songwriters who have composed the best original song written specifically for a film...
for Melissa Etheridge's "I Need to Wake Up". It is the first documentary to win 2 Oscars and the first to win a best original song Oscar.
After winning the 2007 Academy Award for Documentary Feature, the Oscar was awarded to director Guggenheim, who asked Gore to join him and other members of the crew on stage. Gore then gave a brief speech, saying:
In addition, the film received numerous other accolades, including a special recognition from the Humanitas PrizeThe 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...
, the first time the organization had handed out a Special Award in over 10 years, the 2007 Stanley Kramer Award from The Producers Guild of America, which recognizes "work that dramatically illustrates provocative social issues" and the President’s Award 2007 from the Society for Technical CommunicationThe Society for Technical Communication is a professional society for the advancement of the theory and practice of technical communication.-Overview:...
"for demonstrating that effective and understandable technical communication, when coupled with passion and vision, has the power to educate—and change—the world."
For Gore's wide-reaching efforts to draw the world’s attention to the dangers of global warming which is centerpieced in the film, Al Gore, along with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate ChangeThe Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a scientific intergovernmental body which provides comprehensive assessments of current scientific, technical and socio-economic information worldwide about the risk of climate change caused by human activity, its potential environmental and...
(IPCC), won the 2007 Nobel Peace PrizeThe Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
.
The related album, which featured the voices of Beau BridgesLloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III is an American actor and director.- Early life :Bridges was born in Los Angeles, the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his college sweetheart, Dorothy Bridges . He was nicknamed "Beau" by his mother and father after Ashley Wilkes's son in Gone with the Wind, the book...
, Cynthia NixonCynthia Ellen Nixon is an American actress, known for her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series Sex and the City . She has received two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and a Grammy Award....
and Blair UnderwoodBlair Underwood is an American television and film actor. He is perhaps best known as headstrong attorney Jonathan Rollins from the NBC legal drama L.A. Law, a role he portrayed for seven years. He has gained critical acclaim throughout his career, receiving numerous Golden Globe Award...
, also won Best Spoken Word Album at the 51st Grammy AwardsThe 51st Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA on February 8, 2009. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss were the biggest winners of the night, jointly winning five awards including Album of the Year and Record of the Year...
.
The film won many other awards for Best Documentary:
- Chicago Film Critics Association 2006
- Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association 2006
- Florida Film Critics 2006
- Kansas City Film Critics Awards 2006
- Las Vegas Film Critics Society 2006
- National Board of Review 2006
- National Society of Film Critics 2006
- New York Film Critics Online 2006
|
Ohio Film Critics Awards 2006
Oklahoma Film Critics Circle Awards 2006
Online Film Critics Society 2006
Phoenix Film Critics Circle 2006
Satellite Awards 2006 (Nominated)
St. Louis Film Critics Awards 2006
Utah Film Critics Awards 2006
Washington D.C. Film Critics Association 2006 |
Impact
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. The film inspired producer Kevin WallKevin Wall, born March 15, 1952 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, is a producer, digital entrepreneur and environmentalist who creates and produces global events often viewed by a billion or more people...
to conceive the 2007 Live Earth-Background:Founded by Emmy-winning producer Kevin Wall, in partnership with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, Live Earth was built upon the belief that entertainment has the power to transcend social and cultural barriers to move the world community to action...
festival and influenced Italian composer
Giorgio BattistelliGiorgio Battistelli is an Italian composer of contemporary classical music. A native of Albano Laziale , he studied at the conservatory in L'Aquila and is a former student of Stockhausen and Kagel, Battistelli has written nearly 20 operas on subjects ranging from Diderot and d'Alembert's...
to write an operatic adaptation, scheduled to premiere at
La ScalaLa Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
in
MilanMilan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
in 2013.
Activism
Following the film, Gore founded
The Climate ProjectThe Climate Project was founded by Nobel laureate Al Gore in June 2006 and is a non-profit organizationdedicated to calling attention to what it believes are global problems associated with climate change...
in 2006 which trained 1,000 activists to give Gore’s presentation in their communities. Presently, the group has 3,500 presenters worldwide.
