An Inconvenient Truth
If you're hesitating over whether or not to go see this movie, you must keep in mind that it is more than a movie. The movie-factor is more like the spoonful of sugar that makes the medicine go down - but I believe everyone has to swallow what this film is saying about global warming. So go see it!
Be advised, this is an essay of a post... so if you are going to read it... you might want to grab a snack.
An Inconvenient Relativism
A few months ago I was preparing to apply for graduate school in environmental literary studies. As I was reading up on the area, I was becoming very aware of the language we use when we talk about "the environment". There is always a power struggle involved - think about what we imply when we talk about conquering nature, or when we watch documentaries that prophesy nature's wrath. It says a lot about our relationship with this world. Do we think we have control over nature, or are we afraid it will inevitably fight back? In the way we think about the earth, are we apart from nature, or are we a part of it?
The language, or rhetoric, we use about the environment reflects the way we perceive it. When we talk about nature in an alienated way, we unknowingly adopt an attitude of separation from nature. This can rear its head in very ugly ways; instead of taking responsibility or ownership over the environment we end up exploiting the land, wasting resources, taking it all for granted. It's just embedded in the way we think and speak about nature.
On the topic of rhetoric, I think it is really interesting that Al Gore titles his movie An Inconvenient Truth in our age of relativism. Truth is a tricky word to throw around these days. Truth is hard like granite - you can't deny it when you see it; but today many people can't even hear the word Truth without flinching. In the movie, "relative truth" (is global warming real? does it even matter?) is just elaborate denial that has prevented us from taking action. In this case, disbelieving these facts helps no one. If you do not believe in the rock-hard-truth when you are confronted with it, then change will never happen.
"It would be immoral not to act"
That's not verbatim, but it is one of the things Al Gore says at the beginning of the movie. He says, As I was faced with all the facts about global warming, it became clear that it would be immoral for me not to act. As a christian hearing that, the film suddenly became saturated with morality. It became so clear to me that the outcomes of our right and a wrong decisions were physically emerging in the earth! As I watched glaciers disappearing, hurricanes devastating communities, drought, continental ice shelves slipping into the ocean, I just thought.... "that's the consequence of sin". This is happening because we've messed it up.
All the "natural" disasters shown in the movie were traced back to very human, very flawed sources. Sure, some of them were ignorant mistakes; some of them were selfish choices that seemed justifiable at the time; some were made by a mass of people. But that's the awful thing about this thing called "sin"... a seemingly harmless mistake has long-reaching consequences. It made me so sad to think how terrible some of these consequences will be for people who had no part in that choice. It just drove home that we're all in this together.
Stewarding the gift
Through my years as a christian, I know with an increasing conviction that our lives aren't designed with us in the center, wondering how we can dominate and get ahead... If you look around at all the times when people do that, it's like watching crap hitting the fan. But if we instead receive each day, each place and person, as a gift, it transforms the way our lives unfold. I look at all the material things, the people, who are in my life, and there is a choice in each to either exploit the goodness out of it by thinking, "I totally deserve this", or to realize that tiny me seriously doesn't deserve such a good thing, but for His sake I am then so grateful and eager to take care of it.
We ought to treat the earth in the same way. Oil giants and foresters and the consumers supporting them don't think twice about mowing down a forest because they think they deserve it. The fact of the matter is, we don't. Little, ant-like us are ravaging the planet because we have big machines that can amass a lot of wealth. But we neither need it nor deserve it. This poem (psalm 8) is quickly becoming one of my favourites:
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars which You have ordained;
What is man that You take thought of him,
And the son of man that You care for him?
Yet You have made him a little lower than God,
And You crown him with glory and majesty!
You make him to rule over the works of Your hands
You have put all things under his feet,
All sheep and oxen,
And also the beasts of the field,
The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea
Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.
O Lord, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth!
"What is man that You take thought of him?" the psalmist asks - because we're tiny. Imagine the most amazing place you've ever been to... whether it's by the sea, or a river, or on top of a mountain, just looking at how amazing it is, and how small you feel at that moment... Then imagine someone saying, "this is all for you." What a humbling thought! We don't deserve to be stewards over it, but that's our lot in life... to receive it and take care of it.
