Go Greener, Australia

It’s been two years since Al Gore’s documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, was released in cinemas, and I decided to watch it again to see how it holds up. I bought the DVD, which has environmentally-friendly packaging: a slim cardboard sleeve instead of a hard plastic case, and the wrapper was biodegradable. Apparently a tree will be planted for each DVD sold, although I didn’t look into the details of that.

If you missed it first time around, I really recommend giving it a look. When I first saw it I was already interested in climate change as an issue (saw it at an ACF fund-raiser), but Gore’s presentation really clarified what the problem was, and what it’s consequences are likely to be. He uses clear and powerful graphics and photographs to explain what’s going on, and shows a wry sense of humour in his delivery. The director also decided it would be helpful to see how a man like Gore went from Vice-President of the USA to presenting slideshows to community groups, so we see an outline of Gore’s life and he explains his motivations. Altogether, it’s a very inspiring package - even if you were already convinced of the importance of the issue, Gore’s can-do attitude will give you a motivational boost.

The DVD also includes two commentaries which I haven’t listened to yet, plus an update from Gore on the evidence shown in the movie. The update presents more recent (2007) details of ice-cap melting, drought, flooding, and the impact on the oceans, again with powerful photographs to really bring home the consequences. It’s a bit more scary than the movie! Gore also recently gave an updated talk at the TED conference - more links and details on that soon, as I think it’s worthy of it’s own post.

What critics said

At the time, critics said the movie was preaching to the converted. It’s true that climate-change deniers won’t be convinced by the evidence on show here, since they’re not really interested in evidence anyway. But I don’t think this documentary is aimed at ‘the converted’ either. I think it’s more for the 80% of people (well, that’s a rough guess for Australia) who report in surveys that they care about the environment, but haven’t participated in any direct action or made changes to their lifestyle. Gore wants them to realise the urgency of the issue and take action, especially political action. As Gore found out, few politicians will do anything unless there’s votes in it, so he’s asking us to put it on the table as something we want addressed.

Climate-change deniers also came up with lists of supposed errors in the information presented. These have all been debunked, and most are based on willful misinterpretation of the movie. Actual climate scientists were only critical of the documentary in that Gore presents the average scenario, rather than the worst possibilities. This raises the question of how best to present important information, but I think they’d be satisfied with the update in the DVD extras.

We already have the solutions

What I get from An Inconvenient Truth is a reinforcement of the idea that we already have the tools to fix climate change. We don’t need to sit around waiting for new technology or a silver bullet solution. Gore illustrates the concept of stabilisation wedges very well: if we need to make 50% reductions in carbon emissions, then 10 different solutions that each achieve a 5% cut will work just as well as one magic 50% reduction. This applies when we’re working on reducing carbon emissions from our home: energy efficient appliances, plus turning them off at the wall, plus a solar hot water system, plus using Green Power sources will get us a pretty significant reduction in emissions. The same approach will work on a national and global level, if we get off our butts and make it happen.

And now that I’ve said I approve of making multiple small changes, I’m going to be inconsistent and quibble about the “what you can do” recommendations shown during the movie credits. Switching lightbulbs really is important: it’s an easy first step that lets people dip their toes in the water and see that it’s fine. But after someone has just shown you ice-shelves collapsing and climate-change refugees in distress, it doesn’t *feel* like enough. Later in the credits, vague suggestions about political action are given, but I think more specific ones would match the impact of the movie better.

Perhaps this just feels inadequate because the public has moved on a bit since the movie was released. But I credit a lot of that shift in public perception to key figures in the media (Kochie on Sunrise, Margaret and David on the movie show, etc) seeing the movie and using their influence to promote it and push the issue as one of importance, so there you go. I bet Gore would be love his movie to be successful enough that one day it becomes hopelessly outdated as we all move towards a bright green future. Already we’ve got a lot of people making small changes in their homes to ‘help the environment’, and it was definitely a political issue in the federal election last year. An Inconvenient Truth got the ball rolling, but now it’s up to Aussie environmentalists to keep the momentum going.

PS: I haven’t done movie reviews before, but I’d like to do more this year. If there’s a movie with an environmental theme that you’re interested in, but aren’t sure if it’s worth spending your time on, leave a comment with it’s title. I’ll take the hit for the team then report back if it’s any good If you’ve seen one you think is great, leave a comment too and I’ll add it to my list.