In 2006, Al Gore issued a forceful warning about the threat of climate change in An Inconvenient Truth. More than a decade later, he's followed it up with An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power. Jensen Walker/Paramount Pictures hide caption
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Jensen Walker/Paramount Pictures
In 2006, Al Gore issued a forceful warning about the threat of climate change in An Inconvenient Truth. More than a decade later, he's followed it up with An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power.
Jensen Walker/Paramount Pictures
A close-up of ice melting in brilliant sunshine is the first thing you see in An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power. It's gorgeous — snow crystals glistening, moisture dripping from them into a pool of water so pure and clear it makes you thirsty.
But in subsequent shots, as the drips become streams, and the streams plunge over ice-cliffs, you realize what you're seeing: A glacier is melting. And that's not so beautiful.
More than 10 years ago, Al Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth argued forcefully that climate change ought to be a mainstream concern. The world seemed to hear that argument (the current U.S. administration's doubts notwithstanding) and the film became a surprising box office hit worldwide.
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Now, Gore's back with an update that is partly an "I told you so," and partly a "look how far we've come" with caveats. The former vice-president has long seemed most at home when visiting scientists and statistic-gatherers, which is what we see him doing a lot of, here. The man is wonky, no question. But that's what has made his climate-change crusade persuasive for so many. He gets the figures, turns them into easily digested factoids, says things that initially sound outrageous, and handles the pushback. Take a graphic created for An Inconvenient Truth in 2006, that he recalls in this film.
"The single most criticized scene in that movie," he says as a map of lower Manhattan shows streets flooding with water, "was an animated scene showing that the combination of sea-level rise and storm surge would put the ocean water into the 9/11 memorial site which was then under construction. And people said, 'That's ridiculous. What a terrible exaggeration.' "
Then you see news footage from October 2012 of Hurricane Sandy slamming into New York as a newscaster talks of flooding at the World Trade Center site. And that's followed by a somber New York governor Andrew Cuomo reacting to billions of dollars in damage that he calls "a wake-up call" about climate change and our vulnerability to it. Lessons learned, steps taken.
Still, much of this film manages to be upbeat and affirmative. The single most exhilarating moment may come from a bar graph — seriously, you'll want to cheer — but there's no shortage of human stories on screen: The woman whose shoe gets stuck in pavement that's melted from the heat. The conservative Republican mayor of what's said to be the reddest city in the reddest county in oil-producing Texas, bragging that his town is saving money by getting 100 percent of its energy from wind and solar.
The whole middle section of the film dives deep into the negotiations at the global conference on climate change in Paris. At one point, there's a logjam. India has been complaining that industrialized countries built their economies on cheap fossil fuel for 150 years, before investing in solar power. Give India 'till 2167, a diplomat says, and it'll join the switch, too.
Gore — ever the politician, and in this crowd, also quite the celebrity — starts dickering on the phone and in meetings, and is soon watching happily as virtually every nation agrees to get to zero greenhouse emissions.
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"It is unprecedented," he crows, only to be interrupted by a familiar voice delivering a stump speech on the campaign trail, promising to "put America first" and "cancel billions in climate change spending" and do away with the Environmental Protection Agency.
Eco-Evangelist meets Denier-in-Chief.
An Inconvenient Sequel premiered at Sundance one day before the 2017 inauguration and directors Jon Shenk and Bonni Cohen take every opportunity to picture the President — whose name they go out of their way not to say — as an antagonist for their protagonist. And they've been updating the film since Sundance, which is an effective way to add dramatic tension and make sure that their story about climate is always a story about people.
I had a geology professor in college, who, whenever he drew a volcano on the blackboard, also drew a village nearby that was going to be buried in lava when it erupted. Always got a laugh ... and also made a point.
Al Gore is like that prof — and An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power is a hugely effective lecture.
FAQs
“What gets us into trouble is not what you don't know, but what you think you know that just ain't so.” This is actually an important point, believe it or not because there is another such assumption that a lot people have in their minds right now about global warming that just isn't so.
What is the most criticized scene in An Inconvenient Truth? ›
Al Gore : Ten years ago, when the movie An Inconvenient Truth came out, the single most criticised scene in that movie was an animated scene showing that the combination of sea level rise and storm surge would put the ocean water into the 9/11 memorial site, which was then under construction.
