Film Review
by Maireid Sullivan
September 2006

The Al Gore film An Inconvenient Truth (2006) brings home with inescapable truth the ultimate horror humanity will face if global warning goes unchecked. But this is also a beautiful film.

It was a paradigm shift for me to see Gore ‘up close and personal’, from contemplative personal insights to his extremely active and focused political past. In every instance, from serious environmental data to his personal insights, his perspectives were riveting in their impact.

There is so much wisdom in this film, supported by beautiful imagery showing what will undoubtedly be lost unless we collectively muster-up the resolve to cease our destructive modes of living. Gore made the observation that people tend to move from "doubt to despair without stopping to do something to make a change" - or words to that effect. And he then set about showing what we can do to save our planet, culminating in the knowledge that we must deal with this if we are to avoid disastrous consequences.

There is a real shift in consciousness occurring globally in line with this issue– people everywhere are learning to think globally, which will forever change the way we act locally. The scientific consensus is clear: global warming is real, it's happening now and it's primarily a result of our misuse of fossil fuels.

Regardless of our personal struggles with 'life', our ability to nurture the spirit of joy and gratitude and love is the means by which we thrive amidst chaos! People who understand that can do wonderful things to support everyone else. The very same process applies to how we deal with global warming. It is a huge issue, but it is the same sense of 'huge' that we get when we think of dealing with anything on a global or universal scale. It requires 'expanded' consciousness and we know we are capable of that!

Gore inspires us to redouble our personal efforts. Seeing his life-long ‘struggle’ over environmental issues reminded me of many friends, all over the planet, who have been equally dedicated to raising awareness. It is slow, but I feel most of us are getting better at 'doing the right thing' with everything we eat, think, say and do. We judge ourselves. Everyone is living in this Age of Accountability. Governments cannot do it for us - and some governments, by default in their priorities of terrorism, trade, jobs, etc. are, incredibly, still into denial that global warming is the looming catastrophe that we all face now.

We simply need to concentrate on the message:
"Climate change" is real. We are responsible for it, and we can do something about it without ruining the economy. But we're running out of time and there is no rewind button to start over again. It will be interesting to see how the sceptics will deal with Gore’s warnings without making themselves look very small.

As individuals, there is much we can and need to do to help ourselves.
See this film!

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