The Triangle

Issue date: 6/9/06 Section: Entertainment

Media Credit: nwprogressive.com

A movie starring Al Gore, could it be possible on this planet of ours? That may very well be a thought racing through your mind if you are debating whether to catch the film An Inconvenient Truth. I went to the movie expecting to see a low-key documentary detailing point by point, in a turgid scientific manner, the evidence supporting global warming.

I was pleasantly surprised. The scientific content was presented replete with humor, stories about Gore's personal life and mild drama in a manner clearly aimed at the layman. This is a good thing since most people I saw buying tickets for the movie weren't asking for An Inconvenient Truth but rather for the "global warming movie."

What were some of the key moments of the movie? Well, at one point, Al Gore is showing a graphic that depicts carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere during the past 650,000 years. He then updates the chart to show the carbon dioxide concentration today and what it is expected to be in the year 2050.

That certainly evoked a shocked reaction from the audience. Another powerful movement was when he showed satellite photographs of the breakup of a massive ice shelf in Antarctica. There were numerous other graphic depictions of the consequences of global warming in addition to these two.

Interspersed among all these shocking graphics were Al Gore's humorous quips and anecdotes. My personal favorite was when he talked about the teacher who scolded his sixth grade classmate when he kid asked whether the continents of South America and Africa ever "fit together" (this was before the theory of continental drift became widely accepted).

Gore quips that the teacher went on to become scientific advisor in the current administration. Gore also pokes fun in a particularly dry manner when he talks about the fact that auto manufacturers are suing California for imposing fuel efficiency standards they would have to achieve a decade from now which China already has.

I'll save the rest for when you actually do go and see the movie, but what should you expect?

If you go in there expecting action, you'll be disappointed. If you go in there expecting a boring, PowerPoint presentation, you'll be delighted. If you go in there with an open mind expecting to see something enlightening about global warming which is entertaining at the same time, you'll get what you're expecting. The movie starts with Gore introducing himself as the man who "used to be the next President of the United States" and gets better and better from then on.

Make no mistake, this movie will make you think and will push you to change the way you live.

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