An Inconvenient Truth
January 25th, 2007 | Published in Current Events, Health, Ecology, Consumerism, Economics, Science | 3 Comments
Speaking of climate change, I’d recommend watching Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth as an introduction to the science of climate change. Yes, there is too much Gore. But he presents the data well and I found him convincing. No, it’s not a definitive argument (it’s video, after all) but it’s a good introduction and only takes an hour and a half of your time.
My wife and I watched it a few nights ago and found it interesting and helpful. This issue hasn’t been too important to me in the past because even if global warming is not true (and that’s unlikely), I still think we should do the steps that people are saying we should do because it is right. But when you see the graphs of the CO2 levels and how they correspond with global temperature, it’s pretty hard to say there isn’t a link. And our CO2 levels are off the historical charts.
(I especially love the part where Gore shows the vehicle emission guidelines for various countries (US is the lowest) and explains why we can’t sell our vehicles in China because our vehicles don’t meet their emission standards!)
I don’t normally recommend videos, but I do recommend watching An Inconvenient Truth if you (1) haven’t seen it, (2) don’t believe climate change is possible, (3) don’t think we have anything to do with climate change, or (4) are not motivated to do anything about it.
January 25th, 2007 at 12:05 pm (#)
Did you watch the 30 minute bonus on the DVD - the update from Gore? Things are moving fast - we’re approaching several tipping points such as permafrost melt in Siberia. Crazy stuff …
January 25th, 2007 at 2:53 pm (#)
I know this is going to sound completely bible thumperish… but!
If this is really talking about large global catastrophie as big as it says it will be……………. it doesn’t add up with the fact that scripture says the next huge global catastrophie will be with fire.
Granite… I could be reading it wrong.
January 25th, 2007 at 3:05 pm (#)
Frank,
Thanks for your comment.
I’m not aware of any verse of scripture that says fire will be the “next” global catastrophe. There have been all kinds of catastrophes since the bible was written (like plagues, little ice ages, typhoons, earthquakes, etc.) And there have been more global catastrophes than we can count throughout ancient history. Yet life has survived…
The world may end in fire (if that is the correct translation and interpretation), but a lot can happen before the end of the world. We’re doing damage and as far as we can tell, it’s causing major problems that are just beginning. We are stewards of this earth, and right now we’re really bad ones. With more power comes more responsibility. If global warming continues, people will survive, but it’s going to kill many people and the world will be less hospitable.
We have a pretty nice world, let’s try and keep it that way as long as we can.
Josh