An Inconvenient Truth

• Al Gore

An Inconvenient Truth ( An Inconvenient Truth ) is a documentary by Davis Guggenheim with former U.S. Vice President and presidential candidate Al Gore on global warming. The film had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival 2006. He was the first film in ten years a Special Humanitas Prize for his particularly successful message to humanity. In addition, the film won the Oscar in 2007 for Best Documentary and Best Song ( I need to wake up from Melissa Etheridge ). He was already before the ceremony in February 2007 as a favorite.

Summary

After the events of the presidential election in 2000, Al Gore has even more dedicated to the fight against global warming. The film shows footage of his featured in many cities presentations in which he gives his views on scientific and political aspects of global warming.

Making of the film

The topic of global warming fascinated Gore, since he attended a course at Roger Revelle at Harvard University. After he was later elected to Congress, he led the first negotiations on this subject and came into contact with scientists and politicians. He is convinced that his arguments will cause the legislature to act; even if this process would proceed slowly.

Al Gore's book in the Balance ( Original title: Earth in the Balance ) reached 1992, the New York Times bestseller list.

As vice - president during Clinton's term of office began Gore 1993, the introduction of a carbon tax through, to reduce the exhaustion of fossil fuels and thus reduce the greenhouse effect. In 1997 he assisted in the enforcement of the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement with the aim of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. The United States signed the Treaty signed but not ratified it. During his campaign for the presidential election in 2000 promised Gore to approve the agreement in the event of his taking office. He has also supported the funding of a satellite called Triana, which should help to identify environmental problems and performs direct measurements of the reflection of sunlight.

After his defeat in the presidential election Gore revised an old slide show and started giving multimedia presentations on global warming. For the time of origination of the film he had made his speech already about a thousand times. The producers Laurie David and Lawrence Bender saw his show in New York after the premiere of the film The Day After Tomorrow. Inspired by this, she met with director Davis Guggenheim and thought about the possibility of converting Gore's slide show in a movie. Guggenheim, who was skeptical at first later saw the presentation itself and was "overwhelmed ". Convinced that the fight against global warming is the most important challenge of all, he wanted to try to turn it into a movie.

Content

In the film, Al Gore presents his view represents the current state of climate research and commented on this:

He points to the very thin atmosphere which, if hardly visible from space, and represents an influence of mankind on global warming as possible dar. Al Gore fears that humanity despite the size of the earth with their exhaust gases, the composition of atmosphere with devastating consequences changed.

Of the solar radiation heats the soil and atmosphere, part of the heat is emitted as infra-red radiation back to the outside while the remainder is reflected back from the outer layer of the atmosphere again, and so far the temperature is maintained relatively constant. The climate- damaging greenhouse gases make the outer layer of the atmosphere is always opaque, it is reflected more infrared radiation to the earth. Because the carbon dioxide (CO2 ) is involved, its content continues to rise in the form of a zigzag curve since the beginning of the records of Roger Revelle in 1957 as a whole. The annual variation arises from the fact that the land mass north of the Equator contains most of the vegetation; they can " breathe " in the spring and summer more CO2 and oxygen " exhale " as the ocean rich southern half. Despite attempts to reduce the emissions of CO2, the most prevalent greenhouse gas, contain, as determined by a CO2 tax and the Kyoto Protocol, the CO2 content continues to rise. This melt the glaciers, among other things, on Kilimanjaro and in the Himalayas, the latter with dramatic consequences for the drinking water supply of 40 percent of humanity. In 50 years there will be hardly any glaciers like those in the Himalayas, which nurture the great rivers.

In the last 650,000 years the ratio between the amount of CO2 and the rest of the atmosphere has remained relatively constant, as shown by research results on ice cores, where you like to annual rings of trees can similarly draw conclusions on the climate of the past. But in the last 50 years the amount of CO2 has increased to almost double. He is ten times as high among progressive CO2 emissions in 50 years, creating even more solar radiation remains in the atmosphere, the Earth's climate heats up even more.

Since the seventies, skeptics have predicted a warming of the oceans and have been ridiculed for it. Today, one can see that their predictions have been correct. A warming of the ocean leads to a higher humidity and more severe storms and hurricanes. These relationships are confirmed by the scientific community, but in the media similarly denied as the expansive pursuit of fascism in the thirties of the last century of appeasement politicians, which Winston Churchill opposed, that the time of hesitation was over, because humanity into age of consequences one devices.

Global warming is accompanied by torrential rainfall, the small areas of flooding, while at the same time adjacent areas dry out - as in 1994 in India where the monsoon in many regions has failed to materialize, while Mumbai in a day of 940 mm of rainfall (940 liters rainwater per square meter) was flooded. By heating not only the sea, but the ground water is extracted, in many places it comes to desertification. In Central Africa, Lake Chad dries out.

