While on the first “college shopping” trip with my middle daughter, we saw An Inconvenient Truth, the documentary of Al Gore’s mission to convince others that humans are responsible for global warming. There’s a few obvious problems with it but overall it is convincing and deserving of the praise it has received thus far.
The film’s problems arise when it strays from the issue or tries to force analogies. For example, it shows Gore talking about how his sister died from lung cancer and how that convinced his family to quit raising tobacco. Although this is raised as an example of how we can change our behavior based on increased knowledge, it tends to omit the inconvenient truth that after his sister’s death Gore, as a U.S. Senator, continued to support the big tobacco companies.
While just the thought of Al Gore lecturing on an environmental issue may cause many eyelids to become heavy, the film does not have that effect. In fact, I’m glad I took my daughter and would encourage anyone to see it with an open mind.
Coincidentally, we saw the movie the same day the admissions staff at Carleton College mentioned that the campus gets 40 percent of its power from its own wind turbine and that environmental studies was one of the increasingly popular concentrations at the school.
It is not a political issue. It is a moral issue.
Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth
