An Inconvenient Truth
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Movie Reviews of An Inconvenient Truth
Movie Review: To the Naysayers
Summary: 5 Stars
Unfortunately, you are either a disseminator of disinformation or one of the unfortunate individuals who have been duped by the "corporatocracy" here in America (and abroad). The evidence is overwhelming that mankind is exacerbating the global warming phenomenon; period--end of argument.
Unfortunately, the reality is simply this--finding a solution to global warming would deal a fatal blow to the profiteers that stand to lose the most money (hence "An Incontinent Truth") while the rest of us, and our posterity, stand to lose what little "hospitable" environment we have left. It is bad enough that pollution and other environmental stressors have tainted our planet with disease, but what's even worse are the effects of the ever-increasing carbon emissions into our atmosphere and what they will do in the not so distant future (because of people like you [the naysayer] that refuse to admit or see the truth).
If you have simply been duped, I hope you come around and peace finds you and your family as we stand a modicum of hope to overcome this impending crisis. If you are part of the false propagandists, however, then you are akin to a lethal virus that needs to be eradicated. That is not a threat--that is simply an analogy because, if we do not start seriously addressing the global warming issue, many of us will stand to be wiped out as the climate shifts at an accelerated and intensified rate. What perhaps you and others are insidiously trying to do is mix fact with fiction, exploiting the former with the latter by using a teleological fallacy which ultimately results in a very dubious and slippery slope which will have disastrous consequences.
What's worse is that the plutocracy found in American and throughout the world will cease at nothing to protect their profit margins by paying off pseudo scientists to produce bogus studies which provide "plausible deniability" for companies like Exxon and politicians on the right (and left) in need of the political cover necessary to legislate and prevent laws to support the wealthiest 1% of our population.
The power of the "corporatocracy" must be stopped, and it is not limited to the global warming phenomenon (albeit it is the worst problem of all). Their power is also the driving force behind the malevolent distribution of wealth and resources in society--a concentration of wealth that FDR fought so hard to cease and prevent for future generations; all of which came to a grinding halt after the breakup of ATT and Reagan's unwavering support of economic principles he understood little himself, but which had huge economic advantages to the overwhelming corporations that have grown up ever since and the individuals at their helm who profit from them the most). These "anti anti-monopoly" practices continue to have adverse repercussions for the rest of us today--and the problem is only getting worse.
Global warming, or our lack to mobilize efforts in opposition to the man-made and overwhelming portion of it, is simply the greatest symptom of a fundamental flaw in American politics... the illusion of democracy (or rather, the illusion of a democratic-republic) here in the United States and in other "democratic" nations around the world. The power, both public and private, simply doesn't reside in the hand of the people anymore--that's the illusion--it really rests in relatively few people and families that pull the strings for the rest of us.
The greatest cure for our problems, including global warming, is addressing the underlying political flaws which prevent us from dealing with them equitably and sensibly in the first place. To do that, we need to embrace the spirit of the 2nd Amendment so that we can bring something more than empty threats to the political round table--we can bring the reality of an armed citizenry that refuses to allow corporations (and government) to abuse capitalism in a way that runs over the overwhelming majority of people. Conscientious capitalism can work, but conscientious conservatism, as practiced, cannot.
I don't have time to thoroughly argue the 2nd Amendment portion of my argument here, but if you are a naysayer, I would admonish you to rethink your opinions in such matters as mentioned thereof and get on the right side of things with the rest of us--after all--we the people prevailed in 1776, so there is a good chance we may overcome tyranny again (wherever and whenever it exists)...
Remember, global warming is symptomatic of a greater problem Thomas Jefferson often spoke of. It isn't just the corporations; it's the banks (and specifically, the Federal Reserve, the private institution that heads them all--a duty delegated to congress in the American Constitutions which was later subverted by the Supreme Court). Jefferson wrote...
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."
Considering you really don't own your home if you have a mortgage--Jefferson was right. What takes thirty years and two to three times the price of your home to begin with should take a fraction of that time and cost to your god-given right to own your home. We'll never fix this problem, or global warming, without first addressing "the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks]" to begin with.
