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THERE’S A SCENE in the new documentary An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power where its star, former US Vice President Al Gore, meets families affected by the typhoon which struck Tacloban in 2013.
As he talks to John Leonard Chan about how the typhoon affected his family, the young man breaks down in tears.
It’s one of a number of moments in An Inconvenient Sequel where the filmmakers show us the devastating human impact of global warming. It takes the concept out of the abstract and turns it into an emotion that we can all feel.
Speaking to Al Gore as he hits the promotional trail for the film, you realise that he is – given his many years in politics and the shelves laden with impressive awards (an Oscar here, a shared Nobel Peace Prize there) – incredibly good at talking to the media. But rather than being slick and disconnected, it feels that he is simply well informed and eager to share his knowledge.
He’s been espousing the climate change cause since the 1980s, but it wasn’t until Gore’s exit from the politics world that he really took it on. He put together a slideshow (at one point getting some help from his friend Steve Jobs on the technical side of things) and began touring the world spreading the word.
What also spurred on his ‘personal epiphany’, as Gore calls it, was the near death of his son in a serious accident in 1989. This dark moment forced him to reexamine his life, ”how I was spending my time, and what issues I was working on in the US Senate”.
He deepened his emotional commitment to the climate crisis, and began putting together the slideshow and working on his book Earth in the Balance.
When the apocalyptic blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow was due in cinemas, Gore was asked to appear on a panel discussing climate change the day before the premiere. Moderating the discussion was environmental activist and producer Laurie David, who came up to Gore afterwards and told him his slideshow needed to be turned into a film.
Gore, for his part, thought it was a “crazy idea”.
The documentary went on to win an Oscar.
“I must admit that I was one of the people who was quite sceptical about the whole idea of the first movie,” he tells TheJournal.ie. “And for a silly uninformed reason – when I was a college student taking a Shakespeare course I tried to do make it easier on myself by watching a filmed version of Shakespeare’s plays where they just set up a camera and pointed it at the stage. And I thought: this is awful..”
He presumed that a film about a stage presentation was not going to work, because he “didn’t realise that there are people in Hollywood who actually are extremely skillful in making even a slideshow entertaining”.
The message
An Inconvenient Sequel follows a similar style to its predecessor, interspersing his regularly-updated slideshow with footage of Gore travelling to climate change hotspots, and beautiful shots of melting glaciers.
But the difference between the two movies is that in the latest one, Gore is clearly trying to bring a message of hope: yes, things can change; yes, things are changing; yes, governments can make decisions that affect climate change.
“I’m so glad to be able to bring this message of hope,” says Gore of this latest installment. “It’s coupled with a message that we should have an increased sense of urgency, but it’s really about positive developments that the solutions to the climate crisis are here now and all we need is the political will to implement more changes. Thankfully, political will is a renewable resource.”
‘Ireland should more more quickly’
On the subject of political will, I ask him what message he has for the Irish government, which has only of late started to take major steps to address the country’s impact on global warming.
“I would encourage the Irish government to move more quickly,” he says, pointing to Irish history, particularly the Great Famine, and saying it should encourage the Irish government to join the dots on the issue.
The new documentary devotes much time to Gore’s role in the Paris Agreement, where he is seen trying to encourage India to sign the dotted line. The agreement saw hundreds of countries pledge to tackle greenhouse gas emissions.
But a man who put a spanner in the works is one Donald Trump, who decided to pull out of the Paris Agreement. Does Gore think that paying attention to Trump’s antics can distract from the wider issue of climate change in the US?
“I think that Trump’s antics do distract the US from the big challenges we should be facing, the biggest of which is the climate crisis,” says Gore. “And when he made his speech withdrawing from the Paris Agreement I was concerned that some other countries might use that as an excuse to pull out themselves – but the exact opposite happened.”
He was gratified when, the day after Trump’s about-turn, “the rest of the world redoubled their commitment to the Paris Agreement”.
It was an enormous relief and I think it illustrated the old law of physics that sometimes works in politics, namely that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In the US, more than two thirds of the American people are on side and a majority of Republican voters are on side. Trump has isolated himself and that limits the damage.