An additional initiative was launched in 2010, called "Inconvenient Youth". "'Inconvenient Youth' is built on the belief that teens can help lead efforts to solve the climate crisis,” said Gore. The project was inspired by Mary Doerr, a 16-year-old who trained as presenter for the organization.
Public opinion
In a July 2007 47-country Internet survey conducted by The Nielsen Company and Oxford University, sixty-six percent of viewers who claimed to have seen An Inconvenient Truth said the film had
“changed their mind” about global warming and eighty-nine percent said watching the movie made
them more aware of the problem. Three out of four (75%) viewers said they changed some of their habits as a result of seeing the film.
Governmental reactions
Then-president George W. Bush, 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
technologiesThe Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, also known as APP, was an international, voluntary, public-private partnership 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...
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 PerinoDana Maria Perino is an American political commentator for Fox News. She served as the White House Press Secretary for President George W. Bush from September 14, 2007 to January 20, 2009...
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 a certain extent to human activity".
Several United States SenatorsThe United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
screened the film.
New MexicoNew Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
Democratic Senator
Jeff BingamanJesse Francis "Jeff" Bingaman, Jr. , is the senior U.S. Senator from New Mexico and a member of the Democratic Party...
and
NevadaNevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
Democratic Senator
Harry ReidHarry Mason Reid is the senior United States Senator from Nevada, serving since 1987. A member of the Democratic Party, he has been the Senate Majority Leader since January 2007, having previously served as Minority Leader and Minority and Majority Whip.Previously, Reid was a member of the U.S...
saw the movie at its Washington premiere at the National Geographic Society.
New MexicoNew Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
Democratic Senator
Tom UdallThomas Stewart "Tom" Udall is the junior United States Senator from New Mexico and a member of the Democratic Party. He had represented as a member of the United States House of Representatives since 1999. Udall was elected as the junior United States senator from New Mexico on November 4, 2008,...
planned to see the film saying "It's such a powerful statement because of the way the movie is put together, I tell everybody, Democrat or Republican, they've got to go see this movie." Former
New MexicoNew Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
Republican Senator
Pete DomeniciPietro Vichi "Pete" Domenici is an American Republican politician, who served six terms as a United States Senator from New Mexico, from 1973 to 2009, the longest tenure in the state's history....
thought Gore's prominence on the global warming issue made it more difficult to get a consensus in Congress. Bingaman disputed this saying, "It seems to me we were having great difficulty recruiting Republican members of Congress to support a bill before Al Gore came up with this movie."
OklahomaOklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
Republican Senator
Jim InhofeJames Mountain "Jim" Inhofe is the senior Senator from Oklahoma and a member of the Republican Party. First elected to the Senate in 1994, he is the ranking member of the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and was its chairman from 2003 to 2007. Inhofe served eight...
, then-chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, didn't plan to see the film (which he appears in), and compared it to
Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
's book "
Mein KampfMein Kampf is a book written by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. It combines elements of autobiography with an exposition of Hitler's political ideology. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and Volume 2 in 1926...
"."If you say the same lie over and over again, and particularly if you have the media's support, people will believe it," Inhofe said, adding that he thought Gore was trying to use the issue to run for president again in 2008.
In contrast to Inhofe, Arizona Republican Senator
John McCainJohn Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
, did not criticize Gore's efforts or the movie, which he planned to see.
TennesseeTennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
Republican Senator
Lamar AlexanderAndrew Lamar Alexander is the senior United States Senator from Tennessee and Conference Chair of the Republican Party. He was previously the 45th Governor of Tennessee from 1979 to 1987, United States Secretary of Education from 1991 to 1993 under President George H. W...
, said "Because (Gore) was a former vice president and presidential nominee, he brings a lot of visibility to (the issue)," Alexander said. "On the other hand it may be seen as political by some, and they may be less eager to be a part of it." Alexander also criticized the omission of nuclear power in the film. "Maybe it needs a sequel: 'An Inconvenient Truth 2: Nuclear Power.'"
