An Inconvenient Truth - A movie which needs to be watched by everyone

Last week, our Leaders, the representatives of our human race met at Copenhagen and decided our future, or decided if we should have a future or not. In my personal opinion, they let us down. To an extent, they delivered words, but when it came to actions, we saw none.

So, as a citizen of this beautiful planet, and to my knowledge, the only habitable planet, it boils down to us individuals to help initiate the change we want to bring about. Very honestly speaking, we can’t just blame the Leaders, since in their shoes; we too would take a similar step, since the support from public still needs a long way to go, before a leader can promise drastic changes. Also, a lot of the issue is caused by the fact that people are ignorant, or probably less motivated, and keeping that view in mind, I am writing this “Movie Review”, or should I say Documentary Review.

An Inconvenient Truth
Cast: Al Gore

Director: Davis Guggenheim

Rating: 9.0/10.0 (You really need to see this)

As is known, or would be clear by now, the movie is a Global Warning on the Global Warming issue. Very straightforwardly put, the movie revolves around a “glorified” Powerpoint Presentation on Global Warming that Al Gore supposedly gave more than a thousand times by the time this movie was made (i.e. 2005), along with some of his quiet musings and a decent background sound track, which as an movie would sound pretty dumb and boring, but the some brilliant direction and the catchy and crisp presentation skills of Al Gore keep the viewers interested. On a personal note, I never knew that Al Gore anything more than yet another American Politician, till he was actually bestowed the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, and the Indian media was abuzz about this movie.

The movie, which on the whole enlightens the viewers (though I had earlier thought of using the word depresses) about what harm the uncontrolled and unchecked human activity is doing to the environment and what will happen when nature reacts back, has its own set of light moments. For instance, while introducing him-self, Al Gore starts by saying, “I am Al Gore, and I used to be the next President of the United States of America”. The obvious reaction is a giggle from the audience, and to this he retorts saying, “I don’t find that particularly funny”. The movie is laden from time to time with such moments, which make us smile, even when we are buying some facts which show us the horrific picture of the future.

Though Al Gore is not a scientist, he has the air of a Professor, who can explain the even the boring parts of studies with a creative use of pictures, animations and jokes. I cannot think of any other movie, where seeing the red lines of the graphs, the audience gasp (I am not talking of office, where CEO shows loss and people sigh). The pictures used for explanation are very powerful and even the future speculations of what will get submerged strike a chord with the viewers immediately. This is coupled with a really cute video from the world of Simpsons, which in a comic way show us the gravity of the problem.

There are a few more areas of concern, which the movie cites with examples. While there is Zero disagreement over the fact that human actions are causing the temperatures to go up, taking a sample of 925 recent scientific papers on this subject, the normal population looks at this possibility with an almost 50% chance of agreement with this fact, showing that a lot of us are still ignorant, or probably possess half-knowledge.

All in all, Al Gore in a very subtle way proves to the viewers, all his view points, and convinces the layman about what went wrong, and what it will result into. There is a part in the movie, where he shows the choices the Politicians have, and shows us a Scale, which has “Gold” on one side, which stands for economic development and prosperity, and on the other hand, we have “The Entire Planet”. And then, when he has to choose, he just looks greedily at the gold, and goes hmmm. Doesn’t this strike a chord with what just happened at Copenhagen, with different countries fighting it over development and emission rates?

Since there is no fear of revealing any plot here, I am putting some of the facts that were put into the movie.
· The ten hottest years in the last 200 years came in the last 14 years.
· The data from Antarctica’s ice show that the current concentration of carbon-dioxide is the highest as compared to all historical data going back million years ago.
· Mumbai had a severe downpour of rain of 37 inches, highest in any city in India.
· There are lot of glaciers and mountain ranges, where we see the amount of ice retreating giving rise to water.

To be really honest, the movie leaves the viewer with a sense of despair, since the facts shown are pretty depressing and though Al Gore tries to imbibe the fact that we still have time and all hope is not lost, it doesn’t really sound convincing. However, in a nutshell, Al Gore’s presentation not only deserves, but also demands the viewer’s rapt attention.

Final Verdict:
The best thing about this movie is that it teaches you the same Green House effect, which most of us probably in our school days, and yet it makes you passionate about our planet, in a way you would have never felt before. Also, the movie does an impartial analysis of the human race and doesn’t point to a specific Political Party, Country or an Industry. On a personal note, the line that Al Gore repeatedly said, got stuck into my mind, that Saving the Environment is more of a “Moral concern” rather than a Political issue, and hence, each one of us should do what we can for saving our Home.
All in all, if you ask me, “Should I watch this movie?”
I would like to answer it saying, “Watch it, so your children don’t need to tell you, why did you not wake up, when you could have saved our planet and our existence? When you proclaim to be the most-evolved and the smartest species on this planet, why did you not act responsibly when you still had time?” A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, now it is the time for you to see the movie and awaken.