In the Arctic permafrost thaws, pipelines break and houses collapse. 35 years ago you could 225 days, now take only 75 days a year with the truck on the permafrost. Since 1970 decreased amount, extent and thickness of ice in the Arctic by 40 percent, in 50 years it will be completely gone. The Arctic ice cap shines like a mirror from the sun radiation and heat to 90 percent, while it is absorbed on the sea to 90 percent. Recently, being more common drowned polar bears, which sometimes need more than 100 kilometers swim, to go to even pack ice.

The world's climate is like a big engine, the heat from the equator to the poles by currents and wind systems drives. The climate is changing in abrupt jumps. If there was a global temperature rise of 2.75 ° C according to the statistical mean, the Earth warmed near the equator by only 0.5 ° C in the Arctic but at 6 ° C. The Gulf Stream is a kind of conveyor belt of the ocean, which is driven by the heavy salty waters of the Arctic, which sinks to the ocean floor. 9000 years ago there was a nearly 1,000-year cold period in the Atlantic region because of melted glacier water arrived on the North American continent in the North Atlantic, the salinity thinned and thus the Gulf Stream abrogated. Something like this could possibly happen in a decade back. If form on the surface of the Greenland glacier by heating fresh water lakes, which dilute the Atlantic salt water as it is to watch for a few years, facing a climate shock.

In the Dutch Wadden Sea, the migratory birds for centuries appeared around April 25, their chicks hatched around June 3. The ecosystems had prepared themselves to one another so that at this time also hatched caterpillars, which formed the main food source for birds. But now the caterpillars hatch two weeks earlier than the chicks, so that the chicks, though no longer have enough food and the undezimierte crawler population on the other hand causes great damage to the environment. It hike a new species that include the ecological niches again, such as bark beetles in Alaska, destroy the trees. Even cities that were deliberately founded above the " mosquito height", suffer more recently under a mosquito plague, which in turn transmit diseases to humans and animals. By warming of the sea there is a coral death which in turn can become extinct fish species. The rate of extinction has a thousand-fold in the last decades.

In the Antarctic, the melt water collects on the ice shelf in freshwater lakes. So one ice shelf has disappeared from an already immense size within 35 days, the scientists had yet conceded a 100-year persistence duration. If mainland slipping under its own pressure, the heated sea contacts the under surface of the pushed out ice, which is a melting accelerated. If the Greenland land ice and the Antarktiseisschelf melt half, the sea level is rising worldwide by six meters. The water from the fresh water lakes changed the consistency of the ice, there arise glacier caves, and the gap between the bedrock and the glacier is lubricated by the seeping water. The Greenland ice shelf has shrunk in the past 15 years already by half, as Al Gore. It is with more than 100 million refugees expected in the next few years by the rise in sea level. As disasters were to appear abruptly, have brought humanity from disaster on an unprecedented scale.

30 percent of the CO2 content in the atmosphere caused by forest fires and gas fires. Old habits and new technologies have unforeseen consequences, as can be seen on the example of nuclear weapons. The increase of the world population of 2 billion to 6.6 billion people in not even 70 years is an example of the unforeseen consequences of the combination of old habits and new technologies.

The Aral Sea is shrinking by the diversion of rivers. America and Europe with their burden Industries the world's climate the most. As the man accustomed to the slow, steady changes that need the collective nervous system of mankind a similar shock, as it has been caused by the awareness of the harmful effects of cigarette smoking, although the cigarette industry to this day with the help of irresponsible scientists the relationships between smoking and cancers denies.

Al Gore remembers his childhood and youth, during which he worked during the summer holidays on the farm of his father in the cattle and the tobacco plants with a lot of fun. His older sister died by cigarette smoking to cancer, his father had then set out of guilt, the tobacco plants. Even Al Gore's environmental activities against the appeasement policy of the Conservatives to climate change based on guilt. From Upton Sinclair comes the finding that it was difficult to persuade a man to understand something when his salary depends on the level that he does not understand it. By contrast, Al Gore wants to tackle.

It is very easy to reduce the CO2 content by fuel-efficient cars, insulation of houses and a conscious energy and consumption goods without the usual quality of life decreases.

At the end of the film is drawn to additional information on the website for the film.

Reception

A number of climatologists confirm that Al Gore, representing the state of climate research in the film except for a few minor details right. A judge at the High Court in London ruled in 2007 that the film is the state of research on the causes and likely consequences of climate change " largely correct" reproducing. Also, the Kiel Climate scientists Mojib Latif described the film as " broadly correct", but criticized the lack of scientific foundation of the film, for example, in relation to one-off events such as Hurricane Katrina, which only have a significance if they occur frequently.

