You can’t put together a review of “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power” without mentioning Al Gore. That’s because the movie is more about Al Gore than it is about new climate revelations or solutions to global warming.

In its simplest form, it is a movie of what has happened, rather than a prescription for how we can get out of the very real and serious crisis we have created for humanity. Gore’s nemesis is not only global warming, but also dark money of the oil and utility companies that block action and spread misinformation at every turn. He plays the hero of his story, trying to overcome that block. The movie culminates in the negotiations and passage of the Paris Accord.

Full disclosure, I am actually in the movie (for three seconds), in a scene at the Climate Reality training session, where a large part of the movie was filmed. I’ve been through Gore’s 300 slide PowerPoint presentation, which served as a basis for much of the movie. I have also gone on record that I don’t believe the approach of focusing on alarm is the correct way to convince people to act on climate.

Just so the deniers and deceivers don’t twist this review, I will say that global warming is happening; it is caused by our burning of fossil fuels, it is serious enough that we have to do something about it, the consequences are dire, but we also have solutions. The tragedy so far, and the question this movie asks is, “Do we have the political will to do something about it?”

Gore challenges us to act. He uses the struggles of the civil rights movement, women’s suffrage, and other just movements as an example. His simple declaration is “We must win, we will win. Otherwise what will we say to those that follow us? When you knew of the consequences, when you had solutions, why in God’s name did you not act?” The issue of global warming is a moral issue. And the long arc of history bends towards that of justice.

Other than urgency, Gore can only play the role of Cassandra. We don’t have much time left to solve this crisis, and we can’t wait.

See this movie if you are new to the issues of climate change.

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Hobie,

L. Hobart Stocking
SkyWaterEarth.com
hobart@skywaterearth.com
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