***
This isn't really about the movie... please go see it though, because you ought to know how badly we have messed things up. But this is about how we should be compelled to change the state of this poor planet. And it's not just a temporary thing... it's the same when any Truth comes to kick you in the pants - it's a lifestyle.
Be advised, this is an essay of a post... so if you are going to read it... you might want to grab a snack.
An Inconvenient Relativism
A few months ago I was preparing to apply for graduate school in environmental literary studies. As I was reading up on the area, I was becoming very aware of the language we use when we talk about "the environment". There is always a power struggle involved - think about what we imply when we talk about conquering nature, or when we watch documentaries that prophesy nature's wrath. It says a lot about our relationship with this world. Do we think we have control over nature, or are we afraid it will inevitably fight back? In the way we think about the earth, are we apart from nature, or are we a part of it?
The language, or rhetoric, we use about the environment reflects the way we perceive it. When we talk about nature in an alienated way, we unknowingly adopt an attitude of separation from nature. This can rear its head in very ugly ways; instead of taking responsibility or ownership over the environment we end up exploiting the land, wasting resources, taking it all for granted. It's just embedded in the way we think and speak about nature.
On the topic of rhetoric, I think it is really interesting that Al Gore titles his movie An Inconvenient Truth in our age of relativism. Truth is a tricky word to throw around these days. Truth is hard like granite - you can't deny it when you see it; but today many people can't even hear the word Truth without flinching. In the movie, "relative truth" (is global warming real? does it even matter?) is just elaborate denial that has prevented us from taking action. In this case, disbelieving these facts helps no one. If you do not believe in the rock-hard-truth when you are confronted with it, then change will never happen.
"It would be immoral not to act"
That's not verbatim, but it is one of the things Al Gore says at the beginning of the movie. He says, As I was faced with all the facts about global warming, it became clear that it would be immoral for me not to act. As a christian hearing that, the film suddenly became saturated with morality. It became so clear to me that the outcomes of our right and a wrong decisions were physically emerging in the earth! As I watched glaciers disappearing, hurricanes devastating communities, drought, continental ice shelves slipping into the ocean, I just thought.... "that's the consequence of sin". This is happening because we've messed it up.
All the "natural" disasters shown in the movie were traced back to very human, very flawed sources. Sure, some of them were ignorant mistakes; some of them were selfish choices that seemed justifiable at the time; some were made by a mass of people. But that's the awful thing about this thing called "sin"... a seemingly harmless mistake has long-reaching consequences. It made me so sad to think how terrible some of these consequences will be for people who had no part in that choice. It just drove home that we're all in this together.
Stewarding the gift
Through my years as a christian, I know with an increasing conviction that our lives aren't designed with us in the center, wondering how we can dominate and get ahead... If you look around at all the times when people do that, it's like watching crap hitting the fan. But if we instead receive each day, each place and person, as a gift, it transforms the way our lives unfold. I look at all the material things, the people, who are in my life, and there is a choice in each to either exploit the goodness out of it by thinking, "I totally deserve this", or to realize that tiny me seriously doesn't deserve such a good thing, but for His sake I am then so grateful and eager to take care of it.
We ought to treat the earth in the same way. Oil giants and foresters and the consumers supporting them don't think twice about mowing down a forest because they think they deserve it. The fact of the matter is, we don't. Little, ant-like us are ravaging the planet because we have big machines that can amass a lot of wealth. But we neither need it nor deserve it. This poem (psalm 8) is quickly becoming one of my favourites:
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars which You have ordained;
What is man that You take thought of him,
And the son of man that You care for him?
Yet You have made him a little lower than God,
And You crown him with glory and majesty!
You make him to rule over the works of Your hands
You have put all things under his feet,
All sheep and oxen,
And also the beasts of the field,
The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea
Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.
O Lord, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth!
"What is man that You take thought of him?" the psalmist asks - because we're tiny. Imagine the most amazing place you've ever been to... whether it's by the sea, or a river, or on top of a mountain, just looking at how amazing it is, and how small you feel at that moment... Then imagine someone saying, "this is all for you." What a humbling thought! We don't deserve to be stewards over it, but that's our lot in life... to receive it and take care of it.
***
This isn't really about the movie... please go see it though, because you ought to know how badly we have messed things up. But this is about how we should be compelled to change the state of this poor planet. And it's not just a temporary thing... it's the same when any Truth comes to kick you in the pants - it's a lifestyle.