Trying to warm up to Al Gore

Taking a break from some house cleaning on Saturday, I sat down for lunch, flipped on the tube, and surfed around a bit. Several excellent movies I had been meaning to see were on. So was Al Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth".

Urrr, I groaned -- opting to skip the entertainment and go for the heavy brain lift. "Take your medicine, boy," I told myself. "Not fair for you to keep criticizing the man when you haven't seen the film."

To be perfectly clear, I have been very slow to embrace the global warming movement and am exceptionally skeptical of many ideas promoted by die-hard Democrats and Republicans alike. I figured the idea of global warming and the need for American and global response were just more big-government blather because of the spokesman for the cause.

As the past few years have gone by, though, my brain and my conscience have been poking me. They keep making me go back to an issue that is big, complicated, scientific, and detail-oriented. In other words: boring. Talk to me about defeating racism, educating children about history, saving wolves or getting government off our backs and I'm all ears. But big, boring science stuff that doesn't boil down to a soundbite -- by God, it's my duty as an American to try to ignore it or oppose it.

Then there's Old Al and my cognitive dissonance.

On the one hand, I certainly wouldn't treat my body, house or neighborhood the way my apathy condones the way we treat the whole planet. I'm green friendly. I care about public lands, wildlife, clean drinking water, and fresh air. Conserving our natural resources just seems like the right thing to do. Global warming or no global warming, I do what I can to reduce my energy use, recycle, etc. And yes, it irks me every time I see someone driving a gas guzzling SUV in city traffic. Like the driver at any second is going to need to hop the curb, enter an invisible jungle and deliver a vaccine to a dying child.

On the other hand: Al Gore. Tax-and-spend, government-is-the-answer-to-everything Al Gore.

But take your medicine, boy, I think. It will be good for you.

So I try to read at least some of the articles in the press. I try to really listen when my ultra-green friends get into the minutiae of the science of global warming. Further to my credit, I even went to listen to Gore speak on Earth Day at the National Museum of the American Indian. There I was, having come a long way from nay-sayer to listener, someone on the verge of starting to genuinely care about the issue. But Gore just didn't deliver the goods in Washington. Bless his heart, as we say back home -- often before delivering a genteel insult -- I saw first-hand the charisma challenge that has plagued his career. Maybe my expectations were too high. Maybe I was expecting the "I have a dream" of global warming speeches.

I left the event still not grasping the facts and importance of the issue. I was disappointed, actually. Intuitively, I keep thinking global warming should be something that matters to me. Yet I rolled my eyes when Gore later won the Nobel Peace Prize, my gut reaction telling me political correctness has gone wrong again.

Still, I didn't give up trying to wrap my brain around the potential merit of his mission. I continued to read and listen, to watch documentaries by journalists instead of politicians. I continued to consider the overwhelming documentation by the world's scientific community that global warming is real and that it is made worse by human beings. I've even quizzed my own friends who happen to be scientists.

Then I catch "An Inconvenient Truth" today while scarfing down leftover Chinese food and a Coke. "This is your last chance," I told TV screen Al. "You don't further my interest here, I'll never come around."

I watched every one of the 100 minutes in the film, forcing myself to sit there without distraction. I quickly realized that the film praisers who have used phrases like "intellectually exhilarating" were  smoking something I don't have access to. Fortunately, I had the caffeine. But Al and his barnstorming global warming slide show methodically made the points that held my attention.

I began to gain a significantly better understanding of what contributes to global warming, including humanity's role in it. The film walked this journalism major through the science I hadn't been able to follow before. It showed before and after pictures of glaciers that are disappearing in a hurry and a ton of other eye-popping graphics.

More importantly, "An Inconvenient Truth" connected many of the dots I had not been able to put together. I now see how global warming makes hurricanes worse. I see the link between polar bears drowning in the sea because they have no ice to inhabit and water supply for humans. I'm starting to grasp the extraordinary range of dire consequences we face by not doing more to overcome the bad habits and outdated technology that have turned up the heat on the planet. Global warming is not a phase; it is a fact.

I'm starting to get why we need to act, and that the situation is not yet hopeless. We can, all of us, make a difference.

Here's the thing: we can't worry about what the other 6,648,239,520 people on the planet are doing, or even the other 301,139,947 Americans. One of the great episodes of the TV show "M*A*S*H" that changed my life perspective was a story about Hawkeye putting a stop to one bad guy -- a man who scoffed at the surgeon and told him he would never be able to change the world. Hawkeye agreed but said he took satisfaction from doing his part to change his small corner of it. I never forgot that lesson.

That's all most of us can do. It's not going to be easy to fully grasp and embrace global warming. You've got to really want to get your mind around it because it's not something you can accomplish between commercials of "Lost".