In September 2006, Gore traveled to Sydney, Australia to promote the film. Then-Australian Prime Minister
John HowardJohn Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
said he would not meet with Gore or agree to
KyotoThe Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , aimed at fighting global warming...
because of the movie: "I don't take policy advice from films." Former Opposition Leader
Kim BeazleyIn the October 1998 election, Labor polled a majority of the two-party vote and received the largest swing to a first-term opposition since 1934. However, due to the uneven nature of the swing, Labor came up eight seats short of making Beazley Prime Minister....
joined Gore for a viewing and other
MPsA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
attended a special screening at
Parliament HouseParliament House is the meeting facility of the Parliament of Australia located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. The building was designed by Mitchell/Giurgola Architects and opened on 1988 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia...
earlier in the week. After winning the general election a year later, Prime Minister
Kevin RuddKevin Michael Rudd is an Australian politician who was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010. He has been Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2010...
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 KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
,
ConservativeThe Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
Prime Minister
David CameronDavid William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
urged people to see the film in order to understand climate change.
In
BelgiumBelgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
,
Margaretha GuidoneMargaretha 'Maggie' Guidone is a housewife from Helmond living in Kapellen who became famous in Flanders because of her campaign for the environment and against global warming. She successfully urged politicians to go see the new climate documentary by Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth...
persuaded the entire Belgian government to see the film.
200 politicians and political staff accepted her invitation, among whom were Belgian prime minister
Guy VerhofstadtGuy Verhofstadt is a Belgian politician who was the 47th Prime Minister of Belgium from 1999 to 2008. He is currently a Member of the European Parliament and leader of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.- Early career :...
and Minister-President of Flanders,
Yves LetermeYves Camille Désiré Leterme is a Flemish Belgian politician, a leader of the Christian Democratic and Flemish party , and the 48th Prime Minister of Belgium.Leterme was the Prime Minister of Belgium from March 2008 to December 2008...
. Gore received the Prince of Asturias Prize in 2007 for international cooperation.
In
Costa RicaCosta Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
, the film was screened by president
Oscar AriasÓscar Arias Sánchez is a Costa Rican politician who was President of Costa Rica from 2006 to 2010. He previously served as President from 1986 to 1990 and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for his efforts to end civil wars then raging in several other Central American countries.He is also a...
. Arias's subsequent championing of the climate change issue was greatly influenced by the film.
Industry and business
The
Competitive Enterprise InstituteThe Competitive Enterprise Institute is a non-profit think tank founded on March 9, 1984 in Washington, D.C. by lobbyist Fred L. Smith, Jr to advance economic liberty and fight over-regulation by big government...
released pro-
carbon dioxideCarbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
television ads in preparation for the film's release in May 2006. The ads featured a little girl blowing a dandelion with the tagline, "Carbon dioxide. They call it pollution. We call it life."
In August 2006, the Wall Street Journal
revealed that a YouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
video lampooning Gore and the movie, titled Al Gore's Penguin Army
, appeared to be "astroturfingAstroturfing is a form of advocacy in support of a political, organizational, or corporate agenda, designed to give the appearance of a "grassroots" movement. The goal of such campaigns is to disguise the efforts of a political and/or commercial entity as an independent public reaction to some...
" by DCI GroupDCI Group is an American public relations, lobbying and business consulting firm based in Washington, D.C. The company was founded in 1996 as a grassroots consulting firm, and has since expanded its practice to become a public affairs company offering a range of services...
, a Washington public relationsPublic relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
firm.
Use in education
Several colleges and high schools have begun to use the film in science curricula.
In GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel bought 6,000 DVDs of An Inconvenient Truth
to make it available to German schools. In SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, after a meeting with Gore, prime minister José Luis Rodríguez ZapateroJosé Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is a member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party . He was elected for two terms as Prime Minister of Spain, in the 2004 and 2008 general elections. On 2 April 2011 he announced he will not stand for re-election in 2012...
said the government will make An Inconvenient Truth
available to schools. In BurlingtonBurlington , is a city located in Halton Region at the western end of Lake Ontario. Burlington is part of the Greater Toronto Area, and is also included in the Hamilton Census Metropolitan Area. Physically, Burlington lies between the north shore of Lake Ontario and the Niagara Escarpment...
