An Inconvenient Truth
Promotional poster for An Inconvenient Truth
Directed by	Davis Guggenheim
Produced by	Lawrence Bender Scott Z. Burns Laurie David Lesley Chilcott (co-producer)
Starring	Al Gore
Music by	Michael Brook
Editing by	Jay Cassidy Dan Swietlik
Distributed by	Paramount Classics
Release date(s)	2006-05-24
Running time	94 min
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	US$+1,000,000[1]
Gross revenue	US$49,047,567 (worldwide)
Official website
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

An Inconvenient Truth is an American Academy Award-winning documentary film about climate change, specifically global warming, presented by former United States Vice President Al Gore and directed by Davis Guggenheim.^[2] A companion book authored by Gore has been on the paperback nonfiction New York Times bestseller list since June 11 2006, reaching #1 on July 2 2006.^[3]

The film premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and opened in New York and Los Angeles on May 24 2006. Earning $49 million at the box office worldwide, An Inconvenient Truth is the fourth-highest-grossing documentary film to date in the United States, after Fahrenheit 9/11, March of the Penguins and Sicko.^[4] The film's distributor, Paramount Classics, is donating 5% of the box office receipts and Gore is donating all of his proceeds from the film to the Alliance for Climate Protection (of which Gore is both founder and chairman).^[5] The film was released on DVD by Paramount Home Entertainment on November 21 2006. An Inconvenient Truth was well received by film critics, scientists, and politicians and won two Academy Awards. It is also being used in school science curricula around the world.^[6] Global warming skeptics have criticized the film, calling it "exaggerated and erroneous".^[7][8]

Synopsis

An Inconvenient Truth focuses on Al Gore and his travels in support of his efforts to educate the public about the severity of the climate crisis. Gore says, "I've been trying to tell this story for a long time and I feel as I've failed to get the message across." The film nearly follows a Keynote presentation (dubbed "the slide show") that Gore presented throughout the world. It intersperses Gore's exploration of data and predictions regarding climate change and its potential for disaster with Gore's life story.

It weaves in events that changed his worldview, including his college education with early climate expert Roger Revelle at Harvard University, his sister's death from lung cancer, and his young son's near-fatal car accident. Throughout the film, Gore makes comments regarding his loss to George W. Bush in the 2000 United States presidential election. For comic effect, Gore also uses a clip from the Futurama episode "Crimes of the Hot" to explain global warming.

In the slide show Gore reviews the scientific opinion on climate change, discusses the politics and economics of global warming, and describes the consequences he believes global climate change will produce if the amount of human-generated greenhouse gases are not significantly reduced in the very near future. A centerpoint of the film is his examination of the annual temperature and CO₂ levels for the past 650,000 years in Antarctic ice core samples.

The film includes many segments intended to refute critics who say that global warming is unproven or that warming will be insignificant. For example, Gore discusses the possibility of the collapse of a major ice sheet in Greenland or in West Antarctica, either of which could raise global sea levels by approximately 20 feet (6m), flooding coastal areas and producing 100 million refugees. Melt water from Greenland, because of its lower salinity, could then halt the Gulf Stream current and quickly trigger dramatic local cooling in Northern Europe. The documentary ends with Gore arguing that if appropriate actions are taken soon, the effects of global warming can be successfully reversed by releasing less CO₂ and planting more vegetation to consume existing CO₂. Gore calls upon his viewers to learn how they can help him in these efforts.

Gore's book of the same title was published concurrently with the theatrical release of the documentary. The book contains additional information, scientific analysis, and Gore's commentary on the issues presented in the documentary. A 2007 documentary entitled An Update with Former Vice President Al Gore features Gore discussing additional information that came to light after the film was completed, such as Hurricane Katrina.^[9]

Scientific basis

Main articles: Scientific opinion on climate change, Global warming, and Global warming controversy

The Pale Blue Dot, a Voyager 1 photo showing Earth (circled) as a single pixel from 4 billion miles (6.4 billion kilometres) away, is featured in An Inconvenient Truth. Al Gore points out that all of human history has happened on that tiny pixel, which is our only home.