I know I owe it to myself and the natural world I care about to keep studying global warming and to  consider the host of steps we can take to make a difference. I already know my next step, though: TV screen Al gave me a lot more information than I could absorb the first time. I'm going to go back and watch "An Inconvenient Truth" again. There's plenty of Coke left in the fridge.

 

Comments

[Rick]

Chris...

I guess the picture on your blog was taken before the lobotomy - because you can't see the scar!

First you come out singing McCain's praises - who led the first successful assault on the First Amendment in this country's history, and led the charge in favor of amnesty for illegal aliens.

Now you're singing the praises of Al Gore?

I think the next movie you ought to watch is "Invasion of the Body Snatchers!"

[Patrick Byington]

Chris,

Thanks for sharing your journey - trying to get your arms around Climate Change.

I witnessed a similar "Inconvenient Truth" moment with my father in law. He is a retired chemistry professor, and pretty much a global warming skeptic. In fact, when we attended a showing in Seattle, he almost walked out of the theater before the movie began when 4-5 previews of liberal documentaries showed up on the screen (He loudly said - "this is going to be "bunk!" - I slinked down in my seat).

Once we got over that - watching the film - I would sneak a peak over at him and he seemed to loosen up. But I really couldn't tell what his opinion would be. When we left the theater, I got up the courage to ask him - what did you think?

His answer was short and abrupt. "Gotta do something. It is cut and dry."

We both agreed Gore would have made a good college professor - and the movie did awaken my father in law's interest. Even today almost 2 years after watching it together we still discuss the latest developments and more importantly - what we can do to address Climate Change.

[Rebekah]

I agree that global warming is real, but I am not sure that most of isn't simply caused by the fact that there are more than 6 billion people on this planet now...fossil fuels or no, we put off a hell of a lot of heat.

The problem with this issue is the same as with most - it is intricately tied to many other issues that most people in this country cannot be bothered to educate themselves on or simply don't have the mental capacity to connect the dots - overpopulation, international economics, comparative advantage - to name a few.

I am most certainly a capitalist, but I also don't think we should be ripping down rain forests faster than we can blink. I believe something needs to change, but I don't think worthless political pageants like kyoto or another live aid concert are doing anything but making the non koolaid drinking segment of the population sick.

Then, the devil's advocate side of me also wants to know how much of this is actually cyclical? I mean, as far as planet earth goes, we certainly haven't been around long enough to actually know how things work. I read one scientific study that showed that the eruption of Mt. St. Helens did more damage to the ozone layer than the entire Industrial Revolution. What say you to that?

Nature is fragile, and ecosystems are very sensitive to change. However, poor people are also sensitive to whatever they can do to make money. Corrupt governments are sensitive to whatever they can do to maintain a semblance of international influence. And Americans are incredible sensitive to anything that may in anyway "infringe upon their every pleasure or convenience." I mean, my God - look at abortion.

Yes I agree it needs to be looked at, but the issue is going to be getting every one of us 6 billion people on the planet to do our part. And no, I still do not think Al Gore is the savior of all mankind.

I really enjoyed your post though. It's nice to see intelligent writing amidst a blogosphere full of self-righteous soap box rambling about Brittany's latest underwear style ;)

[tony]

The tough part about global warming is the solutions. They truly have to be global and national, and they will require sacrifice. It's a bitter pill.

Some of the good that comes from this film (and I have criticisms that I won't bother with here) is that it really does use mass entertainment media to inform and enlighten.
Movies are at their best when they are personal and when the stories are from the heart.

The unlikely thing here is Al Gore, notoriously stiff, is here accessible and empathetic. Getting to know another side of him, and presumably the more real Al Gore is part of why the movie holds interest I think.

[Bobby Magill]

Amen, brother. My concerns about global warming have nothing to do with Al Gore. I'm an enviro and former journo who has yet to see "An Inconvenient Truth" and couldn't care less about Al Gore. I won't be rushing to Netflix to order myself a copy.
I will, however, start wondering if my hometown of Charleston, SC will bury itself a little deeper in high tide each year as the lower streets on the Charleston peninsula flood almost on a daily basis. Already, the city has awful drainage problems city engineers worry are only being exacerbated by a slowly rising Atlantic. Will I be able to visit the graves of my family members in 30 years? Will my favorite stretch of beach already losing its battle with erosion still exist in five years? Will an extended drought in my beloved southern Appalachians turn my wooded childhood hiking trails into graveyards of trees charred by catastrophic wildlfire?
I don't know.
But just in case the skeptics are wrong and all the climatologists I've talked to know a few more things about the earth than I do, I'm going to take Al Gore's warnings seriously.