An Inconvenient Truth

I went to see An Inconvenient Truth, the documentary about Al Gore’s mission to raise awareness about global warming tonight.

It was very good, although also very scary — “the scariest movie you’ll see this year,” as the tagline describes it.

A few years ago, when Bill Clinton was still the President of the United States and 9/11 hadn’t happened yet, I was convinced that climate change was the single biggest issue facing humanity. An Inconvenient Truth reminded me that this is still true, although the World has had the wool pulled over its eyes by manufactured threats like global terrorism. If even the most conservative estimates come to pass, the effects of climate change will make events like 9/11 seem trivial in comparison.

Personally I feel pretty good about my own personal response to this threat; I sold my gas-guzzling (but very cool) ’69 Mustang, I recycle, I buy energy efficient appliances, I turn off unnecessary lights whenever I see them and I recently signed up with Sterling Planet and agreed to pay $10 extra per month to force ConEdison to buy my electricity from renewable sources.

But it’s not enough. Unless CO2 emissions are dramatically reduced in the next few years, the Earth’s climate is going to change dramatically and the low-lying regions of the World (including New York and London) will be under water.

One thought on “An Inconvenient Truth

  1. shawn

    Cheers – I was just researching on how to get renewable energy from coned, and found your blog (via technorati). I still haven’t figure out how to do it though, think I might have to call them.

    Also saw the Inconvenient Truth and wrote about it on me and my wife’s blog,
    http://www.two-twelve.net/2006/06/14/the-inconvenient-one-sided-truth/

    We also try to live our lives responsibly, and watching the movie didn’t make me feel much better. The changes, I believe, must come from the policy makers on top, and I’m pessimistic about that happening…

    Reply

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