An Inconvenient Truth
So I finally got around to going to see An Inconvenient Truth. I've got to say, it's a damn good film. I mean, the science wasn't really new to me and it wasn't as detailed as what you'll get from Scientific American. But for a movie.... I think I might have to eat my words about movie theaters not being the place for serious political discourse. Unlike a certain Michael Moore, Gore doesn't spend his time trying to entertain us (although a number of good one-liners from his slide shows help keep views from getting utterly depressed). Instead, he gives the facts. He doens't shy away from scaring the crap out of the audience. And by telling the story as a sort of personal journey, he somehow manages to blend science and art, making quite a good documentary (good in the art sense, not just the scientific). The way he presents information, it's digestible, not overly dense. I highly recommend that you see the film, especially if you are not familiar with the likely effects of global warming (I'm talking about things like coral bleaching, a slowdown or stopping of the North Atlantic Conveyor, increased spread of vector-borne diseases, etc). Again, Gore doesn't give a ton of detail in these areas, but he does a good job of covering all bases. And if you are familiar with all this, it's still a good film. And it ends optimistically, so it's good if you're like me and despair about the state of the Earth frequently. But maybe you don't have time, money, willpower, whatever to see the film. At least go to the website at http://www.climatecrisis.net It contains a great collection of resources about reducing your impact on the climate, initiatives you can take part in, etc. I've known a lot of these things were out there, but now they're all in one (easily navigable) place. Go there.