Gore's claim is that global warming is real and largely human-caused. Gore presents specific data that supports the film's thesis, including:

• The Keeling curve, measuring CO₂ from the Mauna Loa Observatory.
• The retreat of numerous glaciers is shown in before-and-after photographs (see Retreat of glaciers since 1850).
• A study by researchers at the Physics Institute at the University of Bern and the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctic presenting data from Antarctic ice cores showing carbon dioxide concentrations higher than at any time during the past 650,000 years.^[10]
• Temperature record since 1880 showing that the ten hottest years ever measured in this atmospheric record have all occurred in the last fourteen years.
• A 2004 survey by Dr. Naomi Oreskes of 928 peer-reviewed scientific articles on global climate change published between 1993 and 2003. The survey, published as an editorial in the journal Science, claimed that every article either supported the human-caused global warming consensus or did not comment on it.^[11]

The Associated Press contacted more than 100 climate researchers and questioned them about the film's veracity. All 19 climate scientists who had seen the movie said that Gore conveyed the science correctly.^[12] In contrast, the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, at the time chaired by Republican Senator Jim Inhofe issued a press release criticizing this article.^[13] Inhofe's statement that "global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people"^[14] appears in the film.

RealClimate, a group blog maintained by eleven climate scientists, lauded the film's science as "remarkably up to date, with reference to some of the very latest research."^[15] Michael Shermer, scientific author and founder of The Skeptics Society, wrote in Scientific American that An Inconvenient Truth "shocked me out of my doubting stance".^[16]

Origins

Gore became intrigued by the topic of global warming when he took a course at Harvard University with Professor Roger Revelle, one of the first scientists to measure carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.^[17] Later, when Gore was in Congress, he initiated the first congressional hearing on the subject, brought in climate scientists and began talking to politicians about the issue.^[18] He thought that once legislators heard the compelling evidence, they would be driven to action; ultimately, though, the process was a slow one. Gore's 1992 book, Earth in the Balance, dealing with a number of environmental topics, reached the New York Times bestseller list.

As Vice President during the Clinton Administration, Gore pushed for the implementation of a carbon tax to modify incentives to reduce fossil fuel consumption causing fossil fuel to last longer and thereby decrease emission of greenhouse gases in the short term but not long term; it was partially implemented in 1993. He helped broker the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty designed to curb greenhouse gas emissions. However, it was not ratified in the United States due to opposition, in the Senate. The primary objections stemmed from the exemptions the treaty gives to China and India, whose industrial base and carbon footprint are growing rapidly, and fears that the exemptions would lead to further trade imbalances and offshoring arrangement with those countries.

Gore also supported the funding of a satellite called Triana, to increase awareness of environmental issues and to take the first direct measurements of how much sunlight is reflected from the Earth. During his 2000 Presidential Campaign, Gore ran, in part, on a pledge to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.

After his defeat in the 2000 presidential election by George W. Bush, Gore returned his focus to the topic. He edited and adapted a slide show he had compiled years earlier, and began featuring the slide show in multimedia presentations on global warming across the U.S. and around the world. At the time of the film, Gore estimated he had shown the presentation more than one thousand times.

Producers Laurie David and Lawrence Bender saw Gore's slide show in New York City after the 2004 premiere of The Day After Tomorrow.^[19] Inspired, they met with director Davis Guggenheim about the possibility of making the slide show into a movie. Guggenheim, who was skeptical at first, later saw the presentation for himself, stating that he was "blown away," and "left after an hour and a half thinking that global warming [was] the most important issue. . . . I had no idea how you’d make a film out of it, but I wanted to try," he said.^[20]

Reception

Box office

The film opened in New York City and Los Angeles on May 24 2006. On Memorial Day weekend, it grossed an average of $91,447 per theater, the highest of any movie that weekend and a record for a documentary, though it was only playing on four screens at the time.^[21]

At the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, the movie received three standing ovations. It was also screened at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and was the opening night film at the 27th Durban International Film Festival on June 14 2006. An Inconvenient Truth was the most popular documentary at the 2006 Brisbane International Film Festival.^[22]

The film has grossed over $24 million in the U.S. and over $49 million worldwide as of June 3 2007, making it the fourth-highest-grossing documentary in the U.S. to date (after Fahrenheit 9/11, March of the Penguins and Sicko).^[23]