Criticized the shortness, in the on solutions to the problems presented was received. Gore is alleged to use for the presentation of much-needed action on climate change in the film too little time, so this would be explained inaccurate content. Critics accuse Gore also insufficient consistency in the adaptation of one's lifestyle to the ideals propagated by him. For example, Gore is shown several times in an airplane in the movie. Al Gore so use even also polluting means of transportation. He also has several large private estate, which also with the aim to leave the smallest possible ecological footprint, colliding. However, Al Gore is like each flight and the other inevitable damage it has carbon dioxide emissions by a corresponding reduction elsewhere by - similar Atmosfair as in the German version - donates to corresponding greenhouse gas reduction measures money. Furthermore, contrary campaigns of the tabloids is not up for debate, completely abolish the air travel, but only to reduce it to an acceptable and necessary measure.

Some critics accuse Al Gore exaggerated or one-sided presentation and the presentation of allegedly not always scientifically established facts: he used the worst-case scenarios without temporal classification, such as the complete melting of the West Antarctic, which is likely to take on current knowledge, at least a few thousand years would. In this context, Gore shows the consequences of rising sea levels by several meters, including the flooding of large parts of New York and New Orleans, without specifying the realistic time horizon. This is alarmist.

In British schools, the film may not be presented without comment since October 2007. A court found the film for error-prone and asked the teachers to point at a demonstration at a total of nine appointed by the court error, among other things, that the melting of glaciers in West Antarctica and Greenland is not " in the near future," as in the film claims that the sea let rise dramatically, but rather in millennia. The demand of the plaintiff parents to ban the film in the classroom, the court, however, rejected on the grounds that the film is on the whole "substantially correct."

Admissions and box office

In the U.S. the film on 24 May 2006, Memorial Memorial Day was launched limited in New York and Los Angeles. On this day, he played one movie 91 447 U.S. dollars, the highest daily turnover that was ever achieved by a documentary. In Germany the film was released in theaters on October 12, 2006.

In the U.S., the film has grossed $ 24 million. Worldwide revenues of $ 49 million were achieved. This makes An Inconvenient Truth, the third most successful documentary in history, after Fahrenheit 9/ 11, and March of the Penguins.

Dissemination

To address the issue of climate change amplified in the classroom, were 6000 DVDs distributed in collaboration with the WWF in 2007 in Germany alone, free to the schools. In Switzerland, a citizens' movement has spread to climate change ( myblueplanet ) 1100 DVDs in a DVD project free of charge to the population. This project is still being continued by the consequential spin-off " movies for the earth." Mid-October 2007 acquired the Spanish Ministry of Environment 30,000 copies of the film from Paramount for 580,000 euros to this show in Spanish schools are allowed.

Trivia

To apply the film, a spot was used, among other things, which was realized by Matt Groening. This shows Al Gore in the animated style along with Bender, a character from Groening's series Futurama. The film itself used to explain global warming a scene from the Futurama episode The smelly Medal of pollution. Al Gore has made ​​a guest appearance in this episode, but not in the said scene.

Also, an episode of the American animated series South Park is about Al Gore. In episode 145, entitled ManBearPig Al Gore warns the public against the Schweinebärmann (man bear pig ) - an allusion to his warnings about global warming in his lectures and in the movie. In the series hints were frequently made ​​to the warnings of climate protection organizations.

Matt Groening plays in the movie The Simpsons - The Movie on the lift scene from the movie. Lisa tries on graph to demonstrate the pollution of the lake Lake Springfield.

Awards

Academy Awards 2007

• Oscar Davis Guggenheim in the category of Best Documentary
• Oscar for Melissa Etheridge for Best Song for the song "I Need to Wake Up "

Grammy Award 2007

• Nomination for Melissa Etheridge for Best Original Song for the song " I Need to Wake Up "

Producers Guild of America Awards 2007

• Stanley Kramer Award in the category Best Documentary

DUH Environmental Media Award 2006

• Special Price movie

National Board of Review Award 2006

• NBR Award for Best Documentary

Satellite Awards 2006

• Nomination for Best Documentary
• Satellite Award for Best Documentary DVD Category

Prices of Film Critics Associations

• New York Filmcritics Online 2007
• Chicago Film Critics Association Awards 2006
• Dallas - Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards 2006
• Florida Film Critics Circle Awards 2006 ( here in the category of Best Non - Fiction film )
• Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards 2006
• San Francisco Film Critics Circle 2006
• Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards 2006
• Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Awards 2006

A detailed listing of other awards can be found in the IMDb.