Boring Al Gore has made a movie ["An Inconvenient Truth"]. It is on the most boring of all subjects -- global warming. It is more than 80 minutes long, and the first two or three go by slowly enough that you can notice that Gore has gained weight and that his speech still seems oddly out of sync. But a moment later, I promise, you will be captivated, and then riveted and then scared out of your wits. Our Earth is going to hell in a handbasket.
You will see the Arctic and Antarctic ice caps melting. You will see Greenland oozing into the sea. You will see the atmosphere polluted with greenhouse gases that block heat from escaping. You will see photos from space of what the ice caps looked like once and what they look like now and, in animation, you will see how high the oceans might rise. Shanghai and Calcutta swamped. Much of Florida, too. The water takes a hunk of New York. The fuss about what to do with Ground Zero will turn to naught. It will be underwater.By Richard Cohen, Today in the Washington Post
Click to see the movie trailer.
The movie will be in theaters beginning May 24th.
Oh how I want this to be the beginning of the beginning of a serious, ongoing dialogue that leads to important and effective change. I take seriously what the scientist from NASA said earlier this year: "We have 10 years to slash carbon fuel use... or else watch as the ice melts, the oceans rise and much of our land goes underwater."
Oh how I don't want this to be just another politicized and spun issue . . . just another fearful subject that's not talked about.
Not discussing issues like global warming is a bad habit that all of us share to some extent.
Silence is a method which humans adapt as a front line of defense against fearful subjects that are difficult to process. It's a form of denial which enables people to become insensitive and inhuman to others and clamor for a parental figure to take charge and lead. In recent years, as the flames of fear have been stoked, there is actually a conspiracy of silence about many important subjects, including global warming, and a blind following of a leader that misleads and who has a political agenda that avoids and trivializes environmental issues such as this one.
In this case, for this issue, silence is not an option. I hope this movie is a catalyst for an immediate and international dialogue leading to effective change. The first step is to see it and form your own opinion.
Popcorn?
