Be scared, be very scared November 29, 2006
I SAW the scariest movie ever last weekend. It was Al Gore's lecture-documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth."
I had read the reviews about it, and it deserves all the raves it got. Gore, of course, was, as he himself puts it, "at one time the next president of America." He was George W's opponent in 2000, and won the majority of votes -- half a million more than Bush -- but lost the Electoral College. Many, including Michael Moore, think he won even the Electoral College, except that Bush cheated him in Florida.
Extrinsically, Gore's documentary shows the epic tragedy that was the American elections of 2000. It wasn't just that the wrong man won, it was that the right man lost. It wasn't just that the stupidest and most unprincipled man got to hold the reins of power of the most powerful country in the world, it was that one of the brightest and most principled Americans did not.
Well, Gore may have lost the battle but he may just win the war. He may have found his true calling in what he's doing right now, which is trying to save the planet where his previous opponent is busy trying to destroy it. Gore would have made a brilliant teacher -- a calling he holds in the loftiest regard, as shown by his abiding respect for his teachers whom he credits for first giving him a window through which to look at what is to come. "An Inconvenient Truth" is a lecture, but it is far more riveting than the car chases of action movies. Gore himself is battling a bigger menace than the world-domination ambitions of villains in movies and the nasty antics of terrorists in real life. He is battling the causes of a dying planet.
The "inconvenient truth" he talks about is global warming. That it is a truth is patent. It is no more and no less than the truth that tobacco causes cancer, although the tobacco companies find that inconvenient and do everything in their power to muddle it. There have been thousands of scientific papers written about global warming, Gore says in one powerful part of his lecture, and how many of those studies say global warming is not a reality and/or it is nothing to be alarmed about? Zero.
All the signs of a dying planet are there. The atmosphere, which is but a thin layer surrounding the planet (imagine a model of the globe given a coat of polish and that coat is the atmosphere) is crammed full of carbon dioxide at a level never before seen in earth's history. Which, not quite incidentally, refutes the notion that global warming is cyclical, it has happened before in the past -- true, but never at this scale. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is preventing the earth from exhaling the heat (yes, the earth breathes too, and is getting more and more asphyxiated), which is what's causing global warming.
The term itself may sound abstract but its consequences are not. The planet's ice caps are melting, which is causing water levels to rise, which is causing the vicious "natural" disasters we have seen over the last few years. The tsunamis, the hurricanes, the tornadoes, the floods that break all record for heights, and the droughts. Yes, even the droughts (I leave you to watch the documentary for the scientific explanation). I personally am glad for this part of the documentary because a couple of years ago, when I wrote about the frightening floods (Infanta, Quezon), tsunami (Aceh) and hurricanes and tornadoes that had beset the United States (Katrina et al.), and said it was obvious something was very wrong with the planet, I got the usual letters from the usual idiots saying I was being alarmist. Well, it's good to be an alarmist when there's cause for alarm.
Unless something is done to check the unabated inundation of the atmosphere of CO2 , a great deal of what we know as land will be underwater in 50 years or so. Truly scarily, Gore warns: You've seen the humanitarian crisis that happens when you're dealing with hundreds of thousands of refugees. Think of what would happen if you were dealing with hundreds of millions of them.
There is no doubt about the scale of the problem, except the doubts that are being spread by those who stand to profit from the status quo. Or who imagine they stand to profit from it, since the death of the planet will be their death, too. The oil companies, the car companies who think they can make money off scrimping on environmental controls, and their backers in government, chief of them the dolt they put in the White House. The doubts they're spreading are the same doubts the tobacco companies spread when the surgeon general determined with absolute certainty that smoking causes cancer.
There is no doubt about the scale of the problem, except the doubts that are being spread by those who stand to profit from the status quo. Or who imagine they stand to profit from it, since the death of the planet will be their death, too. The oil companies, the car companies who think they can make money off scrimping on environmental controls, and their backers in government, chief of them the dolt they put in the White House. The doubts they're spreading are the same doubts the tobacco companies spread when the surgeon general determined with absolute certainty that smoking causes cancer.
I leave the reader to know the practical suggestions he has for solving the problem at an individual level from watching the movie. One of those suggestions, in fact, is to tell friends to do just that. I'll go further and say that if you've got a DVD burner, make copies of the thing and give it to as many friends as you can this Christmas. I imagine Mr. Gore—I use that honorific "Mr." only for people I respect—will not greatly mind having his intellectual property propagated in this way. It's too important to be left to the pirates of Quiapo to distribute.
The truth shall set you free. It shall also keep your children alive well after you're dead.