What was the former vice president Al Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth associated with? ›
An Inconvenient Truth, American documentary film, released in 2006, featuring the multimedia presentation of former U.S. vice president Al Gore that formed the basis for his traveling lecture tour on the emerging human challenge of global warming and climate change.
What is the documentary An Inconvenient Truth about? ›
What was Peyton Manning's famous quote? ›
Leadership Quotes From Peyton Manning
“If nothing else in life, I want to be true to the things I believe in, and quite simply, to what I'm all about. I know I'd better because it seems whenever I take a false step or two I feel the consequences.”
Who coined the phrase An Inconvenient Truth? ›
We had a lot of hot puns." Guggenheim said that he asked Gore why climate change was "so hard for people to grasp," to which Gore replied, "Because it's an inconvenient truth, ya know." "[...] In the back of my head, I go, that's the title of our movie," Guggenheim said. Initially, the title was not a popular choice.
What is the Inconvenient Truth sequel? ›
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power is a 2017 American concert film/documentary film, directed by Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk, about former United States Vice President Al Gore's continuing mission to battle climate change.
Why is Frank Gore called the Inconvenient Truth? ›
At some point during his breakout season, Gore was given the nickname "The Inconvenient Truth", which stuck with him for the rest of his career. The nickname was inspired by the movie An Inconvenient Truth written by former United States Vice President Al Gore, which was released in May of the same year.
What did Inconvenient truth predict? ›
In the 2006 documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”, which illustrated his global warming activism, Gore said studies suggested “in the next 50 to 70 years in summertime [the Arctic ice cap] will be completely gone” (here).
How accurate is An Inconvenient Truth? ›
Mr Justice Barton yesterday said that while the film was "broadly accurate" in its presentation of climate change, he identified nine significant errors in the film, some of which, he said, had arisen in "the context of alarmism and exaggeration" to support the former US vice-president's views on climate change.
His catchphrase, "I'm super cereal", actually came from an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show during the 2000 presidential campaign, where Gore was asked about his favorite cereal, and responded "Oprah", as her show is serialized. (His favorite cereal in the same interview turns out to be Wheaties.)
What does Al Gore author of An Inconvenient Truth demonstrate about? ›
Understanding the Reality of Climate Change
Gore uses a series of compelling visuals, including graphs, charts, and photographs, to illustrate the alarming changes in the Earth's climate. He highlights the rapid increase in global temperatures, the melting of polar ice caps, and the rising sea levels.
What book did Al Gore publish on environmental issues before his movie An Inconvenient Truth? ›
Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit ( ISBN 0-452-26935-0, paperback ISBN 1-85383-743-1) is a 1992 book written by Al Gore, published in June 1992, shortly before he was elected Vice President in the 1992 presidential election.
How did the inconvenient truth impact society? ›
While the response is attributable to many factors, research and data show that unlike any work or event before it, the film was a turning point for shifting America to think and act more consciously about the warming climate.
Is An Inconvenient Truth based on a book? ›
An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It is a 2006 book by Al Gore released in conjunction with the film An Inconvenient Truth. It is published by Rodale Press in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Rodale, Inc.
What is a famous quote by Jerry Spinelli? ›
I am a stone, a cactus thorn. I am rain. I like that most of all, being rain. You be you and I'll be me, today and today and today, and let's trust the future to tomorrow.
What quote did Jefferson Davis say? ›
Never be haughty to the humble or humble to the haughty. I worked night and day for twelve years to prevent the war, but I could not. The North was mad and blind, would not let us govern ourselves, and so the war came.
What was Roberto Bolano's quote? ›
We never stop reading, although every book comes to an end, just as we never stop living, although death is certain. But every single damn thing matters! Only we don't realize. We just tell ourselves that art runs on one track and life, our lives, on another, and we don't realize that's a lie.
What quotes did Roberto Clemente say? ›
"Any time you have an opportunity to make a difference in this world and you don't, then you are wasting your time on Earth." "I am convinced that God wanted me to be a baseball player. I was born to play baseball." "I am more valuable to my team hitting .
