Encyclopedia
An Inconvenient Truth is a
documentary film about
climate change, especially
global warming, directed by Davis Guggenheim and starring former
United States Vice President Al Gore. The documentary, based largely on a multimedia presentation that Gore prepared as part of an educational campaign on global warming, premiered at the 2006
Sundance Film Festival .
The film opened in
New York and Los Angeles on May 24, 2006. It is the third-highest-grossing documentary in the
United States to date.
Both Gore and
Paramount Classics, the film's distributor, have pledged proceeds from the film to further educational campaigns about climate change.
The film is due to be released on
DVD by Paramount Home Entertainment on November 21, 2006.
An Inconvenient Truth is also the title of a companion book by Gore, which reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller lists of July 2 and August 13 2006, and again during several months on the list.
Overview and synopsis
While essentially a documentary film,
An Inconvenient Truth follows a dramatic plot in the sequence in which facts are revealed and predictions are emphasized, while also interjecting personal events from the life of Al Gore. Rather than simply listing facts in a dry, mechanical manner, the film places its subject in an emotional—and moral—context, with dramatic plot elements.
Former
U.S. Vice President Al Gore comes to grips with his life's purpose after the events of the
2000 Presidential election and rededicates himself to the struggle against
global warming. Through a Keynote presentation that he has presented worldwide, Gore reviews the scientific evidence for global warming, discusses the politics and economics of global warming, and describes the serious consequences that global climate change will produce if the amount of human-generated
greenhouse gases is not significantly reduced in the very near future.
The film includes many segments intended to refute critics who say that global warming is insignificant or unproven. For example, he discusses the risk of the collapse of a major
ice sheet in
Greenland or
Antarctica, either of which could raise global sea levels by approximately 20 feet , flooding coastal areas and producing 100 million refugees. Meltwater from Greenland, because of its lower
salinity, could halt the
Gulf Stream current and quickly trigger dramatic local cooling in Northern Europe.
In an effort to explain the global warming phenomonon, the film examines
annual temperature and CO2 levels for the past 600,000 years in
Antarctic ice core samples. An analogy to
Hurricane Katrina is used for those familiar with the 30-ft to 45-ft waves that destroyed almost a million homes in coastal
Mississippi,
Louisiana,
Alabama, and
Florida.
The documentary ends with Gore noting that if appropriate action is taken soon, the effects of global warming can be successfully reversed by releasing less
carbon dioxide and growing more plants or trees. Gore calls upon viewers to learn how they can help in this initiative.
Gore's book of the same title was published concurrently with the theatrical release of the documentary. The book contains additional, detailed information, scientific analysis, and Gore's commentary on the issues presented in the documentary.
Origins
Gore first became intrigued by the topic of global warming when he took a course at
Harvard University with Professor Roger Revelle, one of the first scientists to measure
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Later, when Gore was in Congress, he initiated the first congressional hearing on the subject, brought in climate scientists and began talking to politicians about the issue. He thought that once legislators heard the compelling evidence, they would be driven to action; ultimately, though, the process was a slow one. Gore's 1992 book,
Earth in the Balance is a 1992 book [i] written by ...
, dealing with a number of environmental topics, reached the New York Times bestseller list.
As Vice President during the
Clinton Administration, Gore pushed for the implementation of a carbon tax to modify incentives to reduce fossil fuel consumption and thereby decrease emission of greenhouse gases; it was partially implemented in 1993. He helped broker the 1997
Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty designed to curb
greenhouse gas emissions. However, it was not ratified in the
United States due to opposition in the
Senate. Gore also supported the funding of a satellite called Triana, to increase awareness of environmental issues and to take the first direct measurements of
how much sunlight is reflected from the Earth. During
his 2000 Presidential Campaign, Gore ran, in part, on a pledge to ratify the
Kyoto Protocol.
After his defeat in
the 2000 presidential election, Gore returned his focus to the topic. He edited and adapted a slideshow he had compiled years earlier, and began featuring the slideshow in multimedia presentations on global warming across the U.S. and around the world. At the time of the film, Gore estimated he had shown the presentation more than one thousand times.
Producers Laurie David and Lawrence Bender saw Gore's slide show in
New York City after the 2004 premiere of
The Day After Tomorrow is a 2004 [i] apocalyptic science-fiction [i] ...
. Inspired, they met with director Davis Guggenheim about the possibility of making the slide show into a movie. Guggenheim, who was skeptical at first, later saw the presentation for himself, stating that he was "blown away," and "left after an hour and a half thinking that global warming [was] the most important issue. . . . I had no idea how you’d make a film out of it, but I wanted to try," he said.
Scientific basis
In both the movie and the accompanying book, Gore cites many scientific studies to support his claim that global warming is real and largely
human-caused including:
- The retreat of numerous glaciers is shown in before-and-after photographs .
- A 2004 survey by Dr. Naomi Oreskes of 928 peer-reviewed scientific articles on global climate change published between 1993 and 2003. The survey, published as an editorial in the journal Science, claimed that every article either supported the human-caused global warming consensus or did not comment on it.
The
Associated Press contacted more than 100 top climate researchers and questioned them about the film's veracity. Although at the time before the film's general release, when many of those surveyed had both not seen the movie or read the book, all 19 climate scientists who had done so said that Gore conveyed the science correctly.