But how is this ever going to happen if our politicians, and the heads of banks and corporations surrounding them, don't take us seriously? If a British soldier knocked on your door in 1776, chances are that he would have a musket similar to the one you had hidden behind your door (and to the one that fired "the first shot heard `round the world" in Concord, Massachusetts the previous year). Even though you would be outnumbered by the local British garrison, they would in turn be outnumbered by your neighbors (which made up the local militia). The spirit of the militia is what has been lost since the American Revolution; and its loss is the cause of corporate greed, government intrusion, the gross maldistribution of wealth in this country (and around the world), and crime. Thank about it; if everyone walked around with a sidearm like you'd see in some old western, virtually no one would consider perpetrating a crime against you (as the movie industry would have you believe). Just as it served to subvert the Cold War, MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction), an ever-armed citizenry would virtually eliminate violent crime. It wouldn't be necessary for every single person to carry a firearm (such as children, adolescents, or a habitual criminal recently released from prison); it simply require enough people so that the chances of someone concealing a weapon would be far greater than not.
Like Jefferson and our forefathers, I don't advocate violence for "light an transient reasons", but global warming and other problems that plague Americans and citizens around the world (like the refusal for universal healthcare and terrorism), are so insurmountable that violence, or the threat of it, is sometimes the only way to resolve the seemingly irresolvable. The only way to be a threat to the heads of corporations and opportunists in government is to ensure we have an armed citizenry--an armed citizenry that has the right to "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" afforded by the Constitution and guaranteed via the first and second amendments of the Bill of Rights.
It's important that our citizenry can see this connection between: global warming and other problems we face in the world, "the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks]", our government, the Constitution, and the 2nd Amendment within it. We have the power, but human nature sometimes prevents us from using it. Just as Al Gore uses the analogy of the frog in "an inconvenient truth", Jefferson mentioned our inability to use the power of the people in the Declaration of Independence when he wrote, "all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed." But he also immediately went on to say, "But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security."
I am as "liberal" as the next guy when it comes to universal healthcare, protectionist measures to ensure fair trade (to protect both companies and their workers), and unions to ensure humane conditions in the workplace, etc... but global warming is going to have catastrophic consequences if we don't quell this "long Train of Abuses and Usurpations." To do this, we need to go back to the fundamental right to bear arms--that way we have teeth able to hold politicians and the heads of corporations accountable. With embracing the 2nd Amendment and creating a culture of arms, we remain toothless in the flight against global warming.
Movie Review: Accept the FACTS!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I thought the movie was great!!!!!!
I am posting this to assist the skeptics, the planet needs our help, our children need our help, you can bury your head and plug your ears. But the best thing to do is to do REAL research and accept the facts.
Global Warming Fast Facts
National Geographic News
Updated June 14, 2007
Global warming, or climate change, is a subject that shows no sign of cooling down.
Here's the lowdown on why it's happening, what's causing it, and how it might change the planet.
Is It Happening?
Yes. Earth is already showing many signs of worldwide climate change.
* Average temperatures have climbed 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degree Celsius) around the world since 1880, much of this in recent decades, according to NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
* The rate of warming is increasing. The 20th century's last two decades were the hottest in 400 years and possibly the warmest for several millennia, according to a number of climate studies. And the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that 11 of the past 12 years are among the dozen warmest since 1850.
* The Arctic is feeling the effects the most. Average temperatures in Alaska, western Canada, and eastern Russia have risen at twice the global average, according to the multinational Arctic Climate Impact Assessment report compiled between 2000 and 2004.
* Arctic ice is rapidly disappearing, and the region may have its first completely ice-free summer by 2040 or earlier. Polar bears and indigenous cultures are already suffering from the sea-ice loss.
* Glaciers and mountain snows are rapidly melting--for example, Montana's Glacier National Park now has only 27 glaciers, versus 150 in 1910. In the Northern Hemisphere, thaws also come a week earlier in spring and freezes begin a week later.
* Coral reefs, which are highly sensitive to small changes in water temperature, suffered the worst bleaching--or die-off in response to stress--ever recorded in 1998, with some areas seeing bleach rates of 70 percent. Experts expect these sorts of events to increase in frequency and intensity in the next 50 years as sea temperatures rise.
* An upsurge in the amount of extreme weather events, such as wildfires, heat waves, and strong tropical storms, is also attributed in part to climate change by some experts.
Are Humans Causing It?
* "Very likely," the IPCC said in a February 2007 report.
The report, based on the work of some 2,500 scientists in more than 130 countries, concluded that humans have caused all or most of the current planetary warming. Human-caused global warming is often called anthropogenic climate change.
* Industrialization, deforestation, and pollution have greatly increased atmospheric concentrations of water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, all greenhouse gases that help trap heat near Earth's surface. (See an interactive feature on how global warming works.)
