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Waking up to an inconvenient truth

Mobilising minds: Host Al Gore in ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ to be premiered on HBO on the Earth Day this coming Tuesday.

To commemorate Earth Day, HBO is premiering an Oscar award-winning documentary film on April 22 highlighting the terrible consequences of global warming on all living creatures on Earth.

Showing extreme weather conditions, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves in different parts of the world, “An Inconvenient Truth” proves beyond reasonable doubt that unless drastic steps are taken the Earth is heading for a ma jor catastrophe.

The documentary is hosted by former US Vice-President Al Gore, an avid votary for action on climate change. Describing the pernicious impact of climate change on humanity, the film highlights Nobel laureate Gore’s painstaking efforts to educate the public about the severity of the crisis as it tracks his travels across continents.

Honoured with a number of prestigious awards including the 2006 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and Best Original Song for Melissa Etheridge’s “I Need to Wake Up”, the film follows a keynote presentation that Gore makes.

During his presentation, Gore reviews the scientific opinion on climate change. He deliberates on the politics and economics of global warming and describes the consequences on global climate change. A central feature of the film is his examination of the annual temperature and carbon dioxide levels for the past 650,000 years in Antarctic ice core samples. The film includes many segments intended to refute critics who say that global warming is unproven or that it will be insignificant. For example, Gore discusses the possibility of the collapse of a major ice sheet in Greenland, or in West Antarctica, either of which could raise global sea levels by about 20 feet, flooding coastal areas and producing 100 million refugees. The film ends with Gore arguing that if appropriate action is taken soon, the effects of global warming could be successfully reversed by releasing less carbon dioxide and planting more vegetation to consume existing noxious gases.

Madhur Tankha

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