Global Warming and a movie rec

[rurounihime]

EVERYONE:

If you have not yet seen An Inconvenient Truth (aka, That New Documentary By Al Gore), please take 100 minutes out of your life to see it as soon as possible.

I kid you not, it is an eye-opener. If I have any pull at all in this fandom, I would love to use it this way. I am not going to lj-cut this because I want people to read it.


~If you haven't seen the movie because it's not playing where you are, then please find someone who has seen it to tell you all about it.

~If you haven't seen it because you think it is just another sad ploy for political hegemony by Al Gore, who is getting his revenge because he lost the election way back when, then please, please look around that to the MUCH BIGGER, MORE IMPORTANT, AND LESS PETTY environmental issue.

~If you haven't seen it because you don't want to be depressed, then I'm sorry to say that ignoring it isn't going to make it go away. The more you know about a thing, the less frightening that thing is.

~If you haven't seen it because you just hate Al Gore, then see it for the environmental message instead because that involves everyone, not just Gore-fans.

And most importantly:

~If you haven't seen it because you don't believe global warming actually exists or you are completely on the fence about said existence, then go see it if only to acknowledge the arguments in favor of the existence of global warming. If nothing else, it will make your opposing argument better if you know exactly what is being said on the other side. And who knows, the movie might change your mind.

I think it's important to note that the film acknowledges the urge to feel despair at its ominous message. But the film also reminds us that there is a step between acknowledgement and despair, and that step is action. We can still DO something about this. It doesn't require panic. It requires little improvements by everyone, and those are most definitely not out of our reach.

Just change something about your lifestyle. One person most definitely cannot solve this problem and it's stupid to think that a single person can. But a hundred-thousand people doing little things can do a LOT.

Please see the film. I can't emphasize the importance of this issue in our lives enough. As someone very close to me has told me again and again, this issue of global warming will probably be The Issue of our generation. I agree.

Comments

[bluelittlepig.livejournal.com]

I totally agree that global warming is a really important issue since it effects everybody and every living thing in the entire planet. While we can't stop global warming, we can slow it down by not speeding it up. Every little thing that everybody does helps. While the result may not be immediate, it will definately help in the long run. I think that is part of the problem. People do need to be constantly be aware of this issue. It just gets push aside since it doesn't seem to be as immediate as other issues until it directly effects them like if it seems hotter than usual for the season.

I'm glad you brought this issue up.

I haven't yet seen the movie yet, but I will.

[rurounihime.livejournal.com]

That's part of what they were talking about in the movie, how the gradualness of the change is half of the problem: people just don't see results either way, whether they are bad results or good results. So they don't care as much.

[areadyheart.livejournal.com]

If you haven't seen it because you don't want to be depressed

... that's me. :( but i've just been putting it off, not saying no altogether. i will go see it, and i want to see it. soon.

[rurounihime.livejournal.com]

I was afraid it was going to depress me a lot as well. And I prepared for that when I went to see it. But even though the issue is definitely depressing, the movie as a whole surprised me by being really upbeat about how much change we can all make if we just start now. The film was very good at making me feel capable of helping, and making me feel proud of what we have been able to do in the past where the environment is concerned.

[rurounihime.livejournal.com]

It really is a good film. It has this list at the end of all the little things we can do to help the problem with global warming, like taking public transit whenever possible and buying energy saving appliances.

[ellie-nor.livejournal.com]

It still amazes me that there are 'scientists' who deny the possibility of global warming. Of course, they're all in the US and all related in some way to the oil industry, but come on guys! What about ethics?! (great post, btw)

[rurounihime.livejournal.com]

What I found interesting was that Gore listed off some statistics about scientific publications that were explored in terms of how many scientists were still denying the issue... and the total out of 960-something articles was 0% in denial. Which really aurprised me. He then did a poll on public articles, and the 53% in denial seems to be where the problem lies. People aren't getting the true facts, just hearsay. And that's very depressing.

[lilliputian722.livejournal.com]

Okay, I confess...I've never even heard of this documentary. *hangs head in shame*

I assume it's about global warming from your post. Care to share anymore about it?

[rurounihime.livejournal.com]

I linked to the IMDB page on the film in the post if you want to take a look. Basically, when Al Gore lost the election to George W. Bush, he went back to the project he had been working on before his campaign, which was educating people across the world about global warming, its effects, and what we can do about it. He goes city to city and presents lectures and slideshows on the subject, so for the movie he included a lot of that information, and then some other background on his life growing up and how he was first introduced to the issue of global warming. He's really a very good speaker, and I think he's found his calling with this documentary. I would love to see more from him on this subject.

If you can find it where you live, it's not very long, and it's extremely intriguing. A very informative movie.

[rurounihime.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed the film very much. I was expecting to be very depressed by the end, but the film was surprisingly upbeat about how we can help change the way things are going. Gore's a great public speaker; very charismatic and responsive to his audience. This documentary makes me actually want to jump up and DO something, change my lifestyle, which is more than I can say about other documentaries.

[bibliokat.livejournal.com]

Well, you've convinced me. I'll have to hunt it down because I do believe global warming is a serious problem. Now if we could only get people to work more on alternate energy sources (gas prices are killing me!).

[rurounihime.livejournal.com]

Gaw, you said it. But the thing is, I don't really see them going down again. I think the oil reserves are running out anyway, so... There may be a lot of changes due.

I like the cities that have turned toward solar power as a means for some of their energy. My city has done so and it really makes good use of some areas that weren't being used to their full capacity, like big covered parking lots.

[bibliokat.livejournal.com]

Wow, I didn't know that! And I'm a big fan of solar power so that's awesome;)

[fireelemental79.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen it since it's not playing here. I will look for it in Fresno or maybe Visalia.

However, I think this last summer season is bringing a lot of people around on the issue around here, mostly because it's kinda hard to argue with people and cows dying all over the place. It's also hard to argue with a month worth of triple digits.

Hell, thinking about the whole thing makes me want to sell my car and get some kind of electric power motor scooter or something. *___* And hug trees. I also want to hug a lot of trees. Lame joke, I know, but still, when you're freaking out, there's stupider things to do.

Anyway, I'm still going to force you to tell me about it, even though I will eventully see it. I'm sure you'd be delighted right ;-).

[rurounihime.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. I have definitely cut back on my driving. Luckily both my jobs are conveniently located, one right down the street and one near a lightrail stop. So it really works out and I feel better about it.

And hugging trees is not a bad thing! Just make sure there aren't any fire ants on the trunk. >.>

I will definitely tell you about it. ^__^