* Humans are pouring carbon dioxide into the atmosphere much faster than plants and oceans can absorb it.
* These gases persist in the atmosphere for years, meaning that even if such emissions were eliminated today, it would not immediately stop global warming.
* Some experts point out that natural cycles in Earth's orbit can alter the planet's exposure to sunlight, which may explain the current trend. Earth has indeed experienced warming and cooling cycles roughly every hundred thousand years due to these orbital shifts, but such changes have occurred over the span of several centuries. Today's changes have taken place over the past hundred years or less.
* Other recent research has suggested that the effects of variations in the sun's output are "negligible" as a factor in warming, but other, more complicated solar mechanisms could possibly play a role.
What's Going to Happen?
A follow-up report by the IPCC released in April 2007 warned that global warming could lead to large-scale food and water shortages and have catastrophic effects on wildlife.
* Sea level could rise between 7 and 23 inches (18 to 59 centimeters) by century's end, the IPCC's February 2007 report projects. Rises of just 4 inches (10 centimeters) could flood many South Seas islands and swamp large parts of Southeast Asia.
* Some hundred million people live within 3 feet (1 meter) of mean sea level, and much of the world's population is concentrated in vulnerable coastal cities. In the U.S., Louisiana and Florida are especially at risk.
* Glaciers around the world could melt, causing sea levels to rise while creating water shortages in regions dependent on runoff for fresh water.
* Strong hurricanes, droughts, heat waves, wildfires, and other natural disasters may become commonplace in many parts of the world. The growth of deserts may also cause food shortages in many places.
* More than a million species face extinction from disappearing habitat, changing ecosystems, and acidifying oceans.
* The ocean's circulation system, known as the ocean conveyor belt, could be permanently altered, causing a mini-ice age in Western Europe and other rapid changes.
* At some point in the future, warming could become uncontrollable by creating a so-called positive feedback effect. Rising temperatures could release additional greenhouse gases by unlocking methane in permafrost and undersea deposits, freeing carbon trapped in sea ice, and causing increased evaporation of water.
What is Climategate?
In late November 2009, hackers unearthed hundreds of emails at the U.K.'s University of East Anglia that exposed private conversations among top-level British and U.S. climate scientists discussing whether certain data should be released to the public. [Do we know who the hackers were? Were they skeptics? Might be worth noting]
The email exchanges also refer to statistical tricks used to illustrate climate change? trends, and call climate skeptics idiots, according to the New York Times.
One such trick was used to create the well-known hockey-stick graph, which shows a sharp uptick in temperature increases during the 20th century. Former U.S vice president Al Gore relied heavily on the graph as evidence of human-caused climate change in the documentary An Inconvenient Truth.
The data used for this graph come from two sources: thermostat readings and tree-ring samples.
While thermostat readings have consistently shown a temperature rise over the past hundred years, tree-ring samples show temperature increases stalling around 1960.
On the hockey-stick graph, thermostat-only data is grafted onto data that incorporates both thermostat and tree-ring readings, essentially presenting a seamless picture of two different data sets, the hacked emails revealed.
But scientists argue that dropping the tree-ring data was no secret and has been written about in the scientific literature for years.
Climate change skeptics have heralded the emails as an attempt to fool the public, according to the Times.
Yet climate scientists maintain that these controversial points are small blips that are inevitable in scientific research, and that the evidence for human-induced climate change is much broader and still widely accepted.
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Movie Review: The "Epitome of [Hypocrisy]" is the Neo-Conservative Nihilist Denial!
Summary: 5 Stars
First of all, this film is a great film! It's one of the best films I've seen in some time. If the right-wing nihilists weren't out in full force, do you think anyone would have a problem obeying the international laws that only United States refuses to implement? You heard me right, and you heard Al Gore right, and this is what he said in my own words: the reason America won't get off its collective butts to install laws that recognize the existence of Global Warming is because of China. That's right: China.
Okay, here's a "weed whacker" if I ever saw one. I'm going to quote someone else's review from here at Amazon called "The Epitome of Hypocracy." (I think the writer meant "hypocrisy" instead of "hypocracy.") The article with that name is correctly labeled, sans misspelling, but the epitome of hypocrisy belongs to that reviewer, and not the person on whom she has laid her blame. She calls herself "Stealth Kitten" Isn't that ironic! She's a clumsy writer. I quote her statements here:
QUOTE--"Disclosure: Before you look at the one star review and your emotional belief system starts categorizing me as a Republican or a Bush supporter I would like to disclose that I despise both the republican and democratic parties which are in reality now two agents of the same agenda."