The little town that could
An intriguing part of the documentary, which shows that those who value dollars have little to fear from tackling global warming, is when Gore meets Dale Ross, the Republican mayor of Georgetown, Texas.
Ross has enthusiastically embraced fighting climate change, but mainly because of his accountancy background. He’s done the sums, and they added up to benefit the town’s coffers and the wider environment.
“That was one of the most hopeful and encouraging experiences I had when they were making the film,” reflects Gore. “The most conservative Republican city in Texas with a conservative Trump-supporting mayor who happens to be an accountant, so was able to do the arithmetic – and now their electricity bills have gone down and their air is cleaner, and it’s something of a side benefit that they’re helping.”
It’s clear that this film has more of a focus on the powers-that-be than on the little steps the average citizen can take.
“I switched to electric car, which I absolutely love and planted 16k trees last year on farm and these things do add up,” says Gore when asked about the changes he made in his own life.
But as important as it is to change things like lightbulbs, it’s far more important to change things like law.
Looking to the future
That said, Gore has a company which is responsible for training climate change leaders, and he clearly sees the participants as having a big role in spreading the message about climate change.
“There is now a powerful amount of momentum in the climate movement – millions of grassroots activists around the world,” he says. “I believe so strongly in this cause and those of us who understand how high the stakes are just try every way possible to achieve the solutions more quickly and when you can make progress it really feels good. The late Nelson Mandela once said during the anti apartheid movement it’s always impossible until it’s done.”
Gore says, too, that change needs “to occur more quickly because we are winning but we’re not winning fast enough, and consequently we need to make more progress more quickly”.
I’m confident that we will because we’re gaining momentum, but that’s one reason for this movie: to try and build the momentum.
Overall, the documentary highlights two things: the fact that the solutions to climate change are here, but so are more climate-related extreme events.
As we bring our conversation to a close, I ask Gore about his legacy. He’s achieved so much – what would he like to be remembered for?
“I don’t spend too much time thinking about that,” he says, with a touch of Southern humility.
“But since you ask: for something I haven’t yet succeeded in doing yet, and that is to help along with others bring the world across this political tipping point, where Ireland and United States and other nations go all-out to solve the climate crisis so that future generations are not burdened by hellish conditions.”
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power, produced by Paramount and Participant Media, is in cinemas now.
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Manbearpig is real
@Alt Left: Only in your imagination ;-)
@Alt Left: it’s totally serial.
@Alt Left: See my links on http://www.thejournal.ie/2016-hottest-year-3081457-Nov2016/ as that proves we are in trouble with global warming now.
@Alois Irlmaier: yawn
@Mark Mcloughlin: go to bed muppet
This movie has bombed worst than his first. His last movie predicted we wouldn’t be around to see this one. What a tool.
@Chris M.:
Bombed?? It took $50 million at the box office – not bad for a slide show! I would mind having a movie that ‘bombed’ to the tune of 50 million bucks!
@Avina Laaf: this one has earned $1 million in the box office. . His first documentary earned the $50 million ..
@Suzie Sunshine: He was talking about the first one, why do you always make dumb comments?
Not to worry. Pat Hickey will sort that out, quicker than you can say to ticket.
@Patrick O’Brien: So pacts with the devil still work then?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okw6Mu3mxdM
In 4 weeks the Sun will come into view at the South pole for the first time in 6 months, it will stay in constant view for 6 months until the March Equinox when it will disappear once more. Maybe when people come to understand the surface rotation behind the polar day/night cycle (as distinct from the daily day/night cycle) then planetary climate can be discussed but not before then.
@Gerald Kelleher: That video is so fake!
@Gerald Kelleher: The Sun is actually in one of its minimum phases – if anything Earth should be cooling down – instead Arctic ice is disappearing – last month’s ice coverage was 610,000 square miles below the long-term average from 1981 to 2010. Without sea ice to reflect heat back into space – much more heat is being absorbed by oceans – triggering even more melt ,wildfires, droughts floods and extreme climate.
Gas tankers can now makes unaided passage from Europe to Asia — via the Arctic – something impossible even a few years ago https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-08-17/new-natural-gas-tanker-makes-unaided-passage-europe-asia-arctic
@Gerald Kelleher: gerard why don’t you believe in evolution? And science generally?
