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4 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Well..., January 23, 2007
We need more films like this and Who Killed the Electric Car and Michael Moore's upcoming film, Sicko, about America's (don't get sick) healthcare system. Gore is excellent at drawing the American public's attention to issues that do matter FAR more than smoke screens such as abortion, gay marriage, and yes, even the war in Iraq; however, as he is so passionately wedded to one stance, he may not be the ideal man to do so. What we need is an open, balanced debate, wherein the public and politicians actually start paying attention to what scientists do have to say, instead of basking in the rays of our all-too-American anti-intellectual blind ignorance. As good as it may be, Gore's An Inconvenient Truth is not just such a balanced discussion. Gore, for instance, says emphatically that the debate is over concerning global warming. Now, while it certainly seems like global warming is occurring, the debate is far from over; this is still a very controversial issue. For example, when George Stephanopoulos on ABC said to Gore that most scientists think that the sea level's rate of rise is actually much lower than the alarmist statistic used in An Inconvenient Truth, Gore responded by saying, "The scientists just don't know." This, taken by Gore as a defensive statement, is actually quite contradictory. There is much controversy involved: climate does change over the course of decades. While it got hotter from about 1900 to about 1940, it actually started getting cooler from the 40's to the 70's, and then started getting hotter again. While some glaciers are clearly shrinking, some ice masses are actually getting bigger. What Gore is good at is drawing the American public's eye to ever-important environmental issues; but he falters in that he relies on controversial and alarmist claims. Why aren't more people arguing that global warming is ultimately irrelevant? Even if are carbon dioxide emissions from all of our cars are not raising the earth's temperature, even if the fact that the 90's was such a hot decade is ultimately a statistical coincidence, we STILL need to get rid of all these obsolete vehicles that use WAY more fuel than vehicles should given our current technological capabilities (and therefore cost WAY too much). We still need to be environmentally conscious with an eye on the future and what it will hold both for us and future generations, and not allow our government to be blindly focused on our current economic/corporate enterprises and their bottom line, who are hell-bent on making a profit come what may and are currently the sole grease that allows our nation's political wheels to keep turning. Our current situation is of course the logical result of what happens when you put such corporate entities in charge, or, rather, blindly allow them to take control; big businesses competing in the capitalist cutthroat economy do not care about things that do not pertain to their bottom line, and this includes the wellbeing of the planet, as well as the wellbeing of the average citizen. Gore advocates laws calling for a reduction in emissions. While a good idea, what we really need is an overhaul of our business-modeled dog-eat-dog political system that cares nothing about the consequences of its actions in terms of environmental impact, ridiculously unequal distributions of wealth, or having to rely on now-obsolete technologies simply because they are still so profitable.
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22 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
Truth Is Too Inconvenient For Some, January 2, 2007
I saw this movie in the theatres and downloaded it on Amazon's Unbox. It was just as shocking both times that I saw it. People have taken issue with how the movie presented its facts and figures. The truth is that Science is not something so simple that you can read a magazine and know all there is about a topic. Al Gore has done his best, via this medium, to present the case that Global Warming is a fact and not a theory. Errors were made, but the overwhelming consensus by scientists who have seen the film is that it gives the best presentation to the public that can be given. Al Gore presented the information in a way that most of us can easily understand and the errors were minor and did not detract from the overall truth of his messege.
I keep hearing about the so-called Oregon Petiton, where thousands of scientists rejected the Kyoto Agreement. This petition was circulated by the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, which specilizes in biochemistry, diagnostic medicine, nutrition, preventive medicine and the molecular biology of aging. These sciences have nothing, whatsoever, to do with sciences that research global warming. Sciences that do include: physics, geophysics, climatology, meteorology, oceanography, and environmental science. No verification was made of any of the signatories credentials, so you could claim to be anything and the OISM would let it stand. In fact, many of the signatories were linked to companies like Exxon and their public mouthpieces that try to head-off the environmentalist movement.
People are alarmed that taking action against global warming will have disasterous effect upon our economy and stall the advances of technology. Given that the technology already exists that can reverse much of the causes of global warming, there is little evidence that the naysayer's claims are true. People made similar claims in the 1800s about how devastating it would be if we abolished slavery in the US. The economic suffering it would cause, etc. Well, here we are, over 140 years later and I doubt if you could find anyone today who would say that abolishing slavery was a bad thing.
Al Gore wasn't making the case that we should abandon our cars and live in mud huts. He wants us all to take the steps we have available that can save our way of life, so that future generations have a world they can live in.
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3 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Review of 'An Inconvenient Truth', October 17, 2007
Everyone should see this. Our government should wake up to the realities exposed in this documentary.
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