An Inconvenient Truth succeeds in making an emotional, and more importantly, a moral case for reducing global warming. I am on Al Gore's side when it comes to the importance of raising awareness about global warming and on the fact that we should act forcefully to change the destructive influence humanity is having on the Earth's environment.
The documentary is directed by Davis Guggenheim, an American director and producer, and features former United States Vice President Al Gore. Gore is also an author, businessperson, and environmental activist. He has been involved with environmental issues since 1976, when he was a freshman congressman. This documentary is set to educate, warn and raise international public awareness among viewers about global warming. It also states different solutions to fix this problem. Gore succeeds in doing so by presenting a comprehensive slide show containing real scientific statistics. He appeals to every individual by showing before and after images of our natural habitat, discussing a good number of graphs and diagrams. Quotes from Mark Twain, Upton Sinclair, and Winston Churchill underscore Gore's message of taking action, particularly when Gore quotes Churchill who said: "The era of procrastination of half- measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences." A good example Gore gives to induce fear in the viewers is the possibility of the collapse of a major ice sheet in Greenland, which could raise global sea levels by 6m, flooding coastal areas . He is a likeable, confident, humorous speaker. Being a politician, persuasion is something he's practiced. His persuasive skills allows the viewer to clearly understand his ideas. He give a good solution to fix the problem by showing in a graph about how the emission of total global warming pollution can be decreased by the likes of electricity end-use efficiency , vehicle efficiency,and renewable technology. What worked in this documentary is that it's hard to not worry about the figures in An Inconvenient Truth. It's enough to make you want to reduce consumption and urge representatives to pursue pro-environmental action. If all of these figures serve the agenda of making global warming a moral issue, then no one escapes from blame: Gore holds every individual personally and morally responsible for his or her contribution to the problem, and asks the audience to make small changes in lifestyle, and better still, to become a member of a environmental movement that will put pressure on the government and corporations to change their ways. What didn't work is the fact the Gore contradicted himself. Several times during the course of his discussion, he claims that this should not be a political issue, that it should be an issue for all of humanity. He then resorts to politics, including swipes at the Bush administration and calls for political action. The documentary makes another misstep that hurt its credibility: there are times when it seems to be more about Gore than Global Warming. He spends a considerable amount of time recollecting his own personal crusade, from growing up on a farm, to the death of his sister to lung cancer, to his career in the senate, to the tragic accident of his son, to his 2000 presidential campaign. I think in that sense, that the documentary should have been exclusively about Earth's Global Warming and not about Gore promoting himself in a tough subject. After some research about the scientific facts provided by Gore, I found one that is very uncertain: trying to link Hurricane Katrina with Global Warming. Is it possible that there's a connection? Yes, but it's not proven, and the nature of hurricanes makes this a doubtful argument. An Inconvenient Truth still manages to provide the curious viewer with an informative view of why people should try to reverse the damage to our environment. It should be a lesson to us all: when we have an important, compelling message, we must be cautious to not put ourselves in the way of that message.