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An Inconvenient Truth

Willamena

Just me
Premium Member
I would like to discuss the film, An Inconvenient Truth. I rented the film last night, and was quite impressed. Apart from the showmanship and a one-sided display of facts and scientific data, Al Gore did a fine job of instilling in people the sense of urgency needed to realise that this planet is in trouble if nothing more is done about carbon emissions.

The graph that showed emission levels rising to 6(?) times any previous level in the recorded past (5 ice ages worth of data garnered from polar ice and such) was particularly impressive, as was the apparent lack of interest on the part of the government to take any of this seriously and the message that compared his critics to the smoking industry.

I have a new appreciation of Al Gore as a man committed to bring an important message to the Western world.
 

ayani

member
yes! i saw this film for geology class a couple days ago.

i really loved it. i found it compassionate, well-documented, entertaining, and serious all at once.

"and the water just gets hotter and hotter untill the frog is...rescued. it's important to rescue the frog."
frog.gif
 

Green Gaia

Veteran Member
I love, love, love this film!! It spells out what is happening in very simple terms and refutes the argument of those who refuse to acknowledge there is a problem. EVERYONE should watch this!
 
I've read the book but have not yet seen the movie. I thought it was well conveyed. The book was laid out like a slide show with few words and many pictures and charts. Is the movie similar? One of my favorite quotes in the book is of Upton Sinclair who said, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." I know this is true of myself. I recognize our moral responsibility to safeguard the environment, but I often neglect to act upon that realization. Speaking of frogs, I was flipping through a book the other night called "The Book of Nature". It is a collection of quotes and stories about the importance of Nature from various people and traditions, but its central focus is the Islamic perspective as found in the Qur'an. There was a proverb in this book, I believe of American Indian origin, that said, "A frog does not drink up the pond in which it lives."
 

lunamoth

Will to love
I have not seen this film but I would like to. My one reservation is that it is going to be so heavily slanted and while I appreciate getting the scientific facts and updated on the political situation, I find myself being very ciritcal and skeptical when I watch something that I know is designed to give a certain message.

Having said that, I think the number one priority of our country should be development of alternative energy, not only to curb the greenhouse gases but also to stop the pollution and environmental destrcution of drilling and our incredibly selfish acquisition of foreign oil. We are in for a lot of pain as gas prices go up and we need a huge wake up call. Using oil like we do is dirty, bad for the environment in so many ways, and eventually it's going to come to an end. I don't use the word sin very often, but the way we've moved to bigger gas guzzling cars over the past 20 years is so stupid and short-sighted it takes my breath away.

I'm not that old but I remember the 'energy crisis' of the 70's, and how we all learned about our wasteful ways, and how much slack could be taken in easy things like turning off lights and lowering the thermostat and putting water restrictors on our shoers etc...you never hear about these conservation strategies anymore. OK, now I'm ranting, but it I do get annoyed by the fact that every mom in town needs an SUV to carry the kiddos around. I drive a Subaru station wagon because I've got two kids and a dog and groceries to buy but I swear that this will be the biggest car I'll ever own and my next car will be a mini, or a hybrid mini, the most economical car I can afford.

Whew. That feels better. :)
 

Buttercup

Veteran Member
It was a great movie filled with compelling evidence for the lay person to grasp hold of and feel up to date on the global warming issue.

Most alarming to me was the record high temps over the last 15-20 years of history. If that doesn't sound scary, nothing does.
 

Willamena

Just me
Premium Member
lunamoth said:
My one reservation is that it is going to be so heavily slanted and while I appreciate getting the scientific facts and updated on the political situation, I find myself being very ciritcal and skeptical when I watch something that I know is designed to give a certain message.
The thing is, he doesn't pretend that it's anything but a message. The message is simple and repeated a number of times in a number of ways, with an "I can't say this enough" certainty. There is nothing subtle or misleading about his one-sided message --it's very honest and focussed.

I liked his stage presentation very much.

messianicmystic said:
The book was laid out like a slide show with few words and many pictures and charts. Is the movie similar?
Yes, indeed, but perhaps with more words.
 

Willamena

Just me
Premium Member
lunamoth said:
I don't use the word sin very often, but the way we've moved to bigger gas guzzling cars over the past 20 years is so stupid and short-sighted it takes my breath away.

I'm not that old but I remember the 'energy crisis' of the 70's, and how we all learned about our wasteful ways, and how much slack could be taken in easy things like turning off lights and lowering the thermostat and putting water restrictors on our shoers etc...you never hear about these conservation strategies anymore.
Another trend I noticed in the 90's was a shift back towards disposable, when campaigns in the 70's had tried to so hard to make people realise that filling up landfills was a bad thing.
 

Buttercup

Veteran Member
Something I had no idea of until recently was the way incandescent light bulbs affect global warming.........

Save Energy, Money and the Environment with Compact Florescent Light Bulbs

If you want to change the world, start by changing a few light bulbs. It is one of the best things you can do for the environment—and your budget. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, if every U.S. household replaced just one regular incandescent light bulb with a compact florescent light bulb, it would prevent 90 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, the equivalent of taking 7.5 million cars off the road. And the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says that by replacing regular light bulbs with compact florescent light bulbs at the same minimal rate, Americans would save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year and


Reasons to Switch to Compact Florescent Light Bulbs
On top of that, replacing one regular light bulb with an approved compact florescent light bulb would save consumers $30 in energy costs over the life of the bulb. Compact florescent light bulbs use at least two-thirds less energy than standard incandescent bulbs to provide the same amount of light, and they last up to 10 times longer. Compact florescent light bulbs also generate 70 percent less heat, so they are safer to operate and can also reduce energy costs associated with cooling homes and offices.

http://environment.about.com/od/greenlivingdesign/a/light_bulbs.htm
 

SPQR

Member
It was a propaganda movie that is actually deeply rooted in fact. However, it didn't "awaken" me from a slumber of ignorance; it basically confirmed what I already knew, mankind is screwing up the Earth, and we need to do something about it immediately.

I agree with Al Gore that if we had solar panels on every building on the planet we would be able to generate enough electricity to power it. It would cost billions, probably trillions of dollars to do, but our planet is worth it nyet?

The movie is a good eye-opener for the more ignorant people in America, but it also has some strange side-effects. Here in California a legislator is trying to ban the incandescent lightbulb because it "contributes to greenhouse gasses". I like the warm yellow light emitted by an incandescent bulb; they have no right to ban these things.
 

Willamena

Just me
Premium Member
SPQR said:
The movie is a good eye-opener for the more ignorant people in America, but it also has some strange side-effects. Here in California a legislator is trying to ban the incandescent lightbulb because it "contributes to greenhouse gasses". I like the warm yellow light emitted by an incandescent bulb; they have no right to ban these things.
You can get "warm yellow" from a flouescent bulb. ;)

"Lamp color is determined by the selection of chemicals used in the phosphors; various chemicals respond to the ultraviolet energy in the arc by producing different colors of light. Several types of essentially white fluorescent lamps are available commercially, as well as a range of tinted and saturated colors."
http://www.answers.com/topic/fluorescent-lamp
 

des

Active Member
I really love this film. It is NOT, imo, propaganda, esp in the usual sense. From what I have read the science is sound. There are several concerns that scientists I have read have stated. The newest report out says overwhelmingly that most scientists believe that global warming IS caused by human activity.

Thanks for info on "warm" compact florescents. I'll be on the look out. I have been replacing incandescent bulbs with the compact florescents as they have gone out, but I have hestitated doing that in places where I cared about the color of the light.



--des
 
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