AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH [2006] review

I had long wanted to see Al Gore’s slideshow global warming documentary, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, but didn’t feel such a priority as I am already a life-long environmentalist and didn’t need to be converted. An in the end, I was left feeling I wanted to see more than what Al showed, maybe because I keep up with so much news on a daily basis, the things he showed didn’t seem entirely new.

Still, there were many startling revelations, such as the possible disappearance of the northern polar ice cap, the rising of the oceans and how the population has skyrocketed in the past 50 years. The first two of those have come under some criticism as no time tables can be set on them as Al suggests, but no doubt Al makes an extremely compelling case to stop wasting energy and start getting serious about insuring the Earth can survive humanity.

What I liked best were the small details, the things I never heard about before, like how simple things like there being less cold days allowing pine beetles to survive the winter and kill forests of pine trees; how warmer winters also cause caterpillars to hatch sooner, but too soon for baby birds to be hatched in time to eat. Those things were fascinating and horrifying to me.

I’ve been bringing my own cloth bags to the grocery store for the past 10 years, and nothing makes me feel prouder than refusing the cashier’s offer of plastic. I go over and proudly fill up my cloth bags amongst all the others stuffing plastic covered produce into yet another plastic bag. Living in Tokyo naturally makes one more eco-friendly. I don’t own a car, I use public transportation all the time and walk waaaay more than I ever would in the U.S.

At the end, Al shows how we have the means to bring CO2 output levels back to how they were in the early 90′s with tech that exists now. Can we get politicians in office that will ever enact what it takes to reverse the massive environmental destruction going on now? I certainly hope so. In the meantime I’ll be spending as much time in Nature as I can, while I still can.

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