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=35266
I had read the reviews about it, and it deserves all the raves it got. Gore, of course, was, as he himself puts it, "at one time the next president of America." He was George W's opponent in 2000, and won the majority of votes -- half a million more than Bush -- but lost the Electoral College. Many, including Michael Moore, think he won even the Electoral College, except that Bush cheated him in Florida.
Extrinsically, Gore's documentary shows the epic tragedy that was the American elections of 2000. It wasn't just that the wrong man won, it was that the right man lost. It wasn't just that the stupidest and most unprincipled man got to hold the reins of power of the most powerful country in the world, it was that one of the brightest and most principled Americans did not.
Well, Gore may have lost the battle but he may just win the war. He may have found his true calling in what he's doing right now, which is trying to save the planet where his previous opponent is busy trying to destroy it. Gore would have made a brilliant teacher -- a calling he holds in the loftiest regard, as shown by his abiding respect for his teachers whom he credits for first giving him a window through which to look at what is to come. "An Inconvenient Truth" is a lecture, but it is far more riveting than the car chases of action movies. Gore himself is battling a bigger menace than the world-domination ambitions of villains in movies and the nasty antics of terrorists in real life. He is battling the causes of a dying planet.
The "inconvenient truth" he talks about is global warming. That it is a truth is patent. It is no more and no less than the truth that tobacco causes cancer, although the tobacco companies find that inconvenient and do everything in their power to muddle it. There have been thousands of scientific papers written about global warming, Gore says in one powerful part of his lecture, and how many of those studies say global warming is not a reality and/or it is nothing to be alarmed about? Zero.
All the signs of a dying planet are there. The atmosphere, which is but a thin layer surrounding the planet (imagine a model of the globe given a coat of polish and that coat is the atmosphere) is crammed full of carbon dioxide at a level never before seen in earth's history. Which, not quite incidentally, refutes the notion that global warming is cyclical, it has happened before in the past -- true, but never at this scale. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is preventing the earth from exhaling the heat (yes, the earth breathes too, and is getting more and more asphyxiated), which is what's causing global warming.
The term itself may sound abstract but its consequences are not. The planet's ice caps are melting, which is causing water levels to rise, which is causing the vicious "natural" disasters we have seen over the last few years. The tsunamis, the hurricanes, the tornadoes, the floods that break all record for heights, and the droughts. Yes, even the droughts (I leave you to watch the documentary for the scientific explanation). I personally am glad for this part of the documentary because a couple of years ago, when I wrote about the frightening floods (Infanta, Quezon), tsunami (Aceh) and hurricanes and tornadoes that had beset the United States (Katrina et al.), and said it was obvious something was very wrong with the planet, I got the usual letters from the usual idiots saying I was being alarmist. Well, it's good to be an alarmist when there's cause for alarm.
Unless something is done to check the unabated inundation of the atmosphere of CO2 , a great deal of what we know as land will be underwater in 50 years or so. Truly scarily, Gore warns: You've seen the humanitarian crisis that happens when you're dealing with hundreds of thousands of refugees. Think of what would happen if you were dealing with hundreds of millions of them.
There is no doubt about the scale of the problem, except the doubts that are being spread by those who stand to profit from the status quo. Or who imagine they stand to profit from it, since the death of the planet will be their death, too. The oil companies, the car companies who think they can make money off scrimping on environmental controls, and their backers in government, chief of them the dolt they put in the White House. The doubts they're spreading are the same doubts the tobacco companies spread when the surgeon general determined with absolute certainty that smoking causes cancer.
There is no doubt about the scale of the problem, except the doubts that are being spread by those who stand to profit from the status quo. Or who imagine they stand to profit from it, since the death of the planet will be their death, too. The oil companies, the car companies who think they can make money off scrimping on environmental controls, and their backers in government, chief of them the dolt they put in the White House. The doubts they're spreading are the same doubts the tobacco companies spread when the surgeon general determined with absolute certainty that smoking causes cancer.
I leave the reader to know the practical suggestions he has for solving the problem at an individual level from watching the movie. One of those suggestions, in fact, is to tell friends to do just that. I'll go further and say that if you've got a DVD burner, make copies of the thing and give it to as many friends as you can this Christmas. I imagine Mr. Gore—I use that honorific "Mr." only for people I respect—will not greatly mind having his intellectual property propagated in this way. It's too important to be left to the pirates of Quiapo to distribute.
The truth shall set you free. It shall also keep your children alive well after you're dead.
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=35266
posted by dqfan06 @ 9:05 AM
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