Al Gore stars as himself in Paramount Classics shocking documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, © 2006

Change. Change is the difference of something from a previous state. Most change is good, moving to a new town, changing your style or your hair. But, not all change is good. Believe it or not, you better believe it. The earth has changed in time, different climates, different species, just completely different states of the earth over slow periods of time. Unfortunately, not anymore. The earth is beginning to change in many negative ways in the means of the environment. Did you notice any of those hurricanes last year? What about tornadoes or draughts in other parts of the world? Change is happening, and we’re the cause of it. Whether you like it or not, this is an inconvenient truth.

But what is this change? Two simple, yet absolutely terrifying words. Global Warming. “Wait,isn’t Global Warming just a crazy scientific theory!?” No, and it has been proven to be happening as we speak…

Former Vice President Al Gore and “former next President of The United States” as he refers to himself, has been touring the world. He’s dedicated himself to educating people about what he has been encouraging people to do to put an end to and has shown thousands of people his Keynote slideshow about the horrors of Global Warming and what is exactly happening to our home of planet Earth.

The most general way of explaining Global Warming is not at all complicated. The sun sends out dangerous rays of energy and light out onto the earth. When these rays hit the earth they come as both light and heat. There is a thin layer of green house gases that make up earth’s atmosphere, “about the approximate thickness if you would spray a globe with a single layer of varnish,” explains Gore. Normally, when the rays enter the atmosphere, some remain in the atmosphere blocked by the greenhouse gases and some are reflected off the face of the earth. When more gases are added to the atmosphere, carbon dioxide and other human made waste gas join the rest of the greenhouse gases. As the sun shines the rays into the atmosphere, less energy/rays are able to be relfected off the surface because they are blocked by the gases. The heat remains inside the atmosphere, thus overtime raises the overall temperature.

The effects of this raised temperature melts the ice caps and glaciers at both ends of the poles, at different times of the year, both poles are closer to the sun than most other parts of earth. As these glaciers melt, it raises the overall sea level, causing the water to rise over land and lower the temperature of the ocean. Scientists and Gore believe that Greenland could be close to almost completely melted, flooding parts of Asia, Florida, Europe, and even miles and miles of Manhattan, fully under water. An estimated 100 million refugees.

The hurricanes, as well as floods, and climate fluctuations all over the world are a result of Globing Warming and An Convenient Truth tells that. Al Gore tells his history of his interest in Global Warming. His college proffesor Roger Revelle of Harvard first informed him with his achievment of being the first person to compare the changes of Carbon Dioxide change in the atmosphere on a yearly basis, and found of the earth could take a dramatic turn in a matter of years.

Director Davis Guggenheim and Al Gore worked together to produce a documentary on both Global Warming and Gore’s history and experience with such a touchy issue. He never once mentions anything against anyone else, whether it’s our current administration or anyone in Washington from now to the time he started, who haven’t done anything to help prevent more of Global Warming. He just says what he has to say and keeps going. The film is not so much documentary style, but more as if you are actually sitting there face to face with Gore listening to what he has to say and viewing the shocking evidence that supports him at all times. Lecturesque is a fair way to categorize it. Gore thoroughly explains ever question you could possibly ask from what is Global Warming to, and by the time you are so shocked by the results of what it’s doing to our planet, “What the hell can we do?”

Rated PG for some thematic elements
Running time 100 minutes

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