Unconvenient Truth

Documentary? Environmental protection? Global warming and the end of the world? How bald and pedantic this film sounds like! But An Inconvenient Truth has jumped out the levels of conventional movies with its unusual single person presentation that offers the most persuasive and enlightened intendment ever.

The globe is like a timing bomb, and according to the majority scientists, humanity will have to face big disasters associated with the sudden changes of the Earth's climate system due to the dramatic increase of carbon dioxide. Some of these disasters had already happened in only the past few years, including severe floods, droughts, the massive spreading of epidemic infectious diseases, as well fatal heat waves, and other serious situations we have never experienced, moreover, it is our humans who create these disasters, and now it’s the time to face the “period of consequences”. If this sounds like a groundless fear, please spent one drop of your spare time to watch this movie carefully, and then reconsider everything again.

A film about the decision we should make, takes American former Vice President Al Gore’s lecture as a theme and exposed a discomforting locked-up truth that wakes us up from self-deconstruction. For more than three decades, the enthusiast collects enormous researches like the increase of sea and greenhouse gases levels, the drying up of Lake Chad, irregular hurricanes, typhoons and tornados, the meltdown of North and South Poles’ ice and its impact on polar bears, the vanishing of coral reefs and scarce species. Although, facts presenting is the orthodox system to make arguments more compelling, but the most crucial portion is the way Al Gore converts the literal warnings into true-to-life conversations. With confident, humorous and relaxing attitudes, he explains the global warming problem concisely to the common people. He calls for immediate actions and convinces that we still have time to make the change and save our only homeland – the Earth, for the moral responsibility of our next generation. He quotes the surprising facts data from time to time, uses a whole brunch of comparable pictures, charts and graphs from the past and present, forecast future results scientifically and even included animations for sharp emotional and visual effects. These might have been “so what” data correlated with every living thing in the planet had transmitted into real world close-up, so stunning that they are enough to move people in every category. In addition to the announcement of the vast range of scientific research reports that are mostly unknown to the public but all reveal and corroborate unbelievable emergency warning from the Earth, Al Gore had also melted down the economic and political controversies that cause the ignorance of environmental protection by giving alternative perspectives for these economists and politicians. And as a politician himself, Al Gore shared his lovely farm-life childhood and the highly-inspired time in college that set him a steadfast determination to change this global crisis by entering the congress. But the outcomes were not as pleasant as expected, many set-backs and frustrations had beaten him to the bottom. However, the almost lost of his beloved son and remembrance of the death of his best friend remind Al Gore the importance of life, and roused his willpower to start this mission of worldwide lecture. Throughout the slideshow presentation, the audiences won’t feel like they are listening to a politician or a scientist, instead, they are listening to a person, as a part of the human race, who rings a bell and shows us what we had overlook for so long.

Unfortunately, An Inconvenient Truth has to bear flaws of documentary film’s dry and boring label which scare away many people before it can infuse its inspiration. And awkwardly, why should people have to pay to know the truth so inconvenient that nobody will want to know? Nevertheless, how much percentage of factory owners and policy makers who really need to be stirred will free up a time to hear this seemingly radical and heretic preaching? And within that tiny percentage, how many are willing to give up what they used to believe and live on from a previous state without any debates and arguments, then move on into actions for immediate changes? Although Al Gore himself might have been the most attractive selling point for the film, but also because of whom he is, some people will more likely to build conceptual bias toward the truths. In fact, many of these realistic people had already treat Al Gore’s work as a propaganda campaign show that help him to gain reputation. If the film is judged and rejected by its jacket, how many influential individuals will have the chance to get the massage? And within those enthralled individuals, how many will last permanently without stronger supports from the governments, corporations, institutions and other aspects of the public? Before actually try to change the world, Al Gore might have to dig a little bit deeper and work harder to counteract these difficult barriers constructed sturdily by the society. But beside these problems, the factors associated with global warming and the persuasiveness of his presentation is unbeatable.

An Inconvenient Truth impels us to wonder why blame God for sending down natural catastrophe, but not blame ourselves what we did to the Earth? It throws behind all vex concerns of politic and economic fears, and reconsider this crisis as a moral issue that humanity should responsible for.