The U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, chaired by Sen.
Jim Inhofe, a global warming skeptic who received more than a million dollars from oil and gas companies in 2002
, issued a press release criticizing this article.
Inhofe's statement that "global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people" appears in the film.
RealClimate, a group blog maintained by eleven climate scientists, lauded the film's science as "remarkably up to date, with reference to some of the very latest research."
Science historian and founder of
The Skeptics Society Michael Shermer wrote in
Scientific American that
An Inconvenient Truth "shocked me out of my doubting stance".
However, in a June 26 2006 editorial in the
Wall Street Journal is an influential international daily newspaper [i] published in New York City [i] ...
, climatologist and global warming skeptic Richard Lindzen criticized the movie and questioned its claims.
A critical examination of Lindzen's critique by blogger, David Lawrence, found Lindzen's claims not to be based on currently available data.
.
Performance
Box office performance
The film opened in
New York City and Los Angeles on Wednesday, May 24 2006. On
Memorial Day weekend, it grossed $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 a three-time standing ovation. It was also screened at the
Cannes Film Festival and was the opening night film at the 27th Durban International Film Festival on June 14 2006.
An Inconvenient Truth was the most popular Documentary at the 2006 Brisbane International Film Festival.
The film has grossed over $23 million as of September 6 2006, making it the third-highest-grossing documentary in the U.S. to date .
Al Gore has stated, "
Tipper 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 is committing 5% of their domestic theatrical gross for the film to a new bipartisan climate action group, Alliance for Climate Protection, dedicated to awareness and grassroots organizing.
Reviews
Critical reaction to the film has been extremely positive in both left and right media. It has garnered a "certified fresh" 92% rating at
Rotten Tomatoes , with a 94% rating from the "Cream of the Crop" reviewers. Film critics
Roger Ebert and
Richard Roeper gave the film "two thumbs up". Ebert wrote: "In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to."
A few critics were not so impressed. For instance, journalist Ronald Bailey argued in the
libertarian magazine
Reason that although "Gore gets the science more right than wrong", he "exaggerates the risks."
The response at Sundance was echoed in box-office proceeds. The film received special recognition from the Humanitas Prize, the first time the organization had handed out a Special Award in over 10 years.
Political response
- President Bush, when asked whether he would watch the film, responded: "Doubt it." He later stated that "we need to set aside whether or not greenhouse gases have been caused by mankind or because of natural effects." Gore responded by saying, "The entire global scientific community has a consensus on the question that human beings are responsible for global warming and [Bush] has today again expressed personal doubt that that is true."
- In August 2006, the Wall Street Journal revealed that a YouTube video lampooning Gore and the movie, titled Al Gore's Penguin Army, appeared to be astroturfing by DCI Group, a Washington PR firm with ties to ExxonMobil as well as the Republican Party .
- In September 2006, Gore traveled to Sydney, Australia to promote the film. Australian Prime Minister, John Howard said he would not meet with Gore or agree to Kyoto because of the movie: "I don't take policy advice from films." Opposition Leader Kim Beazley joined Gore for a viewing and other MPs attended a special screening at Parliament House earlier in the week.
Promotion
The film, which opened at film festivals, was promoted with taglines such as "A global warning", "We're all on thin ice", "By far the most terrifying film you will ever see", and "The scariest film this summer is one where you are the villain and the hero".
Influences on popular culture
- Prior to being released, the film was parodied in the South Park is a Peabody [i] and Emmy Award [i]-winning American [i] animated television series [i]...
episode "Manbearpig". Gore laughed off this sensationalized depiction of him, saying "Their comic sensibility is aimed at a different demographic than the one I inhabit, but I still find a lot of what they do hilarious." - Stephen Colbert, on The Colbert Report, is an Emmy Award [i]-nominated American [i] satirical [i] ...
, also parodied An Inconvenient Truth on July 17 2006. Entitled "The Convenientest Truth" , Colbert created his own presentation that argued for the positive effects of global warming, using his signature humor tactics to satirize the conservative response to Gore's presentation. - During the movie, Al Gore shows a clip from the Futurama is an American [i] animated television series [i] that follows Philip J. Fry [i] ...
episode "Crimes of the Hot" dealing with global warming; Al Gore was a guest star in that episode, though he was not present in the clip. In addition, Gore stars in a faux trailer made by the Futurama cast and crew titled, "A Terrifying Message from Al Gore". - The Competitive Enterprise Institute ran two television advertisements to "counter global warming alarmism" in apparent reply to An Inconvenient Truth. Both used the tagline "Carbon Dioxide - They call it pollution; We call it life."
- Comedian Jon Stewart mocked the Competitive Enterprise Institute and other critics of the movie on The Daily Show is a Peabody [i]- and Emmy [i]-winnin ...
: - The television show X-Play did two separate parody sketches as promotions for G4's award show, G-Phoria. One sketch showed an Al Gore impersonator warning about temperature increases in Middle Earth due to the Eye of Sauron.
See also
Notes
References
- Rodriguez, Neal. "National Research Council finds Global Warming at 400-Year High!" Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth, June 23 2006