I know she'll be getting to her point soon; alas, I must wait.
QUOTE--"And I'm not here to debate whether or not global warming is a real phenomenon. I'm also a former employee of the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency]."
Okay, so if she's not going to debate it, I guess that's because she agrees with it. As an EPA employee, she'd be able to contest Al Gore's argument IF global warming does not exist.
QUOTE--"That being said, the idea that Al Gore (or any american president) is an environmentalist is patently absurd."
Did this lady watch the same film I did? I just saw Al Gore preaching for TWO HOURS about the environment. Who's she tryin' to kid? He had scientific data, charts, and films.
QUOTE--"Am I the only person who remembers that it was the Clinton administration that engineered the policy of the polution credits allowing companies who are polluters to actually pollute more?"
WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH IT? Okay, so this complaint has no bearing on the film, but this lady wants people to talk about the credits of the Kyoto Protocol? Lady, if you're complaining about the credit system, you've missed the boat.
QUOTE--"Like Bush and Cheney, Clinton and Gore manipulate and undermine the enviromentalist cause every chance they get."
Trite!
QUOTE--"LOOK AT THE CAR AL GORE IS DRIVING IN THE FILM. Uhhh...."
Over 30% of the world's greenhouse gases are emitted by the United States, but this woman is worried about which car Al Gore drives! Hey lady, can you say ICE AGE?
QUOTE--"It was the Clinton administration that made it legal to POISON U.S. CITIZENS by putting carcinogens in their food. Don't believe me? Look up the Delaney clause and The Food Quality Protection Act sometime."
Irrelevant. She hasn't presented an argument without the trivial blame game! Is she going to talk about the content of the film today?
QUOTE--"The reality of CO2 emissions is that we could operate completely of of eco-friendly energy using 1920's TECHNOLOGY if there was not a political conspiracy in place in order to prevent that from happening. Electric cars, windmills, and especially hydro-electric power have been here for a hundred years. Hydro electric power is and always has been the most efficient, most enviromentally friendly way to to produce electricity... and anyone who tells you otherwise is probably putting out disinformation on behalf of a corporation or intelligence agency. A few more dams the size of hoover and niagra could easily power north america and we could certainly have electric cars."
I think she's saying that global warming does exist, and she agrees that people should do something about it. Didn't Al Gore say this?
QUOTE--"The real agenda here is that Al Gore's handlers have ordered him to use the environmentalist cause to bring about world socialist government which is what the agenda of people like Bush and Gore has been for a long time."
WHAT A FRUITCAKE! She's confused! This is outright presumptuous slander. Notice how she mixes opinions in with her "facts." And, does anyone think Bush is attempting to "bring about world socialist government?" NO, THEY DON'T! She's arguing from a figment of her imagination, but contrary to her earlier argument, this one says that Gore IS BEING an environmentalist!
QUOTE--"Wake up kids. If you want a real documentary watch 9/11 mysteries or Terror Storm."
Boy, that is the worst review of this film I've read so far. She doesn't mention anything in the film, except that Al Gore starred in it. What was she trying to say anyway? It sounded like confusion and frustration. Lady, you're a nut!
What's worse is that a few nut bags deny every politician who try to do a job and provide a basic service to the American people. There are TWO definitions to the word democracy, the OTHER ONE is REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT, of which we have little-to-none. Al Gore knows what he believes and what he's fighting for is good to Americans. While the Americans are sitting on their collective butts, the rest of the world has adopted the Kyoto Protocol. Why not the Americans?
Because, CHINA. Or, because CREDITS. I'd like someone to explain to me what China has to do with whether or not America adopts the Kyoto Protocol! I mean, if America is the greatest, most "moral-est" country in the world, why does it take A CONVENIENT STANCE? Because, then America can ignore the problem? Of course, this to completely ignore the facts of the movie telling people that China is WAAAAAAY ahead of the United States in its greenhouse-gas emission standards!
Those are great morals, America! At this rate, the world will have another Ice Age much sooner. What do you want, a pat on the back too?
America is in denial of the change the world needs.
If you're saying this is socialism, then you're a retard.
Hey, is saving lives socialism too?
Movie Review: You must watch it!
Summary: 5 Stars
My first impression upon watching this documentary was utter amazement and fear. In fact, "An Inconvenient Truth" is billed as the scariest movie you'll ever see. Could it be that life on Earth as we know it will end within the next 50 years? It did not take me long to feel that this may be the most important documentary of all time (and the scariest one)!
