An Embarrassing Untruth

I was talking with an old friend the other night and we got to talking about how we were both completely taken in by Al Gore's 2006 "An Inconvenient Truth". Here is a little background about this film from a source that is very supportive of the film's premise:

Decade ago, climate change was a huge problem with a small audience. Unless you were among a handful of brave policymakers, concerned scientists, or loyal Grist readers, it’s fair to say the threat of a rapidly warming world took a back seat to High School Musical, MySpace, and whether or not Pluto was a planet (yes, those were all a thing in 2006).

Then, An Inconvenient Truth happened.

Somehow, a film starring a failed presidential candidate and his traveling slideshow triggered a seismic shift in public understanding of climate change. It won Oscars and helped earn Al Gore a share of the Nobel Peace Prize. It injected the issue into policy debates and dinner-table conversations alike.

Did any of this actually “save the world?” OK, you got us. Ten years after the movie’s release, climate change is still a growing threat and a polarizing issue, with record-breaking heat unable to stop skeptics from tossing snowballs on the Senate floor. But we’re also seeing corporate, political, and societal mobilization against the crisis on a scale that would have been hard to imagine 10 years ago, and there’s no question the film played a big part in getting us there.

So how did the movie-makers turn a science-heavy slideshow and unlikely leading man (sorry, Al) into a global force for change? What follows is a behind-the-scenes look at An Inconvenient Truth. As for whether there’s a happy ending, we’re afraid that’s still a bit TBD.

Knowing what we now know, it was a little embarrassing to reminisce about our naiveté. We forgot to ask question like who is Al Gore and what are his connections and affiliations? YouTube started up in early 2005 but it may have only been in 2007 that I first became aware of videos that were challenged the global warming narrative. Around this same time also, many videos appeared that challenged the official 9/11 story. Prior to this, I remember reading a Time Magazine article, in the library of the school where I worked, that explained the alleged structural failures that lead the collapse of the twin towers. I soaked it up and sadly enough accepted the official story. Nowadays of course, I wouldn't waste my time reading any article from Time Magazine but back then I still read the occasional article. 

It's easy to be scornful of people who believe what mainstream media tell them but it wasn't all that long ago that I was not very different. It's sad to reflect that it was not really until my early sixties that I began to wake up to what was really going on. Like many others, I can thank YouTube for my awakening. Now YouTube is actively censoring the sort of content that woke me up but other alternative platforms are emerging to take its place. My key point is that I reached a tipping point after which I viewed everything in the world differently. Once that point is reached, then trust in politicians, the political system, the health "profession", mainstream media, religious leaders, international organisations like the United Nations and so on evaporates. Trust resides only in your immediate circle of close friends and family. Anyone or anything outside that circle is made to earn your trust. It is not automatically granted.