It is a mental image that has stuck with me since Saturday night: Polar bears drowning because they could not swim 60 miles to reach an ice mass. That's one of the consequences that Al Gore ties to global warming in "An Inconvenient Truth." Yes, that Al Gore. The man who would be president save for all those hanging Florida chads.
Gore has reinvented himself as movie star in this documentary, which pairs his passion for the environment with the consequences that he says we already face and will face because of global warming. It's a message that is reaching more and more people. "Truth" made $1.75 million this past weekend -- a juicy amount for a documentary. And its per-screen average of $4,331 was higher than Jennifer Aniston's "The Break-up," the latest installment of the "X-Men" and "The Da Vinci Code."
Enough numbers.
For those thinking how in the world could I possibly spent 90 minutes with Al Gore, this is not "Mr. Lock Box" of the 2000 presidential campaign. He is warm, engaging, funny and self-deprecating, and he seems so real where so many politicians seem so phony. His tech-tech slide show did raise questions, and I wish the audience could have stopped the movie to raise them. It's a conversation we need to have as a global power and as a steward of what we've been given.
In addition to those polar bears I can't get out of my head, this movie raises urgent questions: What if the dire consequences do happen in 25 years or 50 years, President Bush, and you did nothing? What if big swaths of the United States and the rest of the world are covered by water, members of Congress, and you did nothing? What if we ruin this planet for generations to come, and we did nothing? Isn't it as morally responsible to do something about global warming as it is to take on terrorism or hunger or genocide? Why not err on the side of action?
If you want to do something, the movie's Web site has a 10 things that you can do list. It's not that hard to use less hot water or to recycle more of your garbage or to plant a tree in your back yard.
Do it for you. Do it for your grandchildren. Do it for the polar bears.
3 comments:
I gotta see that moviee
Please do.
I've been on vacation for a week, but if "An Incovenient Truth" isn't playing here anymore, please make a point to see it somewhere or buy/rent it when it comes out on DVD. It's that important.
I finally noticed the movie listings this weekend, and "An Inconvenient Truth" is playing at the Regal Brandywine Town Center. See it. The movie has been there, I think, for three weeks, so it must be drawing viewers or Regal would have used that theater for another showing of "Pirates."
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