An Unfortunate Truth

[pazarus]

Ok, it's 5am, I just got home, I walked 2 miles through the rain, I'm still a little buzzed, and I don't know if I'm posting this in the right place.

I went to see the premiere of An Inconvenient Truth tonight. It opened in my hometown, and I went with ten friends to spend my Friday night with Al Gore and the depressing facts of the global warming phenomenon.

And it couldn't have been better.

Al Gore was right, and he'll be right over the next fifty years, until he's vindicated by the same slow, stupid machine that ignored science for the tobacco companies and the AIDS crisis, and as far back as the Flat Earth.

He addresses the one refutation global warming has ever faced. Global warming and cooling are cyclical, it's true. But never in the history of the planet has the heat been this strong, the CO2 levels been this high, or the impact of human actions been so clear.

As inspiring as it was to see the battle lines so clearly drawn, I came away from the film upset. The people who need to see this the most never will. The people who are shocked that humans can effect something as big as the atmosphere are never going to open themselves to the possibility of seeing something Al Gore (D) was a part of.

They'll go to their graves fighting to keep environmentalists from overloading their precious oil fields with owls. They are content to consider it a cycle and they don't care what the graphs say. Someday they'll suddenly switch and say they need to take action and they'll act surprised this issue snuck up on everyone, and they'll blame the next country on the PNAC invasion list, and with the right leadership they'll even champion the issue if it plays off our fears enough. Once they get the green light from oil companies and auto makers and the industrial complex, they'll line their pockets and become reactionary loudmouths revising history one caller at a time.

They'll ignore that Al Gore is quietly traversing the planet, right here and right now. Decades before the government will react, decades before he'll be vindicated, he is telling the world about it's own death. One lecture, one screening at a time, and the people outside the choir aren't willing to listen. That's the unfortunate truth. That's the battle we face.

[bridgit]

1. good to hear, we're going next week some time...

:thumbsup: they're already spinning the sales numbers trying to run the interest down, in that per screen, which is how these things are factored, An Inconvenient Truth has already out-sold more than Da'Code & X Men3

and before anyone flames me that is 'per screen', not screening; An Inconvenient Truth has so far only opened in four theaters...the others are worldwide on 1,000's of screens so there's that so yes, they have larger piles of money...but they haven't made it on a per capita basis just yet = Go Al!!

[liberal N proud]

2. Ebert & Roper give it two thumbs up

I was awake at 5:30 and Ebert & Roper were on with this weeks reviews.
They both gave "An Unfortunate Truth" Thumbs Up

The review is not on their main web site yet.

http://tvplex.go.com/buenavista/ebertandroeper/today.html

[DianaForRussFeingold]

3. Great movie review! Bush Snubs "An Inconvenient Truth.

Bush Snubs Gore's Global Warming Film
President Says He 'Doubts' He'll See Former VP's Documentary


In this photo provided by Paramount Pictures Classics, Al Gore has traveled the world delivering a presentation on the global climate change, also discussed in his movie, "An Inconvenient Truth." (Eric Lee)




Quote

"I'm a grandfather and he's a father and this should not be a political issue."
Al Gore


(AP) Is President Bush likely to see Al Gore's documentary about global warming?

"Doubt it," Mr. Bush said coolly! http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/23/politics/main1645020.shtml

But Mr. Bush should watch it, Gore shot back. In fact, the former Democratic vice president offered to come to the White House any time, any day to show Mr. Bush either his documentary or a slide show on global warming that he's shown more than 1,000 times around the world.

"The entire global scientific community has a consensus on the question that human beings are responsible for global warming and he has today again expressed personal doubt that that is true," Gore said in an Associated Press interview from France where he attended the Cannes Film Festival.

Mr. Bush and Gore have had bitter disagreements about the environment and other issues. Mr. Bush defeated Gore in a disputed presidential election that was finally settled by the Supreme Court in 2000. **** "The Swift-Boating of An Inconvenient Truth" Gore seems to have touched a nerve. An Inconvenient Truth, his new documentary about global warming--a simultaneously frightening and inspiring film--hadn't yet arrived in theaters last week when a guerrilla movement to discredit the movie had already begun. A network of oil-funded think tankers and conservative media outlets have joined arms to launch the most massive offensive against a PowerPoint presentation ever recorded by man. But there is one salutary effect of this new campaign. The Swift-Boating of An Inconvenient Truth has brought into public view yet another shining star in the right's anti-science constellation. While the fundamentalist theo-conservatives sowed doubts about evolution during the debate over "intelligent design," the Exxon conservatives are storming into battle against global warming. http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20060612&s=editorial061206

[pazarus]

4. thank you

everyone should see it. go opening night in full Al Gore costume!