@Liam flag: The story of the polar day/night cycle is a wonderful one to develop and tell and I leave it for somebody else to do. At the North pole its begins a few days after St Paddy’s day on the March Equinox when the Sun comes into view for the first time in 6 months. After that the surface area where the Sun is constantly in view expands until the June Solstice when the area is the circumference of the Arctic circle. After the June Solstice the area starts to shrink until the last day on September 21st only the North polar surface point remains and then the Sun disappears for another 6 months while ,at the same time, the opposite is happening at the South pole as polar sunrise happens. In short, if you subtract daily rotation, the entire surface of the planet turns once to the Sun each year and this alone accounts for Arctic sea ice development and disappearance. It is a lovely story that needs graphics for some enterprising individual and people already know the polar day/night cycle exists even if they haven’t put it to good use so far.
@Chucky Arlaw: That is enough !, evolution always existed as a topic since Steno however ‘survival of the fittest’ based on colonial breeding was such a dumb concept that suited domineering nationalism. The people studying fossils,rock strata and the demise of the dinosaurs would be the first to say that small mammals survived and not the most aggressive species like dinosaurs and you wouldn’t be here otherwise. I have sworn off repeating the same arguments but evenso, anyone who believes that evolution is ‘natural selection’ would find great company in National Socialism. I refuse to discuss this line of inquiry any more.
@Gerald Kelleher:
Bingo! You’ve just described again quite nicely what. difference between days in a year and planetary rotations.
Now if you just think about it a bit harder the penny may finally drop this time (although somehow I doubt it…).
@Avina Laaf:
*what gives rise to
@GO GREEN: Think of the analogy of grass frost and you and your location turn away from the Sun each day in winter, the frost comes on after dark and starts to melt after the Sun comes into view at dawn. The same thing happens with Arctic however the cause is the forward orbital motion of the Earth through space turns the entire surface slowly and unevenly. In this respect the North and South poles are windows into this orbital surface rotation to the Sun or like beacons. As the area of constant darkness grows after the September Equinox so does Arctic sea ice begin to appear much like frost after dark. These two day/night cycles and their separate rotational causes have been going on since life existed on the planet many,many millions of years ago and it is about time researchers took notice of the annual cyclical cause of sea ice evolution.
@GO GREEN: My goodness, I worked on the Snovhit project a decade ago within the Arctic circle. It is fairly straightforward reasoning once you identify that the polar day/night cycle is a separate cycle to the weekday cycle and take Arctic sea ice evolution from there. It is a wonderful story and it is both new and open source to develop with 21st century imaging and tools.
@Gerald Kelleher: Sorry Gerald if the “Sun each year and this alone accounts for Arctic sea ice development and disappearance.” then the Arctic extent and volume would be the same 100 years ago or 200 years ago as it is today but it is not – has diminished hugely due to the green house effect of co2 emissions
@GO GREEN: thats what i got from him too. Sun melts ice….when sun is gone ice comes back?? The definition of not knowing what is going on
@Stephen Coveney:
The living definition of the Dunning-Kruger effect in action!
@Gerald Kelleher: your theory lost all credibility when you wrote “St. Paddy’s day”
@GO GREEN: I am talking about the motions of our home planet and the causes of the seasons rather than addressing the conceptual bandwagon. Instead of the Earth’s hemispheres ’tilting’ towards and away from the Sun, you look at the polar day/night cycle and determine its rotational cause so that two distinct rotations exist to the Sun. It is very tricky however readers know that the Sun will come into view once at either poles each year so even if they can’t manage to perceive an entire rotation for all the planet, they can at least grasp that it happens at either poles.
@John O’Shea: Good lad, this is normal language as the March Equinox is always a few days after St Patrick’s day and many societies love celebrating the event as a Spring festival. If you go down to the South pole at the moment, the first signs of polar dawn are appearing -
https://www.usap.gov/videoclipsandmaps/spwebcam.cfm
On September 22nd, the Sun will come into view for the first time so no, it is not a theory, it is a 100% observational fact that just requires notice as does the surface rotation behind the event.
