You Can Call Him Al
Having caught a preview of Al Gore's new film, "An Inconvenient Truth," in Seattle, RealClimate contributor, Eric Steig -- a University of Washington geochemist -- weighs in with a review. First and foremost, Steig says Gore handled the science of global warming "admirably." Like any good scientist, he does find some minor mistakes to quibble with, but concludes by saying that: "The small errors don't detract from Gore's main point, which is that we in the United States have the technological and institutional ability to have a significant impact on the future trajectory of climate change. This is not entirely a scientific issue -- indeed, Gore repeatedly makes the point that it is a moral issue ... I'll admit that I have been a bit of a skeptic about our ability to take any substantive action, especially here in the U.S. Gore's aim is to change that viewpoint, and the colleagues I saw the movie with all seem to agree that he is successful."Gore, the reluctant movie star, also makes an appearance on Grist, where he is interviewed by David Roberts. After a brief, but wide-ranging discussion, Roberts asks the former veep the inevitable; namely, given the seriousness of the crisis confronting us and Gore's passion about confronting it, doesn't he feel obliged to make another go at becoming president?
I don't want to steal Grist's thunder, so you'll have to go there to read his answer. Before you go, mark your calendars: "An Inconvenient Truth" opens on May 24. Help make it a blockbuster.
1 Comments:
I caught a screening of the movie. It was quite good, especially if you feel you need a better grasp of this issue. Al Gore spoke at the end of the screening. He asked how many people in the audience had seen March of the Penguins last year, and almost everyone had. Then he asked how many had seen it opening weekend, and maybe 3 people raised their hands. His point was that that film was in theaters long enough for word of mouth to spread. Gore encouraged everyone and their friends to see his film opening weekend so the movie's distributors would keep it in theaters long enough for word to spread and the audience could grow. I think you can pledge on the film's web site that you will see it. Gore told us that the film is in general release on June 2.
Now, for some arm-waving speculation: This movie will be the barometer for measuring the political climate of Al Gore. What will the reviewers say? Will politicians be compelled to comment on it? How many potential presidential candidates have a metric like ticket sales to gauge their appeal to the public? Much like George W. Bush in his candidate incarnations (and probably now), people are approaching this film with low expectations: who wants to see a movie of Al Gore doing a PowerPoint presentation? But expectations like that, as if by design, are easily surpassed (see, again: candidate Bush). And if that happens, then Gore and his little movie have inaugurated a sort of public forum on global warming that does not really exist on a national scale. And he will be the undisputed master of that forum. And then he'll run. Plus, he has all that California money behind him.
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