, OntarioOntario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, CanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, the Halton District School BoardThe Halton District School Board serves public school students throughout Halton Region, including the municipalities of Burlington, Halton Hills, Milton and Oakville. Its administration area is to the southwest of the city of Toronto. In 2006-2007, it served almost 50,000 students, excluding...
made An Inconvenient Truth
available at schools and as an educational resource.
In the United Kingdom
As part of a nationwide "Sustainable Schools Year of Action" launched in late 2006, the UK Government, Welsh Assembly GovernmentThe Welsh Government is the devolved government of Wales. It is accountable to the National Assembly for Wales, the legislature which represents the interests of the people of Wales and makes laws for Wales...
and Scottish ExecutiveThe Scottish Government is the executive arm of the devolved government of Scotland. It was established in 1999 as the Scottish Executive, from the extant Scottish Office, and the term Scottish Executive remains its legal name under the Scotland Act 1998...
announced between January–March 2007 that copies of An Inconvenient Truth would be sent to all
secondary schoolSecondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
s in
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
,
WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
and
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. The film was placed into the science curriculum for fourth and sixth-year students in
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
as a joint initiative between
Learning and Teaching ScotlandLearning and Teaching Scotland is a non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government, formed by the merger of the Scottish Consultative Council on the Curriculum and the Scottish Council for Educational Technology...
and ScottishPower.
Dimmock case
In May 2007, a group of global warming skeptics led by Stewart Dimmock, a
lorry-Transport:* Lorry or truck, a large motor vehicle* Lorry, or a Mine car in USA: an open gondola with a tipping trough* Lorry , a horse-drawn low-loading trolley-In fiction:...
(HGV) driver and school governor from
KentKent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, challenged the UK Government's distribution of the film in a lawsuit,
Dimmock v Secretary of State for Education and SkillsDimmock v Secretary of State for Education and Skills was a case heard in September–October 2007 in the High Court of Justice of England and Wales, concerning the permissibility of the government providing Al Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth to English state schools as a teaching aid...
with help from political ally
Viscount MoncktonChristopher Walter Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley is a British politician, public speaker, former newspaper editor and hereditary peer. Formerly a member of the Conservative Party, Monckton has been the Head of the Policy Unit for the UK Independence Party since November 2010. He was...
. The plaintiffs sought an
injunctionAn injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order that requires a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. A party that fails to comply with an injunction faces criminal or civil penalties and may have to pay damages or accept sanctions...
preventing the screening of the film in English schools, arguing that schools are legally forbidden to promote partisan political views 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. CarterRobert 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. He is a geologist specializing in palaeontology, stratigraphy, marine geology, and environmental science...
and the arguments put forth by the claimant's lawyers, the judge also pointed to nine "errors", i.e. statements the truth of which he did not rule on, but that he found to depart from the
mainstream scientific positions on global warmingThe predominant scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth is in an ongoing phase of global warming primarily caused by an enhanced greenhouse effect due to the anthropogenic release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases...
. He also found that some of these departures from the mainstream arose in the context of alarmism and exaggeration in support of political theses. Since the government had already accepted to amend the guidance notes to address these along with other points in a fashion that the judge found satisfactory, no order was made on the application.
Each side declared victory. Government Minister of Children, Young People and Families,
Kevin BrennanKevin Denis Brennan is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Cardiff West since 2001, and was a Minister of State at both the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department for Children, Schools and Families before the 2010 general election...
stated: "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." Plaintiff Dimmock complained 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 AssociationThe 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. Producer David 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. A Washington Post editorial called the decision "Science a la
Joe CamelJoe Camel was the advertising mascot for Camel cigarettes from late 1987 to July 12, 1997, appearing in magazine advertisements, billboards, and other print media.-History:The U.S. marketing team of R. J...
