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If you're a first time visitor (or just generally confused), here's an explanation: Originally this blog was titled "The Tree of Knowledge" and was full of my exhortations and explanations about various social issues. Now they aren't so much explanations as Tourette's like interjections, because I started to find the research exhausting.

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Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Movie Review: An Inconvenient Truth

Do you know how many polar bears drowned due to global warming last year? Al Gore does, and the statistic is part of his presentation on global warming that, intercut by interviews and images of Al Gore on his environment crusade, is presented in "An Inconvenient Truth." Al Gore is funny, engaging, and heartfelt in this movie which presents global warming in a way that is easy to absorb for the average viewer, even if you aren't a scientist or a hard-core environmentalist. Well, at least I think. I am a pretty hard-core environmentalist (or at least a poseur of one) and have a reasonably good understanding of science. The graphics are wonderful and scenes from Al Gore's political past of trying to fight this in America will touch and infuriate you. Gore comes across not so much as preachy, but coaxing and supportive.

This movie was particularly helpful for me because, though I've never been skeptical about global warming, I have been unclear as to how scientists were distinguishing this from normal warming trends in the Earth's history. And now I know. Though we are currently at about the same level as previous peak temperatures of long ago Earth, as determined by ice sample analyses, the carbon levels in the atmosphere are at all time highs and are continuing to grow, and we know that heat and carbon go together. Which means that current heat is not abnormal, in the scheme of the great geological past, but it will get hotter. Every scientific article published in a peer reviewed journal agrees with this evaluation. It is only in the lay-world that there is doubt about global warming. And we must not doubt any longer. I cannot convince you to care about the extinction of species, or the houses that are collapsing in greenland as a result of melting permafrost, or future generations of refugees who will be forced to leave coastal areas, but you should know that you are responsible for this.

To learn more about global warming and what you can do to reduce your carbon emissions visit
  • climatecrisis.net
  • Go see the movie. It's worth it.

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