Al Gore has stated, "Tipper and I are devoting 100 percent of the profits from the book and the movie to a new bipartisan educational campaign to further spread the message about global warming."^[24] Paramount Classics is committing 5% of their domestic theatrical gross for the film to a new bipartisan climate action group, Alliance for Climate Protection, dedicated to awareness and grassroots organizing.^[25]

Reviews

The film received a positive reaction from critics. It garnered a "certified fresh" 93% rating at Rotten Tomatoes (as of May 21 2007), with a 94% rating from the "Cream of the Crop" reviewers. Film critics Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper gave the film "two thumbs up". Ebert wrote: "In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to."^[26]

Journalist Ronald Bailey argued in the libertarian magazine Reason that although "Gore gets [the science] more right than wrong," he exaggerates the risks.^[27]

Awards

The film has received a number of various awards worldwide.

Al Gore during the Oscar acceptance speech for "An Inconvenient Truth" with other members of the crew

• The film won the 2006 Academy Award for Documentary Feature^[28] and Best Original Song for Melissa Etheridge's "I Need to Wake Up".^[29] It is the first documentary to win a best original song Oscar^{[citation needed]}.

• The film received special recognition from the Humanitas Prize, the first time the organization had handed out a Special Award in over 10 years.^[30]

• 2007 Stanley Kramer Award - The Producers Guild of America; recognizes "work that dramatically illustrates provocative social issues".^[31]

• The President’s Award 2007 - The Society for Technical Communication "for demonstrating that effective and understandable technical communication, when coupled with passion and vision, has the power to educate—and change—the world."^[32]

• For his wide-reaching efforts to draw the world’s attention to the dangers of global warming including An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore, along with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.^[33]

Best Documentary:^[34]

• Academy Awards (The Oscars) 2007^[28]
• Chicago Film Critics Association^[35] - 2006-12-28
• Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association^[36][37] - 2006-12-18
• Florida Film Critics 2006 - 2006-12-22^[38]
• Kansas City Film Critics Awards 2006^[39]
• Las Vegas Film Critics Circle 2006 ^{[citation needed]}
• National Board of Review^[40] - 2006-12-06
• New York Film Critics Online^[41] - 2006-12-10
• New York Film Critics Society - 2006-12-12
• Ohio Film Critics Awards 2006^[42] - 2007-1-11
• Oklahoma Film Critics Circle Awards 2006 ^[43]
• Online Film Critics Society 2006^[44]
• Phoenix Film Critics Circle 2006^{[citation needed]}
• Satellite Awards (Nominated) 2006^{[citation needed]}
• St. Louis Film Critics Awards 2006^{[citation needed]}
• Toronto Film Critics Circle (Nominated) 2006^{[citation needed]}
• Utah Film Critics Awards 2006^{[citation needed]}
• Washington D.C. Film Critics Association 2006^{[citation needed]}

Best Non-Fiction:

• National Society of Film Critics^[45] - 2007-01-06

Political response

The documentary has been generally well-received politically in many parts of the world and is credited for raising further awareness of global warming internationally, prompting calls for more government action in regard to the climate. Despite its success, some political leaders are less keen on embracing the film as a matter-of-fact necessity. Several colleges and high schools have begun to use the film in science curricula, ^[46] though at least one US school district put temporary restrictions on its use in the classroom.^[47][48]

Government

• President Bush, when asked whether he would watch the film, responded: "Doubt it." He later stated that "And in my judgment we need to set aside whether or not greenhouse gases have been caused by mankind or because of natural effects, and focus on the technologies that will enable us to live better lives and at the same time protect the environment."^[49] Gore responded that "The entire global scientific community has a consensus on the question that human beings are responsible for global warming and he [Bush] has today again expressed personal doubt that that is true."^[49] White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino stated that “The president noted in 2001 the increase in temperatures over the past 100 years and that the increase in greenhouse gases was due to certain extent to human activity”.^[49]
• In September 2006, Gore traveled to Sydney, Australia to promote the film. Australian Prime Minister, John Howard said he would not meet with Gore or agree to Kyoto because of the movie: "I don't take policy advice from films." Former Opposition Leader Kim Beazley joined Gore for a viewing and other MPs attended a special screening at Parliament House earlier in the week.^[50]

