Chris Gadomski on Listening to Al Gore

Chris Gadomski on Listening to
Al Gore
Review of An Inconvenient Truth...
Where are all the movie-goers?

Published online at www.smidirect.net
July 2006

NEW-See also: 2008 Candidate Al Gore--10 Point Plan On Climate Change

In the weeks since Davis Guggenheim's documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, opened May 24th, I have asked many people their opinion of the movie that features former presidential candidate Al Gore's discussion of the environment and global warming. What alarms me the most is not the pros and cons I hear about the movie, but rather how few people have actually seen it.

I, in fact, did not rush out to see the movie at a press screening or in the first week of its release. Rather I drove by the theater many nights, each time thinking I ought to stop. My 18 year old daughter finally forced the issue. It was a Tuesday night and she was bored. I was writing on deadline, about financing wind energy, and I needed to break for several hours before submitting the final draft. The one hour and 45 minute respite was time well spent.

In An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore does a commendable job calling attention to the fact that our earth is warming and he argues that a lot of it is attributable to human activity---too much greenhouse gas, i.e., carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels in cars, power plants and industrial activity. For me, a long-time advocate of renewable energy who constantly turns off light switches in our home, it was an easy sell. For my daughter, who often leaves those lights on and loves the new found freedom that accompanies a driver's license and a car, and who will hopefully be around for a few more decades than I will, it was disquieting to say the least.

Spotty Weather
In the days following my early June viewing of the movie I was fortunate to enjoy some fabulous California weather. Less fortunate were those in the Northeast who were being buffeted by lots of rain in June that brought flooding to New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. I had to warn guests who were visiting us in Cooperstown, NY for the July 4th weekend to avoid interstate 88 because flooding had washed out overpasses that killed two truckers. Fatalities from global warming? I certainly can't say that, but they were unlucky victims of "unusual" weather.

I couldn't help thinking about the movie again later on that weekend while dining out at a lake front restaurant. Al Gore tells us that the oceans, with ice shelves collapsing in Antarctica and glaciers melting in Greenland, will inundate the shorelines of Florida, Manhattan and many other places around the globe. Our hostess graciously seated us outside on the deck. There were also empty tables on a lower patio, usually more desirable due to their proximity to the lake. They were flooded, however, from the preceding week's unprecedented rain. Waves lapped against the normally dry deck posts below us as we ate. The bloated lake remained the talk of the town that week.

Al Gore, in the movie, tells us he constantly asks himself how he can better convey his message---packaged in a multimedia speech that he has given all across the globe---to get people to understand the issues better. In it, he comes across to me, not so much as a politician, but rather as an individual deeply committed to his message---action on our climate is necessary sooner than later-and for this he gains my respect.

The question I ask myself, however, is how come so few have seen the movie. How come so few seem to care? Am I alone on this? I am, well, a conservative republican who voted for George Bush---like many of my friends---both times. Upon learning that I went to the movie, a friend feigning surprised asked, "Isn't that a democratic thing?"

Hopefully, global warming, or climate crisis as the movie suggests, is not a partisan issue. Rather, I surmise, it is an issue fumbled not only by the current and past administrations, but also one our alleged representative leaders in Washington are now bungling. Terrorism, taxes and political games draw more attention.

Al Gore is already a lighting rod for neo conservative humor and steadily panned by conservative editors. Many of my Orange and San Diego County friends simply roll their eyes when I mention him. Separate the man from the message if you must, but applaud his attempt to raise awareness throughout the country and especially in Washington to a topic that at least deserves more than a passing thought.

Perhaps I am naïve about Gore's political agenda. Our climate, however, and the economic costs to cope with proposed solutions at least merits a healthy debate. Perhaps the message would have been carried further if Gore were not the messenger.

I hope, unlike many of this summer's releases, that An Inconvenient Truth gathers more traction before disappearing from the silver screen. I also hope that you take a few hours to see it…preferably with your children. That is an opinion also shared by a more famous movie critic, Roger Ebert. If you can't catch it in the movie theaters, (another movie now plays where I saw it) then at least visit www.climatecrisis.net on the web. Perhaps your children's children may one day thank you.

Chris Gadomski, who consults on marketing communications and web content development, writes frequently about energy and the environment for Project Finance Magazine, and Modern Power Systems. He teaches Energy Policy and the Economics and Finance of Energy at New York University's School of Continuing and Professional Studies.

Reprintable with permission citing source: www.SMIdirect.net.

Chris Gadomski
Tel: 914.993.9060
Email: info@SMIdirect.net

NEW-See also: 2008 Candidate Al Gore--10 Point Plan On Climate Change

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To illustrate the effects of global warming, the movie, incidentally, uses images of Antarctica's Larson ice shelf and Mt. Kilimanjaro similar to those that my staff compiled for a report written, edited and produced for the United Nations Development Program/Global Environment Facility. "Pioneering the Low Carbon Future…Sustaining Livelihoods" was part of UNDP/GEF's lead marketing material presented at the 2002 Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development. The report describes some experiences of UNDP/GEF's projects addressing climate change.