", citing for example that the NSTA had received $6 million since 1996 from Exxon Mobil, which had a representative on the organization's corporate board. 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." David has said 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
ConocoPhillipsConocoPhillips Company is an American multinational energy corporation with its headquarters located in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas in the United States...
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 ScienceThe American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...
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, WashingtonYakima is an American city southeast of Mount Rainier National Park and the county seat of Yakima County, Washington, United States, and the eighth largest city by population in the state itself. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 91,196 and a metropolitan population of...
, calling the film a "controversial issue", prevented the Environmental Club of
Eisenhower High SchoolDwight David 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. Alternative...
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.
In New Zealand
Former
ACT New Zealand Member of Parliament
Muriel NewmanDr. Muriel Newman is a former New Zealand politician. She was the deputy leader of the ACT New Zealand.-Early years:Newman was born in northern England, but arrived in New Zealand at the age of eight. She was raised in Whangarei. She gained a BSc in mathematics from University of Auckland, and...
filed a petition to have New Zealand schoolchildren be protected from political indoctrination by putting provisions that resembled those in the UK to the Education Act. The petition was in response to concerned parents talked with Newman after An Inconvenient Truth
was shown in schools in 2007. The parents were worried that teachers were not pointing out supposed inaccuracies in the film and were not explaining differing viewpoints.
Music
An Inconvenient Truth was
scoredA film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
by
Michael BrookMichael Brook is a Canadian guitarist, inventor, producer, and film music composer. He plays in many genres, including rock, electronica, world music, minimalism and film scores....
with an accompanying theme song played during the end credits by
Melissa EtheridgeMelissa Lou Etheridge is an American rock singer-songwriter and musician.Etheridge is known for her mixture of confessional lyrics, pop-based folk-rock, and raspy, smoky vocals...
. Brook explained that he wanted to bring out the emotion expressed in the film: "...in Inconvenient Truth, there's a lot of information and it's kind of a lecture, in a way, and very well organized and very well presented, but it's a lot to absorb. And the director, Guggenheim, wanted to have – sort of give people a little break every once in a while and say, okay, you don't have to absorb this information, you can just sort of – and it was more the personal side of Al Gore's life or how it connected to the theme of the film. And that's when there's music."
Etheridge agreed to write An Inconvenient Truths theme song, "
I Need to Wake Up"I Need to Wake Up" is a song by Melissa Etheridge, written for the 2006 documentary film An Inconvenient Truth. It is the first instance of a documentary film winning the Best Song category, and it notably beat three other nominated songs from the musical film Dreamgirls.Etheridge received the...
" after viewing Gore's slide show. "I was so honored he would ask me to contribute to a project that is so powerful and so important, I felt such a huge responsibility," she said. "Then I went, 'What am I going to write? What am I going to say?' " Etheridge's former partner,
Tammy Lynn MichaelsTammy Lynn Michaels , also known by the surname Etheridge after marrying Melissa Etheridge, is an American actress....
, told her: "Write what you feel, because that's what people are going to feel." Of Etheridge's commitment to the project, Gore said, "Melissa is a rare soul who gives a lot of time and effort to causes in which she strongly believes." Etheridge received the 2006
Academy Award for Best Original SongThe Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . It is presented to the songwriters who have composed the best original song written specifically for a film...
for "I Need to Wake Up." Upon receiving the award, she noted in her acceptance speech:
External links
- http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/004388.html Interview: Davis Guggenheim
Philip Davis Guggenheim is an Academy Award-winning American film director and producer. His credits as a producer and director include Training Day, The Shield, Alias, 24, NYPD Blue, ER, Deadwood, and Party of Five and the documentaries An Inconvenient Truth and Waiting for 'Superman...
and An Inconvenient Truth by Alex SteffenAlex Steffen is an American writer, editor, public speaker and futurist most noted for his bright green ideas.Steffen co-founded and ran the online magazine Worldchanging from its start in 2003 until its closure in 2010...
, 4 May 2006