Copenhagen Conference 2009 – Did it "REALLY" change anything?

Just the last week we had the ONE OF THE BIGGEST event in probably the history of mankind, where all the supposedly important people from the 192 countries of the world, met at Copenhagen, Denmark to decide the fate of humankind. In brief, our so-called leaders met to decide on how to reduce the pollution we are causing and save our planet’s self-sustained ecosystem, before we reach a chain-reaction that causes changes which threaten the existence of a lot of species, including ours. ore so, this meeting is decided to chalk-out a successor to the renowned Kyoto protocol.

What is the Kyoto Protocol?

On Dec 11, 1997, with a moral-view in mind, a protocol was inked in Kyoto, Japan under the realms of United Nations for the reduction in the carbon emissions by the developed nations and the European Union. Now, in 2009, we have 187 countries, who have ratified this Protocol.

Nevertheless, among the developed nations, the United States, responsible for the highest emissions and Australia have not ratified this protocol as yet. Also, a lot of the countries, who signed up for this protocol are not able to meet up with the required figures. Though this was a good beginning, the scientific data shows that the checks are not enough and we will need to go one more step to stop our actions, if we want to stop the nature’s alteration. Thus, with that view in mind, and with the hope that Barack Obama, would act more responsibly as compared to George Bush, who exclaimed that reducing the emissions would hurt US economy, the Copenhagen Summit was organized.

The Change is Coming
The latest scientific evidence seems to suggest that the Earth’s ecological system is changing much faster as compared to earlier predictions. This is also due to the fact that the countries like China and India, which are home to almost 33% of the world population, are developing fast. Due to this, the emissions are increasing rapidly. Moreover, the emission levels from even the so-called developed countries have increased, putting more pressure on the environment. Major issues are expected for the island countries and the countries at lower sea-level. Other issues with increased temperature will include reduction in food production. Moreover, for India, the melting of the Himalayas’ glaciers will result in lack of water in Ganges and Brahmaputra, leading to major destabilization in the region.

The United States vs. China – A Deadlock
It is probably a human-tendency to just blame the others for whatever wrong has happened, and it is in this habit of ours, that we forget to look and gauge the existing situation and don’t salvage what can be stored while we keep fighting and blaming the others. The Copenhagen Conference saw a similar display of this human trait, albeit at a larger level and probably with something as importance as our existence at stake.

There was a tussle regarding the emission levels between the Developing nations and the already Developed nations. While the developed nations demanded equal stakes for all, the developing nations argued that they were at the brink of growing and cannot be equated with the former ones. Also, it was argued that while US and EU were not subjected to such laws when they were growing, why should India and China be.

There was a bigger issue between the United States and China, which are now, by far the highest emitters of green-house gases. While the US asked for independent evaluations of emissions, the Chinese refused vehemently stating it would be a threat to their sovereignty. So while the Chinese refused to budge from their own projections, there was not much that came as an offer from the United States, which instead of reducing their emissions by 15-17% of 1990 levels, only promised about 4% reduction.

The Final Outcome
As a last day measure, Barack Obama offered an aid of $100bn-a-year fund for the developing countries to move to the global goal of halving the emissions by 2050. This is only for the countries who join the Copenhagen Accord, which is the new outcome of this Conference, since nothing really concrete was pledged. Even the Accord doesn’t really boast of specific commitments and numbers, so things are pretty much in the wait-and-watch mode. And if the new agreement doesn’t include China, which is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases, it would be a significant drawback towards a Universal deal.

Hence, all in all, the Copenhagen Conference ended with a much inspiration, but no action way. The final conclusion was that the United States, China and India reached a “meaningful agreement”. And as per the officials, a very diplomatic answer was echoed, that though none of the countries was fully satisfied, this Conference was a step, albeit small, in paving a way for the future.

Why the Conference Failed and the Errors
I believe the Conference failed because they had too many leaders to decide who was to do what. In fact, I read a few articles on the internet and found that, for this Conference 1,200 limos and 140 private planes were used to ensure the leaders and their delegates (15000+ people) were catered to. According to the organizers, the eleven-day conference, including the participants' travel, will create a total of 41,000 tonnes of "carbon dioxide equivalent".

Most of these people are not needed at the Conference, but they are present because none of the Leaders want to take the accountability of the issues. Moreover, instead of giving figures, which can be tracked and noted, say 8-10% reduction in 5 years, the World-Leaders are talking about Pledges of reducing the Carbon-emissions by 80% in 2050. I wonder if any of them (knowing the average age of the leaders), would be alive at that time, and leave alone, being in Power.


My Take on this Issue
All I can suggest we do is, reduce our carbon emissions as responsible species of this planet, encourage the use of alternative sources of energy, plant more trees and do whatever else we can for saving our Home – Planet Earth. In the end, if nothing works out, just move to Lands away from Seas and at higher sea-levels, with a few Air-Conditioners and a stock of Electronic Batteries, which lasts your lifetime.