Climate Change: An Inconvenient Truth?


Christian Lopez

An Inconvenient Truth, written and narrated by Al Gore, former Vice President to Bill Clinton, talks about human activity and the destruction of our world. Gore talks climate change and the causes and effects of it. The main points that are discussed are the burning of fossil fuels the large amounts of carbon dioxide being absorbed by our atmosphere.  The film also discusses the large ozone hole above the Arctic Circle, which is melting the polar ice caps and will lead to the rise in sea level and flood several states and countries. Although it was made in 2007, the film is still relevant today.

Some of the data still occurring is the climb in temperatures. This is caused by greenhouse gases being in our atmosphere, causing the heat to bounce off of it, hitting the ozone and back at Earth. The general idea is there’s more heat being trapped in than escaping, kind of like a greenhouse. On that note, some causes of this are excess carbon dioxide and other gases being distilled in the atmosphere. Bonfires, cars, factories, and even talking are all causes of the gases being brought into the atmosphere.

Some things we could do to help heal the planet are picking up trash, using electric cars, walking and using bikes, and creating manufacturing processes that release less carbon dioxide. Since 2007, the ozone hole above the arctic has closed some because of efforts to stop it. Overall, I enjoyed this movie as it was full of facts. I highly recommend watching it.

A couple of weeks ago, we also watched the second installment, An Inconvenient Sequel. Having ten years of new data added to the previous data, it was even more shocking. All the data has increased and has gotten even worse. Although most of the data had gotten worse, some of it went down due to actions leading to prevent global warming. Some towns and small cities have fully upgraded to solar, wind, and hydro power to power buildings and houses. This has lead to less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The ozone layer has actually closed a little bit since 2007. However, the climate has changed enough to produce more extreme weather events, such as the hurricanes of 2017 and the recent winter storms in the east.

Climate change needs to be continually addressed and measures taken to slow the process. People like Al Gore are trying to stop the climate change crisis and I encourage all to educate themselves about this issue.