Eric Lampe

Movie Assignment

4/30/07

An Inconvenient Truth

            This documentary explores Al Gore as he gives and talks about a slideshow that he has made and given 1000s of times across the world about global warming. In the beginning and the end he says that it is more than just an environmental issue, it is a moral issue. In his speech he goes through the science of the process of greenhouse gases getting stuck in the atmosphere, not letting infrared radiation escape and slowly warming the atmosphere. Then he goes on to talk about the dangers of global warming. If we continue to warm the earth then the polar ice caps will melt and raise the sea level 20 feet. Also, warming can cause storms to be more frequent and more extreme. More water is evaporated but it is unevenly distributed with rainfall so some places get flooded and some get drought. Then he talks about what countries are doing about it today and how America is the greatest contributor of greenhouse gases in the world. All this time the movie will break from his speech and go into a series of footage about his childhood and life experiences that have lead him to try and do something about the issue of global warming. One event was the near loss of his son when he was hit by car. This lead Gore to realize he had to do something with his life and make a difference in the world because life is very fragile. The closing of the movie lists things that you can do on your own to protect the environment like watching the car you drive and the appliances you use that use energy.

            I have been hearing a mass of general statements about how global warming is bad on the news but I was glad I watched this movie because it was a good complete view of at least one persons view on the issue. I think the moral issue comes in on being ignorant. I think it is wrong to just sit back and say I don’t care and I’m not going to make any effort to look farther into the facts of the situation. Do I think it is immoral to get the facts and decided you don’t want to drive a hybrid or use energy efficient light bulbs? No, in fact we have had debates in Physics class and I’ve watched this movie and I don’t know if I am compelled to act. I realize what global warming is and I think I understand the consequences of it but I just don’t think it is quite as big of a deal as it is made out to be. If we get a raised sea level and parts of the coast are covered in water then people have to move to the Midwest or other places which is a huge burden for those people however it is not the end of the world and they will live. However, I have realized after watching this movie that on a non-American point of view this could really be a life and death matter for a lot of extremely poor people in Africa. A lot of the drought is predicted to occur where people have the least money, in Africa, which is not fair because most of the warming is caused by the people with the most money. That for me it he strongest moral argument for global warming and has changed my point of view. In the movie they did not use many specific numbers about the consequences and I think if they did then it would feel more real to me and would have made a bigger effect on me. At sometimes it seemed to speak too generally and have stupid cartoons that made the mood less serious and that was the biggest drawback about the movie for me and so I thought it could have been better done in that respect. On a whole though the movie opened my eyes to some dangers I did not know about and whenever mass amounts of lives are put on the line then I think it becomes a moral issue. It is then a very grave matter that needs to be dealt with. When I go to buy a car or make decisions about energy consumption will I take that into a factor? I don’t what I will do but I know I will go into with an open mind. I know more information and studies will come out and I think it is morally important that I keep looking into it. Only time will tell what happens but I know that I have an effect now on what the future holds and it is important that I take into consideration the world I want live in twenty or thirty years later in life.