@Gerald Kelleher: yes we understand the causes of the season. You didn’t address the fact that you think global warming is a myth because ice comes back in the winter. A ridiculous theory that has been proven idiotic
@Stephen Coveney: You are missing out on something new but you don’t really know it. Instead of saying the hemispheres ’tilt’ towards and away from the Sun, you split the planet’s two separate day/night cycles apart by rotational cause and then recombine them to explain the seasons and why Arctic sea ice appears and disappears over the year. Again, the reasoning can be very tricky but you are all big boys and girls .
Do volcanic eruptions count towards global warming or more to the point, If a volcano erupts, just like the last Icelandic one that spewed ash and dust into Europe, who picks up the tab? Me?
@Paul Culligan: yes. and we should take down the statue for it. I do remember a radio show with people trying to pronounce it . All seemed good till the local Icelandic got involved
@Paul Culligan: No, volcanic ash and Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) pollution emitted by explosive volcanic eruptions cool the Earth, as this natural pollution reflects the sun’s heat.
For example, the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1992 cooled the Earth by about 1.0 degree celsius for about 1 to 1.5 years. In fact, it has even been proposed that we could inject vast quantities of SO2 into the upper atmosphere using a fleet of Jumbos to geoengineer the Earth, to cool it, by mimicking a large volcanic eruption. Stupidly dangerous.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DD0n0BnXoAcS78S.jpg
However, there are continuous CO2 emissions from volcanic areas that do indeed add CO2 to the atmosphere’s, but these natural emissions are tiny compared to the amount of CO2 humans put into the atmosphere
Volcanoes emit somewhere between 65 to 319 million tonnes of CO2 per year, but this is tiny compared to the 34 billion tonnes of CO2 human activity emits every year.
So volcanoes emit only 0.19% to 0.94% of human CO2 emissions.
So no, volcanoes are not warming the Earth, but they sometimes cool it.
@lavbeer: Bardarbunga, easy to pronounce. It sounds like one of those Italian parties Silivo organised.
Why would anyone want to go see that movie, apart from worthy people who recycle etc anyway?
Do you get a discount if you cycle to the cinema?
Al Gore is a conman who’s making money from a gullible public.
Trump is wrong on this regard as he tries to bring industrial jobs home. l has 8 years mind you and whilst changing minds is a long process perhaps his change of heart came too late
You would think that people would be glad that the catastrophes predicted by Gore and others haven’t happened. Instead, the alarmist appears to be hoping that some predicted climate disaster would happen, they would be delighted.
Alarmists; just be glad your catastrophes have failed to materialise.
I would prefer Trump any day, to that bucket of s–the Gore.
I won’t lie, I knew two of them from a foil arms and high sketch
@tismeself: foil arms and hog. Dammit lads let us edit the comments
Climate change is the least of Americas problems, trump and his cronies are slowly bankrupting the country….. oh well, the joys of democracy!
@Johnnie Sexton: Imagine how their economy would be if Bernie Sanders got in to power!
It is now too f…in late…
http://www.thejournal.ie/2016-hottest-year-3081457-Nov2016/ Read all the links…
Are you guys gonna report on the antics of these disgusting bullies also? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-40980175
@Liam flag: they exercised their right to free speech at a free speech rally. Hope the losers, as Bannon called them, drove safely with their tails between their legs
@Liam flag: try to stay on topic
@lavbeer: So sorry Sir. Won’t happen again Sir.
@Liam flag: much better. Only real men can admit they are wrong!!!!
@lavbeer: Omg. Did you just assume my gender?
@Liam flag: you must do 100 lines pronto !
I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. I must stay on topic. Don’t know how many that is. Hope it’s enough :-(
@Liam flag: even if you the plumbing of a woman you are a man. And that wasn’t a hundred lines. An extra hundred for you
@Liam flag: well done .. gold star .
@Suzie Sunshine: Cheers sunshine
I broke the dam!
@KSI: I broke the dam!
al gore is a corporatist right who supports fracking he and hillary clinton fall for profit on every issue they talk nice but do the same as the trumps that a neo lib in a nutshell
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