In this documentary, Al Gore draws attention to the crisis of global warming. Gore blames CO2 for the temperature hikes we are experiencing worldwide. This documentary is basically a filmed version of the lectures that Gore has presented over 1,000 times to audiences all over the world.
Gore left me no room for doubt regarding the reality of global warming as Earth's ultimate environmental crisis and eventual doom. I was fascinated and convinced by his thorough presentation. And I am not alone to feel this way. Here is what other reviewers on amazon.com have said about this documentary:
A. A must see; a must think.
B. The most important film I have ever seen.
C. Very important; watch & watch again.
D. What in the world are we waiting for?
E. Required Viewing.
F. Save this planet by individual action.
G. Eye-opening!
H. Al Gore is the smartest man on this doomed planet!
I. Great inspiring movie. Please see it and let's change the way we live.
J. The truth is very disturbing, but you need to see it.
K. Don't Blow it! Good planets are hard to find.
L. Spread the Truth.
M. A must see for every resident of planet earth.
N. Stunning! Seeing this film is one of the most important things you can do all year.
O. Only 50 years from now... If you LOVE your CHILDREN, do you part to help NOW!
Al Gore's message is quite clear: Our planet is dying due to the fact that the world is steadily getting warmer. The question is what does this mean for all of humanity and what can we do about it? This film argues the case that the effects of global warming will continue, and indeed steadily get worse.
As I was reading the reviews on amazon.com, I found more and more people disagreeing with Al Gore. Some accused him of political manipulation. He is instilling fear in us in order for us to vote for him on the next presidential race. In other words, unless we vote for him, global warming is going to get worse and the icecaps are going to melt and we are all going to die by drowning!
Some mistrust Gore. Some have exclaimed, "Isn't this the guy who said he invented the internet!?" Others believe that he is selling snake oil and that there is no truth in his claims. After all, they say, he is not a scientist. Shouldn't this documentary have been presented by a scientist? Furthermore, why did Gore not do something about Global Warming when he was vice-president and in a better position to do so?
Many scientists in fact argue that his facts are not sound and that there is no correlation between CO2 and global warming.
So which is it? Is Al Gore right and doomsday is within 50 years from now, or is this just an exaggeration and unsound science?
Now I am not a scientist and am very new to this subject. With that said, here is the other side of the coin:
(1) Gore says that Earth is heating up because of man-made pollutants, which are raising the level of CO2 in the air. This CO2 traps the radiated heat from the Earth, thus warming up our planet. However, not only is Earth heating up, but all of the other planets in the solar system as well. If this is so, then our man made CO2 emissions aren't the major reason for the heating of the planet. If you visit the NASA website, you'll see that the Martian ice caps are melting too! So what could be the reason for this global warming? The primary source of heat on Earth, or anywhere in our solar system, is the Sun. If it wasn't for the sun, Earth would be a ball of ice. Our Sun goes through cycles. The Earth warms or cools with increased or decreased solar activity in the sun. This is not hard to visualize since a slight change in the Sun's angle turns summer to winter or winter to summer, a difference of several degrees! Our sun could therefore be the main reason behind our global warming.
(2) The earth has had many cooling and warming cycles for thousands of years, long before man could possibly contribute to it. The planet has seen far more severe climate changes than what we might experience and such changes have neither destroyed the planet nor the life upon it.
(3) One volcanic eruption (such as Mt. Pinatubo's volcanic eruption in the 90's) causes far more pollution and Co2 gases than our industries. During the Gulf War in 1991, when Saddam Hussein set fire to the Kuwaiti oil fields, more pollutants had been released in the air in one go than in any other time in history.
(4) We exhale CO2! Does this mean in order to have less CO2 in the air we must have less people on our planet? We are presently 6 billion people on Earth, and this number is rapidly increasing.
(5) Sea level has been rising at a rate of 1.8 mm per year for the past millenniums. Many scientists believe that the worst case scenario is a 2 feet rise in sea level within the next 100 years! Gore believes that we will be seeing a sea level rise of 20 feet in the next 50 years.
In a nutshell, no one really knows enough about the global climate to really say what definitively will happen within the next 50 years. In fact, no one really knows what the weather will be in the next few days (`This will be a sunny weekend,' exclaims the weatherman, only to have a rainy weekend).
The best we can do is to listen to all sides of an issue and then come to an educated opinion of our own. We should not let others do the thinking for us. This doesn't mean we can keep polluting the air we breathe. Everyone should do their part in trying to keep the environment clean.
