By Walter Simpson
Buffalo, NY – Al Gore says he's given his slide show about global warming about a thousand times. Lucky for us, one of those times was to Laurie David, a Hollywood producer who was so impressed with it that she decided to turn it into a movie. The film, "An Inconvenient Truth," debuted in New York City on May 24 and has received rave reviews. Gore has been interviewed everywhere promoting this film including recently at the prestigious Cannes film festival where he was center stage.
Before I talk any further about Al Gore, I need to disclose my relationship with him. In 1993, Gore published a wonderful book on global warming entitled "Earth in the Balance." By 1995 it became clear to me that the Clinton Administration's disappointing environmental record was completely at odds with the strong environmental message of Gore's book. So, in disgust, I mailed Vice President Gore my copy of his book, suggesting that he read what he had written and shape up. While it is possible that my gesture so shocked him that he went out and negotiated the Kyoto Protocol, frankly I doubt it. Gore did, however, eventually return his book to me with his autograph on the inside cover page. So as you can see, Al Gore and I go way back.
While waiting for Gore's movie to come to Buffalo, I decided to read his new book by the same title, "An Inconvenient Truth." It is a revelation. Judicious text is coupled with eye-captivating pictures, charts and graphs - presumably right out of Al's slide show. The effect is a powerful presentation of what's happening to our planet and why we must address what Gore calls a "planetary emergency." The book is also personal. It lays bare Gore's motivations, his love of family and the earth. Not surprisingly, profits from the sale of the book fund action on global warming; it's also printed on recycled paper and is carbon neutral.
Gore makes the science of global warming easy to understand. It's hard to deny this problem when you see dramatic pictures of retreating glaciers and the Artic ice cap. Kilimanjaro will soon have no snow and Glacier National Park no glaciers. As Himalayan glaciers retreat, water supplies for 20% of the world's population will be in jeopardy.
Also frightening are the diminishing miles-thick ice sheets that cover Greenland and Antarctica. If either should melt, and the one in Greenland certainly is, sea levels could rise twenty feet, submerging half of south Florida and much of Manhattan. Gore's maps show that such a sea level rise would displace 60 million people in Calcutta and Bangladesh.
While some areas will be wetter, climate change will make others drier as well as hotter. Africa will be hard hit as deserts rapidly expand and more people starve. Gore documents the near disappearance of Lake Chad, formerly the size of Lake Erie. One city in Niger used to be surrounded on three sides by this lake and is now 60 miles from what's left of it.
Gore aptly explains the mechanics of global warming. Burning fossil fuels is the culprit, and, as I have said so many times before, we Americans are world leaders at that. Gore explains how ice cores have revealed carbon dioxide data going back 650,000 years. In that period, CO2 levels have never been higher than they are now. CO2 from burning fossil fuels traps the heat and warms the atmosphere.
In one of many interesting charts Gore compares U.S. vehicle fuel economy standards with those of other countries. While the U.S. requires a 25 miles per gallon average, Europe's standard is over of 40 miles per gallon and Japan's is over 45.
Ironically, Gore is an optimist. While he predicts the end of civilization if we fail to act, he also says solutions to climate change are at hand. We just need to muster the political will to change policy (which will obviously require changing leaders) and the personal will to change the way we live and do business. Sound easy? It won't be but at least it's possible, and his book ends by spelling out some action possibilities.
In print, on screen, and in person, Al Gore is impassioned and compelling. His book deserves to be read by all and passed around. Wrap one up and send it to your favorite legislator. Go see the movie when it opens in Buffalo on June 16. And carpool, drive a hybrid, or bicycle to Chautauqua Institution to hear Al Gore on July 24. Gore is right on this issue. Let him move you to join others in the Buffalo area as we mobilize to take action on this planetary emergency.
"Reality Check" with Walter Simpson is a monthly feature of WBFO News.
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