An Inconvenient Truth

My college film society screened 'An Inconvenient Truth' last week and I was asked to give a little talk before the screening. It thus lies:

An Inconvenient Truth is a documentary on global warming. It was released in 2006 and won the Oscar for Documentary Feature. The movie is presented by Former US Vice President Al Gore who was also recently nominated for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Personally, I feel that the film marks a turning point in the climate crisis issue. It is perhaps the most widely watched presentation in the world and has globally elicited a greater sense of urgency among lawmakers, entrepreneurs and the human race in general.

It was not that the film was met without any criticism. My friend Soumil, who is here, considers it to be Al Gore’s self-promotional gig. There was also the huge outcry over the fact that Gore himself lives in a big mansion that uses twice as much electricity than the average American. They forgot to mention that much of this is from renewable sources. But in my opinion, all these are just excuses to ignore the bigger picture. We are so used to pushing things under the carpet. We all do it, we all run away from tests and journal submissions and assignments. We have become accustomed to avoiding responsibilities and fabricating reasons to do so. What we all have to realise is that there is no carpet in this case. There is nowhere to run to. All of us have to accept the reality of Global Warming, however inconvenient it may be.

There is something else that I would like to stress on. This documentary is a overwhelming, moving experience-I was in tears by the end of it. As is wont to happen, people in general will get very inspired and pledge to modify their lifestyle, plant trees and so on. And then we’ll get out of the AVVR, go to DP’s, attend the lectures, go online etc. and then where’s global warming? Ah, never mind, let’s not take the trouble, someone will take care of it. Please don’t let this happen. Changing habits does require conscious efforts. It doesn’t happen overnight. But it’s not impossible. And even if you don’t want to be idealistic and try to save the earth, you could be selfish and try to save yourself. Because in a few decades Mumbai will be underwater.

I’ll conclude with a quote by Joe Lieberman “Global warming is not a conqueror to kneel before - but a challenge to rise to. A challenge we must rise to. Today, we can see with our own eyes what global warming is doing. In that context it becomes truly irresponsible, if not immoral, for us not to do something.”

Thank you and enjoy the documentary!