12/11/2022 0 Comments Al gores an inconvenient truth![]() Is Al Gore the reason I am concerned about global warming? No. And in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation." We all have within us the power to send out "tiny ripples of hope" that will converge into a mighty current of sweeping renewal.įew of us have the influence or reach of Al Gore, but we all have a responsibility to pursue the harder path before us, so that others may follow. "Few will have the greatness to bend history itself," Robert Kennedy said in a 1966 speech in South Africa, "but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. ![]() That's what gives me inspiration to engage with these pathfinders, tell their story and each day try a little bit harder to help light the way. While I've endured over the years the expected heaving of hate and fear, I've also seen firsthand the hard work of many talented, passionate and brilliant people focused on moving the world toward a better future. ![]() What's more, I've had an opportunity to temper my general Malthusian worldview with a sense of guarded optimism. I acquired the domain name "" several years earlier, but after seeing "An Inconvenient Truth" in May of 2006 I decided to focus my efforts on what I cared about most and launched the official blog (GWIR). It was a humble launch, but 10 years on it is still going strong. I'd also read other cautionary works like Jeremy Rifkin's early work "Entropy ," Paul Ehrlich's "Population Bomb," Robert Heinberg's "The Party's Over" and The Club of Rome's "Limits to Growth ," among others.įrom a very young age I was a budding Malthusian.īut while contemplating this doom, I also found great joy in the beauty of the world around me. I can't say exactly when I first learned about climate change, but it was long before Gore's movie. Perhaps my ambivalence is directed more toward the climate change narrative itself than to Gore's engagement with it. It is a narrative too often oversimplified, tortured beyond all recognition of civility and imbued with an ideological fervor that has little to do with the task at hand.Īnd it's for all this that I'd like to take the opportunity of the 10-year anniversary of "An Inconvenient Truth" to thank Al Gore for changing my life. He is passionate and sincere about his work. ![]() I've heard Gore speak on several occasions. I've gone through his Climate Leadership training. If I do admit some ambivalence, it is not for lack of admiration and inspiration for what Gore has done and is doing in the public campaign to push for climate action. This may sound like I'm being critical of his work. He raised awareness about global warming so masterfully that he has become synonymous with it, often not in a good way. I can only speak anecdotally, but I believe Gore is likely the most famous straw man alive - and for some, also the most reviled. But "An Inconvenient Truth" brought the issue to the forefront of public consciousness like little did before or since (except the changing climate itself), for better and worse. I read Gore's 1992 nonfiction book " Earth in the Balance," so I was no stranger to his environmental advocacy. This is ironic given that we live in transformative times ourselves, witness to a global paradigm shift of raised awareness. To be perfectly candid, I think "raising awareness" is among the canon of over-hyped phrases like "paradigm shift." Meaningful at their core, these idioms are overused, often with a pretentious tinge, to the point of diffusing much of their impact and credibility. Or that global warming invented Al Gore, I'm not sure which. What is certain is the enormous impact the movie and Gore's advocacy through the years had on raising awareness about the, well, inconvenient truth of climate change. The nominating committee recognized Gore and the IPCC "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."įor many, it was as if Al Gore invented global warming. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In May of 2006, Al Gore's now-classic climate change documentary " An Inconvenient Truth" was released. The movie won an Oscar in the Featured Documentary category, and Gore was co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, along with the U.N.
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