An Inconvenient Truth [DVD]

This film makes you think. Although I do not agree with most of what Al Gore says, he still puts up a pretty good argument. Really good Documentary.

You don't have to agree or disagree with it, but gives you a well-focused subject area to think about.

Ponder this point:

If you transfer the hydrocarbons buried in the ground (in the form of crude oil) on to the surface and into the atmosphere (that is where all the diesel and petrol we burn end up), what will be the consequence of this? I don't have the answer but logic tells me that there must be some downside as a consequence.

Some individuals take that extra (or brave) step to articulate their answers and that is what Al Gore does in this video. It may not be 100% correct; it may not be 100% incorrect either. So, in between lies some truth [no pun intended].

I was disappointed with this film after reading positive reviews it got from critics.
It isn't a terrible film, it's very slickly presented, and brings together a lot of evidence for the case that humans are jeopardising the future of the planet, but there are a number of problems.

Firstly, as other reviewers point out, it merely reminds you of things you have already heard instead of really making you think. Worse for me, was the fact that it looked like a political move by Gore, positioning himself as the guy who cares. There are many irrelevant excerpts of montages from Gore's childhood and some of the key political events that marked his career personally, such as losing the 2000 election. Ostensibly they are relevant to the unfolding story, but really they look more like an attempt to put Gore, and not the issue, centrestage. Another criticism arises from the fact that we see Gore travelling in the back of his chauffeur driven car in many of the excerpts which are interleaved with the slideshow, and hear him tell us of all the cities he's travelled to to give this slideshow, a lot of carbon miles...

Gore comes across in the slideshow more as charismatic entertainer than a committed advocate. I was reminded a little of Michael Moore on a couple of occasions, for example when Gore puts forward the (albeit very valid) case for environmental standards for cars. He tells us that America lags far behind other advanced nations, and even behind China in this regard. He then goes on to try and make the point that economically, this is not in the American car manufacturers interests, saying that because they don't meet other nations environmental standards they have lost out in terms of sales. He presents a bar chart showing the profitability of four car manufacturers, two American and two Asian, and the Asians are displayed as increasing their market capitalisation, whereas the Americans are shown as decreasing their market capitalisation over time. Which just made me think, where are the other manufacturers from both regions, why have you left them out? If you really want to persuade people of something so that they are really convinced of it, presenting incomplete evidence such as that, to my mind, just serves to raise doubt in the minds of viewers as to the integrity of the presenter.

Anyway, I'm giving this three stars instead of two, as I imagine the film will do more good than harm, having a high profile figure such as Gore visibly promoting the issue of climate change.