I certainly enjoyed this movie and I think it's worth seeing. At least it got me thinking!
Movie Review: ...In its place, we are entering a period of consequences...
Summary: 5 Stars
It was 1970, and in my eighth grade Honors Science class, we were learning about the greenhouse effect, about how CO2 helps to keep the Earth warm, and how on planets like Venus, an excess of CO2 keeps it incredibly hot.
I raised my hand up and asked, "If we keep burning all this fuel and releasing CO2 into the atmosphere, wouldn't the CO2 levels start to go up, and then eventually we'll get a greenhouse effect here on Earth like on Venus?"
The Science teacher blinked and thought for a moment, and then said, "Yeh, you're probably right, but it won't happen for another 100 years, and by then we'll all be DEAD."
Yes, for all you doubters out there, the science of global warming is really that simple - an eighth grader can figure this one out. I have known it to be true since at least that time.
This is a great documentary; Al Gore is terrific in this movie. After watching this movie, having endured seven years of utter incompetence from the current occupier of the U.S. presidency, I really regretted not having voted for him.
But will we be able to turn global warming around and stop disaster from striking? I doubt it.
Here's why - there is just too much human inertia, too much self-interest for people to want to step forward and sacrifice themselves when life is still good. Al Gore makes the analogy to Churchill and the rise of the Nazis in Europe, and it is a terrific analogy, because, nobody, least of all Americans, wanted to take on Hitler at that time. It was not until people had absolutely no choice that they were forced to act.
And so I think that it will not be until life is unbearable that things will change. Picture a third of the state of Florida under water. Picture Shanghai and the Netherlands underwater. Picture a world of alternating excesses of water and massive drought all over.
It is already happening, but the disasters have so far mostly affected the weak, the infirm, the old, and the poor. The people who died in Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, the 30,000+ people who died in the summer heat wave in Europe in 2003, the killings in Darfur (a political conflict brought on largely by drought in the Sudan), the Pacific Islanders forced to move off their islands - the suffering of these people have barely registered in the minds of most people.
It will not be until the vocal, affluent, middle and upper classes of America and Europe begin to suffer the effects of global warming that things really begin to change.
And even then, how do you convince the 3 billion people of China and India to change? They will continue to yearn for the living standards of the industrialized West.
So, this is the Inconvenient Truth that Gore skips over in his talk: our modern standard of living simply requires vast amounts of energy, energy that we currently are able to generate only with carbon based fuels that release CO2.
As just one example, the historic population shift in the United States into the Southern states was made possible entirely because of the development of central air conditioning. Most of the Southern United States would be almost uninhabitable during the summer without air conditioning - modern office buildings often don't even have windows that can be opened to allow fresh air in. Gore's own house in Tennessee was recently revealed to be a huge energy sink. Similarly, much of the Northern states would be uninhabitable in the winter without heating fuel. All of the things in modern society that we take for granted - air conditioning, cars, air travel, electric lights, running hot water, television, computers, aluminum, plastics, etc., etc., require huge amounts of energy which currently can only be produced by carbon based fuels.
The truth is that in order to stop global warming, we have to stop producing CO2 entirely. CO2 levels are already at historic highs. Merely reducing the rate at which we produce more CO2 will only slow the exponential rate at which the CO2 levels continue to rise, not reverse the trend and drop those CO2 levels. And so all of the usual environmentalist measures for reducing CO2 emissions - solar energy, wind energy, biomass fuels, carbon taxes, greenhouse gas credits, fluorescent light bulbs, improved auto gas mileage, etc., etc., simply will not produce or save enough energy to reverse the rising CO2 levels.
Outside of this DVD, Gore has dismissed the use of nuclear energy as an alternative to help solve global warming. While I agree with him that nuclear fission is a dead end, for all the usual reasons, nuclear fusion has been seriously overlooked by nearly everyone in this debate. Tokamaks and inertial confinement systems are no longer merely theoretical devices, and we are only one massive scientific development program away from producing commercially viable nuclear fusion power plants.
Only nuclear fusion has the promise to satisfy both needs: to produce the massive amounts of energy needed to power our modern society and completely eliminate all CO2 emissions. I believe that our future prosperity as a species will depend on our ability to harness the power of nuclear fusion.
In the end, if we do not stop global warming, global warming will stop us. The catastrophic disasters predicted for continued global warming can only result in a massive reduction in the number of people on this planet. And that will cause the CO2 levels to drop, finally.