Dear Mr. Gore: We're sorry. Signed: The World.
Not to get all sanctimonious about it, but if you too have been wondering whatever happened to winter, you might want to head down to your nearest (preferably non-air-conditioned) movie house to check out An Inconvenient Truth.
I know the premise seems dubious (a feature film about weather? With graphs? Narrated by Al Gore? Wow!), but it’s a surprisingly compelling little piece of enviro-activism. I liked many things about it: its use of humour, its surprisingly optimistic get-going-you-yes-you ending, and Gore’s refreshingly apolitical tone. And I liked that there were a healthy smattering of others who also chose to spend two hours on a beautiful summer afternoon watching it.
Aside from that, my weekend was full of lots of good things (Pride parade! Patios! Shortcake! My first oysters, ever, in life!) and a few not-so-good things (namely, achy muscles, and the demise of Der Nederland on the soccer pitch), but nothing too taxing. It’s getting right into the thick of summer, after all, and it just doesn’t seem right to focus on unpleasantries. For the first time…well, ever, I have a job that gives me weekends off, a luxury that I hope I don’t ever take for granted. As a result, there are plenty of plans afoot. It’s great.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to abandon this rambling post to go off and feel guilty about owning a car.
I know the premise seems dubious (a feature film about weather? With graphs? Narrated by Al Gore? Wow!), but it’s a surprisingly compelling little piece of enviro-activism. I liked many things about it: its use of humour, its surprisingly optimistic get-going-you-yes-you ending, and Gore’s refreshingly apolitical tone. And I liked that there were a healthy smattering of others who also chose to spend two hours on a beautiful summer afternoon watching it.
Aside from that, my weekend was full of lots of good things (Pride parade! Patios! Shortcake! My first oysters, ever, in life!) and a few not-so-good things (namely, achy muscles, and the demise of Der Nederland on the soccer pitch), but nothing too taxing. It’s getting right into the thick of summer, after all, and it just doesn’t seem right to focus on unpleasantries. For the first time…well, ever, I have a job that gives me weekends off, a luxury that I hope I don’t ever take for granted. As a result, there are plenty of plans afoot. It’s great.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to abandon this rambling post to go off and feel guilty about owning a car.
posted by D. at
4:06 PM
3 Comments:
Riiiight...
I see what you're saying, but Gore actually addresses a lot of the issues you bring up in the documentary. He does say that most of the popular press (not scientific journals) tend to be one-sided on the issue, but to the opposite end - it's publications like the Times and the Star that tend to take contrarian, "global-warming-is-not-really-happening" stances because it's a prod in the arm, and that sells papers. In hundreds of peer-reviewed academic journals Gore surveyed, not a single one disputed that global warming is indeed worse than it's ever been.
And that's the main point he's getting at. Of course the earth has been warming up since the dawn of time. But the pace at which it's done so for the last century or so is so disproportionate to how it has in the past that even when you take massive population growth into account, it's still off the charts.
That's one of Gore's main points - that we can't afford to use the excuse that it's all happened before, because a) it hasn't, and b) melting ice caps aren't exactly something we can ignore.
At any rate, you should see the movie before you start with the proclamations against it.
Okay, I'm going to get off my soapbox now, lest I come across as some fanatical bleeding-heart tree-hugger or something.
(But don't worry, you should be getting plenty of hot days at the beach to come!) :)
By
D., at 8:22 AM
See, but that's just the point. I don't have to trade in my Toyota. Gore wasn't SAYING I should trade in my Toyota (which, incidentally, is better on gas than most vehicles on the road, but that's not the real issue). It's about using the car less, using less electricity in the home, just generally making an effort to conserve more. Gore isn't calling for everyone to radically shift his/her life...he's calling for more sustainable, applicable actions to reverse what he sees as a worrisome trend.
I know it is your wont to be contrarian about such things, and that's fine, but I can't buy your argument that the world will just naturally adjust to the undeniably massive changes its experienced because of CO2 in recent years. That's a lazy suggestion, and I just don't get why you're so opposed to people making an effort to make things better.
Maybe you just dig being the devil's advocate, who knows?
As to your point about the private jet, it really seems a pretty nit-picky thing to continually focus on...sure, Gore could have travelled around the country in a Prius, and maybe he should have, but I don't think you can fault the man for failing to "put his money where his mouth is." He's been campaigning (before the Senate, no less) for this stuff for more than three decades. Hardly a bandwagon-jumper.
That said, he's not perfect, but I prefer him doing something like this than, say, Michael Moore blasting all up in the face of someone filling up their SUV, or something like that.
By
D., at 10:52 AM
But, my dear, if you'll go back to my original post, you'll note that I'm not getting up on a soapbox about anything really - I just mentioned a movie I enjoyed seeing, explained why I liked it, and suggested others might do the same.
I don't think you can find a criticism about anyone in that post, whether they drive a Hummer or a Toyota or a bike. Anyway. Let's let this one die, because it seems to me we're fighting different battles here, and besides, I loves ya, man.
In all honesty, what's sticking with me most out of your comments is this nasty little barb: "characteristic poor word choice". Ouch, man. You're playing dirty pool, there.
By
D., at 12:12 PM
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