An incontrovertible truth

I just saw "An Inconvenient Truth". We found two theaters showing the documentary, one an art film venue in Brookline showing on two screens, the other an independent theatre in Waltham 15 miles west of Boston showing on 4 screens at 1/2 hour intervals. We went to the 7:00 showing in Waltham. I have never seen that theater parking completely full as it was tonight. There was a traffic jam trying to get parked. We bought tickets just before our showing sold out. What a huge difference from the turnout at that same theater for the showing of "Why We Fight".

Better reviews than I have time or skill to write have already been written. Even if you are a well read climate scientist, you are going to enjoy the movie for the telling of the story and for the way the crowd listens to the telling. When the movie was over, a list of things one could personally do about global warming was interlaced with the credits...people stayed in their seats right through the credits and broke into a brief round of applause as list of things you could do ended with "if your congressional representative won't listen to you, run for congress."

If the science in the film is not familiar to you, or you have heard its conclusions questioned, then you NEED to see the film. If not, you will still get a kick out of Gore's presentation, which has a few turns of comic pause and timing that would do Jon Stewart proud. I have been following the global warming saga via Scientific American and other sources for 30 years and I would like to think I was one of the most prepared, enthusiastic people in the audience. I designed and built a solar heated house 25 years ago, I bike to work often, I recycled long before any law required it. What I did not do that Gore wonderfully exemplifies is keep the faith that the problem's indifferent reception or hostile denial was just one more obstacle to be overcome. It almost hurts to think that a man of that much intelligence and character could, should have been running things the last 5 years.