An Inconvinent Truth?

To what extent do you think this was deserved? Having watched this film in class did you feel that your opinion (or perhaps the opinion of others) to the issue of climate change could be positively influenced? What did you think of this film? Was it effective?



I've seen this film a couple of times before and each time the impact it has on me is softened, the first that I saw the film I did become more conscious of the impact that I have on the environment as a result for about a week afterwards I was recycling and turning off things obsessively. However I do still think that it is a good way of getting the message of climate change across, but I think my opinion has been biased because we did watch it in sixth form and then compared it to a Channel 4 film which tried to show that climate change wasn't real so I always end up comparing it and looking for the flaws in the film. I also felt that the film had too much about the life of Al Gore, he does a good job of explaining the science in various ways so everyone can understand it but he gets very political and bitter which I didn't think was totally necessary.



Personally I don't think that Al Gore deserved the peace prize for this film because although it is a useful tool for building the foundations of an understanding of climate change it has been proven that there are many misrepresentations of data in the film, for example the fact that he claims that a sea level rise over the next 200 years of 6 meters will cause the mass migration of possibly millions of people inland. Research has show that the sea level will rise by only 0.6 - 0.8 meters in the next 100 years. He constantly uses the worst possible outcome and I think this may scare people. I know that it helps him get his point across but it doesn't give a fair view of the problem. This film was used in schools but now due to the discrepancies in the information it isn't recommended and it is for this reason that I think the film shouldn't get the Nobel peace prize. I think that yes he has made more people aware of the issue but he hasn't really discovered anything which is going to stop climate change, and as most of the film is a biography of his life it kind of misses the point.

I have been positively influenced by the film, I do always feel an enormous sense of guilt after watching it but always seem to end up thinking that I can't really make that much difference on my own, yes I'll continue to recycle and turn off the lights but when it comes to walking or cycling instead of using my car its never going to happen because in the end I can't really be that committed to it on my own. Having watched a couple of documentaries which state that climate change is a myth I do now wonder throughout the film how much of it is real and how much is put in there to scaremonger us.

Sustainable Lifestyle

What actions could you (in theory) undertake that would improve the 'sustainability' of your lifestyle? What might be preventing you from doing these?

There are lots of things I could do to improve the sustainability of my lifestyle, the main one would probably be not to drive everywhere. Me driving everywhere is increasing the gas emissions and the fossil fuel consumption which will mean there is less for future generations.Having passed my test for a while now I drive everywhere as its so much quicker and more reliable than using public transport. Its also much faster, to get to my job in the town centre it takes 15 minutes at the most but if I were to take the bus i'd have to leave almost an hour earlier. If the public transport links were improved and made cheaper I may consider using them instead.

I think I could also try and eat more healthily, this would have many sustainable impacts. Having a healthier diet would improve my overall health which in the long run would class me at a lower risk of developing any illnesses due to diet which would save on the health service and therefore the public spending so they could invest that in to something else. Eating fresher produce may also help instead of the ready meals, fruit and vegetables may be imported from other countries but they use considerably less packaging again reducing the use of fossil fuels in there production. I could even grown my own food but it takes a lot of patience and a certain knowledge of gardening which I just don't have, not to mention the weather in this country not being the most reliable.

The recycling facilities have been improved vastly in the past few years but I don't recycle anywhere near as much as I should because it takes so much effort to seperate everything but if I could put in a little more effort and recycle unwanted paperwork and things instead of just putting them in the bin.