• In the United Kingdom, Conservative Leader of the Opposition David Cameron has urged people to see the film in order to understand climate change.^[51]

• In Belgium, Margaretha Guidone successfully persuaded the entire Belgian government to see the film.^[52]

• In Costa Rica, Al Gore met with president Oscar Arias, and was well received by other politicians and the local media.^{[citation needed]}

• In Spain, after a meeting with Gore, prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero said the government will make An Inconvenient Truth available to schools. Gore has received this year's Prince of Asturias Prize for international cooperation ^[53][54].

Education

• In Burlington, Ontario, Canada, the Halton District School Board has made An Inconvenient Truth available at schools and as an educational resource.^[55]

• The film will be science curriculum for fourth and sixth-year students in Scotland, as a joint initiative between Learning and Teaching Scotland and ScottishPower.^[56]

Other

• In August 2006, the Wall Street Journal^[57][58] revealed that a YouTube video lampooning Gore and the movie, titled Al Gore's Penguin Army, appeared to be astroturfing by DCI Group, a Washington PR firm with ties to ExxonMobil as well as the Republican Party.

Controversy

English High Court case

Further information: Dimmock v Secretary of State for Education and Skills

As part of a nationwide "Sustainable Schools Year of Action" launched in late 2006, the UK Government, Welsh Assembly Government and Scottish Assembly announced between January-March 2007 that copies of An Inconvenient Truth would be sent to all secondary schools in England, Wales and Scotland. In May 2007, the UK Government's decision was challenged in the High Court of Justice. An injunction preventing the screening of the film in English schools was sought on the basis that schools are legally forbidden to promote partisan political views in the teaching of any subject in school and are required to, when dealing with political issues, provide a balanced presentation of opposing views.

On 10 October 2007, Justice Michael Burton, after explaining that the requirement for a balanced presentation does not warrant that equal weight be given to alternative views of a mainstream view, ruled that it was clear that the film was substantially founded upon scientific research and fact, albeit that the science is used, in the hands of a talented politician and communicator, to make a political statement and to support a political programme. The film could thus continue to be shown, but there was a political bias such that teachers would be required to explain the context and certain other elements via guidance notes issued to schools along with the film.

On the basis of expert testimony, the judge also pointed to nine 'errors', i.e. statements that he found were departing from the mainstream. Since he also found that these errors arose in the context of alarmism and exaggeration in support of Al Gore's political thesis, the judge required that the guidance notes also address these 'errors'. A spokesman for Gore said that, "Of the thousands of facts in the film, the judge only took issue with just a handful. And of that handful, we have the studies to back those pieces up."^[59]

Since the government had already accepted to amend the guidance notes as required by the judge, no order was made on the application. The plaintiff declared victory but expressed dissatisfaction that the film will continue to be shown in schools.

National Science Teachers Association

50,000 free copies of the film were offered to the National Science Teachers Association, which declined to take them. Laurie David, one of the film's producers, said in a Washington Post op-ed piece that the NSTA wrote her in an E-mail that the DVDs would place "unnecessary risk upon the [NSTA] capital campaign, especially certain targeted supporters." Supporters of the NSTA include companies like ExxonMobil.^[60] In public, the NSTA argued that distributing this film to its members would have been contrary to a long-standing NSTA policy against distributing unsolicited materials to its members.^[61]

Federal Way School District, WA

After a father had complained that the movie only showed one point of view, the Federal Way School Board in Federal Way, Washington voted 3 to 0 requiring an approval by the principal and the superintendent for teachers to show the film to students. The teachers must include the presentation of an approved "opposing view". ^[47] The moratorium was repealed after broad public condemnation at the subsequent meeting on January 23. ^[48]

Yakima, Washington

Following Federal Way's lead, the Environmental Club of Eisenhower High School in Yakima, Washington was prevented from showing the film until it could be reviewed by the school board, teachers, principal, and parents. The school board called the film a "controversial issue".^[62] This stay was lifted a month later, following the approval by a review panel. ^[63]

