Al Gore's movie a call to action

Posted by Brian Jackson Dec 19, 2006

I just had the pleasure of enjoying this movie recently, even though I'd known about it for some time. The only reason I didn't get around to it sooner was that I wasn't fully convinced that Gore could make a compelling movie about a topic that I've already explored in other media.

"What can this dry, boring, geezer do to captivate attention on a topic that is rife with dull scientific data?" I wondered when hearing of the movie. Besides, this guy managed to lose an election to George Bush - it's understandable my confidence in his abilities is shaky.

But Gore proved me wrong (that sly dog) with marvelous story-telling and a compelling argument that links together many of the ways our world is changing. He even is bold enough to make a strong statement about where American's security concerns should really be focused.

Much of the movie is footage of Gore's slide-show that he has delivered on the same topic for years. The presentation has clearly had much time and expert assistance given to it. Each slide is visually stunning, and the animation really brings it to life.

The literal high point of the presentation coming when a gigantic graph demonstrating the correlation between carbon emissions and average global temperature is charted across several large screens. For the most recent half-century, Gore takes to a cherry-picker to levitate him to the ultra-high level of both lines; "you've heard of off the charts," he quips.

Added to the excellent presentation is some cut-aways to stunning footage of polar landscapes where we see icebergs breaking apart and melting at waterfall pace. Then we're taken to New Orleans carnage in the wake of Hurricane Katrina - just part of Gore's masterful linking of global warming to stronger storms and the potential havoc that will wreak.

Gore makes his points during the presentation and movie as though they are obvious to all, even if it may be a revelation to many. Perhaps the most important point he so casually drops: "Maybe the United States should be worried about other things besides terrorists."

After the evidence he's presented it is hard to disagree. Terrorists brought down two skyscrapers - global warming destroyed a historic great American city.