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.