Criticism

Further information: Global Warming controversy

Academia

Richard S. Lindzen, an atmospheric physicist at MIT and anthropogenic global warming skeptic, wrote in a June 26 2006 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that Gore was using a biased presentation to exploit the fears of the public for his own political gain. ^[64] Roy Spencer, a principal research scientist at the Earth System Science Center of the University of Alabama in Huntsville, wrote an open letter to Gore criticizing his presentation of climate science in the film, asserting that the Arctic had a similar temperature in the 1930s before the mass emissions of carbon dioxide began.^[65] Former University of Winnipeg geography professor Dr. Timothy F. Ball rejected Gore’s claim that there has been a sharp drop-off in the thickness of the Arctic ice cap since 1970, stating that the data was taken only from an isolated area of the Arctic and during a specific cooling period.^[66]

Showing the film in schools has proven to be controversial. In December of 2006 the National Science Teachers Association, which is made up of over 53,000 educators, declined 50,000 free DVDs of the film.^[67] The school board in Federal Way schools voted to restrict the film, calling it "too controversial.^[68] Two weeks later, after broad public condemnation, the board lifted the ban.^[69]

Media

A March 13 2007 article in The New York Times reported on concerns among some scientists about the tone and the accuracy of the film, noting that they "argue that some of Mr. Gore’s central points are exaggerated and erroneous". Gore's discussion of a rise in sea level of up to 20 feet is contrasted with a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which predicts a maximum rise of 23 inches excluding non-linear effects on ice sheets; although that too discusses the possibilities of higher rises if the ice sheets melt. The article also states that "a report last June by the National Academies seemed to contradict Mr. Gore’s portrayal of recent temperatures as the highest in the past millennium."^[7] The article quotes both defenders and critics of the film; Gore responds that scientists may disagree with him on some details, "but we do agree on the fundamentals."^[7]

The Great Global Warming Swindle

Main article: The Great Global Warming Swindle

The documentary film The Great Global Warming Swindle, broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK on March 8 2007, brought together skeptical scientists who disagree with the consensus regarding human-caused global warming. Among other claims, the film states that Gore has misrepresented the data in An Inconvenient Truth, and that the actual relationship between carbon dioxide and the temperature is the other way round (that is, rise in temperature preceded an increase in carbon dioxide in the ice core samples and therefore does so today).

Most of The Great Global Warming Swindle's claims have been disputed by scientists and scientific bodies such as John T. Houghton ^[70], the British Antarctic Survey ^[71], Eigil Friis-Christensen [1] and the Royal Society^[72]. Global warming skeptic Fred Singer supported The Great Global Warming Swindle ^[73], and appeared in the film ^[74]

Influences on popular culture

South Park parody of An Inconvenient Truth with Al Gore

• Prior to An Inconvenient Truth being released, Al Gore was parodied in the South Park episode "Manbearpig", which ends with Al Gore exclaiming his intention to make a film starring himself in which he will try to save the world from something else (than the manbearpig). Gore laughed off this sensationalized depiction of him, saying "Their comic sensibility is aimed at a different demographic than the one I inhabit, but I still find a lot of what they do hilarious."^[75]
• During the movie, Al Gore shows a clip from the Futurama episode "Crimes of the Hot" dealing with global warming; Al Gore was a guest star in that episode, though he was not present in the clip. While not the credited author of this episode, his daughter, Kristin Gore Cusack, was on the Futurama writing staff and worked as a story editor. In addition, Gore stars in a faux trailer made by the Futurama cast and crew titled, A Terrifying Message from Al Gore.^[76]
• In "The Simpsons Movie", "An Inconvenient Truth" is parodied when Lisa Simpson, presenting dangers of global warming to Springfield's residents in a style similar to Al Gore, fails to properly operate a crane intended to lift her up in order to show a spike of data on a projected graph regarding global warming.
• Stephen Colbert, on The Colbert Report, also parodied An Inconvenient Truth on 17 July 2006. Entitled "The Convenientest Truth", Colbert created his own presentation that argued for the positive effects of global warming, using his signature humor tactics to satirize the conservative response to Gore's presentation.^[77]

See also

• Global warming
• Ice age
• Timeline of environmental events
• United Kingdom Climate Change Bill
• Live Earth
• Paramount Classics
• Participant Productions

References