An Inconvenient Truth: Al Gore
OCN/100
Mrs. Morton
Robert Reyna
10 December 2012
An Inconvenient Truth is a powerful documentary by Al Gore, depicting the debilitating effects of global warming to our earth. In the video Gore speaks of the CO2 levels; he shows them on a large chart and explains how the greenhouse gas levels and temperature changes in the ice age signals fit together, to show what effect global warming has had on earth already. “In all of this time, 650,000 years, the CO2 level has never gone above 300 part per million.” (Gore, 2006) Gore spoke of the most serious climate change issue that this generation is likely to face; it is the threat of increased drought and reduced water supplies. Gore made references to the extreme heat wave that affected Europe during the summer of 2004; and how people died from the intense heat. Gore also spoke of Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa. He shows pictures from over 30 years prior in 1970 and the mountain was filled with snow, up until more recent pictures, from the 2000’s where the snow has considerably decreased. Gore goes on to speak of hurricanes and their effect on the world. He spoke of hurricane Katrina, and how it hit Florida at a category one storm, however, after traveling over the warm water in the gulf, the hurricane picked up its momentum when it hit New Orleans and devastated the land and people there. He explains how the wildlife is also effected by these shifts In weather, and how the birds that migrate, had chicks and they would hatch, however, many of them could not survive, due to the caterpillar population arriving too early, and dissipating before the chicks were able to hatch. He goes on to show Antarctica, and how in the last fifteen to twenty years, there have been shelves of ice larger than the state of Rhode Island that has been breaking apart. Within thirty-five short days, from January of 2002 going into February of 2002 the 700 foot tall ice shelves had broken off of the “Larson B.” of Antarctica. (Gore, 2006) Gore moves to Greenland where the ice is cracking right down the center; causing fresh melted water to run underneath the ice formations, and causes them to split in two. He then focuses on how if these large ice formations continue to melt it will cause the sea level to rise forcing parts of the continents to be submerged under water. Gore goes on to speak of the population and how it is on the rise, he goes back to the CO2
