Simply put, “An Inconvenient Truth” is a call to action. Presented by Al Gore, this documentary is an argument for immediate action to combat the global warming crisis, which Gore says is a moral issue that the world can no longer ignore.
Unlike most documentaries, Gore is the only voice in the film, so instead of hearing testimonies from leading scientists in the field of global warming, Gore tells the viewers what the scientists have said regarding the issue. This detracts slightly from the credibility of the argument but overall Gore’s argument for immediate action is a strong one. He backs his argument up by facts, charts and images that date back decades, centuries and even millennia to prove his case; global warming does exist, and something needs to be done about it.
Using satellite imagery, Gore shows what would happen if all of the ice on Greenland was to melt, and viewers watch California’s Bay Area is swallowed by rising water. Viewers also watch as the landscape of northern Europe dramatically shrinks. There is an almost forty-year-old photo of Africa’s Mt. Kilimanjaro, on which the snowy top has nearly completely melted away by the present day.
Thankfully, Gore spares his audience the confusing scientific jargon and places global warming in a deeply humane perspective. He brings up the recent tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, when thousands of people fled the Gulf Coast, and then asks how the world will cope when rising oceans destroy the homes of hundreds of millions of people worldwide.
By explaining how humans have affected global warming and how global warming will in turn affect humans instead of plants and animals (though he does touch briefly on the effect of global warming on polar bears), Gore makes the issue seem much more relevant to the everyday person. This sense of humanity also supports Gore’s notion that global warming is not a political issue, but a moral one. It affects everyone, not just politicians.
Most of the film is fact after fact about global warming, which would convince even the most skeptical audience that the problem does exist. The other parts of the film are Gore’s background, which fills viewers in on how he became interested in the issue of global warming and why he fights to be heard today. Believe it or not, Gore even lets some of his personality and humor shine through, which makes sitting through an hour-and-a-half of potential global disaster a little less dreadful.
Although Gore makes a strong argument for the existence of global warming and of the need for action, this film might not be for everyone simply because Gore is the one presenting the information. His jokes about being the former next president might fall flat on Republican ears, but it’s hard to hear his words about catastrophic results for humanity and not feel the need to do something.
And even if “An Inconvenient Truth” doesn’t push people to action, at least it gets out the message that global warming is real, whether people want to believe it or not.