We are constantly struggling with problems we face every day. Some of us are dealing with deaths, and others are dealing with studying for a mid-term. We focus on things that effects us today or tomorrow, but what we don't realize is that every day we struggle with the same problem that seems like it’s never going away. We are blinded by it because its effect is so slow that we feel like it will never become a major disaster we have to face. But in fact, it is a major disaster. Global warming is slowing tearing bits and pieces of our home away. We, the people, are the contributors to global warming and we, the people, are the only ones who can stop it.
Everyone has a general idea of what global warming can do, but I believe that no one really has a firm understanding of it. Al Gore's documentary entitled, An Inconvenient Truth, really opens our eyes and shows us how much global warming can harm our planet. He starts off his documentary by giving a general explanation of what global warming actually is. He then emphasizes the great impact it has by comparing past and present pictures of various landforms. If you notice in the pictures, the present-day landforms seem like its slowly withering away. The ice that once covered the beautiful Kilimanjaro has now disappeared leaving it to look decaying. This effect is worldwide; the mountainous regions of Italy, Peru, and Argentina are getting the same results. Gore pointed out that forty percent of the world's population gets its water source from the glaciers of Nepal. Could you imagine what would happen to that forty percent once global warming causes those glaciers to disappear forever?
Gore continues his documentary with various graphs and charts showing the different effects of global warming over the years. Almost all of the graphs he uses show dramatic changes. One graph I particularly remember is the growth of carbon dioxide concentration, which is related to the high temperatures in the atmosphere. He stressed the rapid increase by showing it literally going off the chart. Within less of fifty years of unrestricted fossil fuel burning, the concentration of carbon dioxide will be so high that Earth would be unlivable.
In parts of his documentary, Gore shares with us a little more of his personal life, starting with his 6-year-old son’s accident. He describes the hardship he faced during the accident but also what he learned from it: “what we take for granted might not be here for our children”. He also tells us of his child life and his life on the farm with his dad. I think he adds these small reminiscing parts to somehow connect with his main points of global warming. In a way, it makes us more emotional and realizes all the things we have to lose and the things that our future children will never get to experience if we let global warming take it all away.
For the remainder of his documentary, Gore shows not only the effects it has on us, but also the effects it has on the animals and their habitats. For example, the glaciers act like mirrors. The sun rays hit the glaciers and then bounce off and aim for the Earth’s atmosphere. As the sun rays hit the glaciers, it slowly melts them away each time. Scientists have found proof that polar bears are drowning from swimming more than 60 miles just looking for ice. Global warming also causes a shift in seasons. A study was done from the Netherlands. Twenty-five years ago, the normal arrival of migratory birds was April 25th and their eggs were to be hatched on June 3rd, just in time for the caterpillars to come out. However, after twenty years of warming, the caterpillars peaked two weeks earlier than the birds. It left the baby birds born with nothing to eat. Global warming doesn’t stop at leaving its effect on animals; it also affects plants and the growth of infectious diseases. For example, the pine beetle that lived in the pine trees was normally killed during the winter. Since there are fewer days of frost, more and more pine beetles are surviving and eating away at the trees. Thirty new infectious diseases have emerged just in the last quarter century and the vectors of these infectious diseases have increased as well.
As the documentary comes to an end, Gore shows the effects it has on different countries if we don’t act now. He presents a map and a percentage of contribution each continent has on global warming showing us that U.S contributes 30.3%, which makes us the largest contributor in the world. He finishes the documentary by listing different ways we can fix this growing problem by making small changes in our lives, like recycling.
I believe for anyone who wants to make a change in the world and leave their footprints, this is a great documentary to start off with. It really opens your eyes on something that’s so hard to see because of its slow effects. With this documentary, Al Gore tries to reach out to everyone from young adults to senior citizens. With a short cartoon clip that resembles the same type of drawings from the Simpsons, he connects with a younger audience to spark their interest and actually listen to what he has to say. As for the older viewers, throughout the whole documentary, he emphasizes how important it is to be able to save something for our future children. By using the graphs, pictures, and clips, he shows the dramatic effects this one problem can cause, and by doing so, it catches the audience’s attention and motivates them to do something about it.
The only weakness that I can point out in this documentary is the lack of current information on global warming. All the data that Gore provides goes a few years back. Has any participation on the aid of reducing global warming somewhat lessen the likeliness of its continuing harm of our planet? There are other questions along with that one, which I wish he could’ve answered. For example, is there any other way other than this documentary that we can communicate globally on this issue? Although there is a lack of answers he provides to frequent questions that may be asked by the viewer, this documentary is successful on stressing the importance of its topic. Usually, one would probably fall asleep in the first 10 minutes of a documentary of a topic they weren’t familiar with; however Gore added his personal life and humor to make it more engaging. All in all, I enjoyed this documentary because it did succeed in moving me and inspiring me to change my daily habits that could harm the Earth.
In sum, Al Gore’s documentary is important because it involves our existence. It helps people all over the world understand that this is a problem we face together, and together we need to fix it. We need not do it just for ourselves, but also for our future children so that they can be born into a world that is actually livable.
