An Inconvenient Truth emphasizes the need to stop global warming in order to prevent the destruction of Earth's natural resources and the accompanying loss of biodiversity. A centerpiece of Al Gore's work on climate change, it was the primary factor behind Gore's receipt of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Throughout his time as vice president of the United States, and for many years before, Al Gore advocated for changes in environmental policies, especially as they related to the climate, most notably global warming. Over the years, he had prepared and worked to perfect a slide show dealing with the problem of global warming. This slide show, which he presented many times, became the basis for the movie An Inconvenient Truth. The one-hundred-minute documentary film made its debut on May 24, 2006, in New York and Los Angeles.

Directed by Davis Guggenheim, the movie features Gore. In the slide show within the movie, Gore presents scientific evidence of Earth's changing climate and looks at the economic and political impact of global warming on the planet. Gore goes on to discuss likely consequences of global warming if society does not find a way to reduce the production of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Throughout the film, Gore makes an impassioned plea to society to take the steps necessary to halt global warming in order to stop a worldwide crisis. The film garnered the 2007 Academy Award for Best Documentary.

Titled An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It, Gore's book was published by Rodale Press in conjunction with the release of the movie. The 328- page book highlights most of the scientific evidence concerning GHGs and global warming, and it issues the same plea for major environmental changes to avoid global crisis. In 2007, Gore and Rodale Press in conjunction with Viking Press published a version of the book aimed at adolescents and young adults, An Inconvenient Truth: The Crisis of Global Warming. Gore believed that the younger generation would have to be involved in bringing about the technological and policy changes necessary to halt devastating climate change.

Gore's interest in global warming began when, as a student at Harvard University, he took a course dealing with climate change and the greenhouse effect (Gore, 2000). When he became a congressman, he introduced the first congressional hearings on global warming. When congressional response was slow, Gore responded by writing his first book dealing with environmental issues, Earth in Balance (1992), published the year he was elected vice president. As vice president, Gore encouraged passage of a tax designed to decrease the use of fossil fuels, which would thereby decrease carbon dioxide (CO2) buildup and global warming. In 1997, he was also instrumental in the development of the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty aimed at decreasing the emission of GHGs.

When he ran for president in 2000, Gore made saving the environment one of his platform issues, as he hoped to convince the Senate to ratify the Kyoto treaty. After losing the presidential election in 2000, Gore began to focus his attention fully on environmental concerns, revising his slide show and lecturing on global warming around the world. This slide show evolved into the basis for An Inconvenient Truth. For his work focused on the prevention of global warming, Al Gore was nominated for and received the Nobel Peace Prize in October of 2007.

According to the Nobel Prize committee, Al Gore is probably the one man who has done the most to create an understanding of global warming and its potential planetary impact. By promoting this understanding and advocating for the changes that need to be made to avoid further climate change, Gore is leading the march against planetary destruction (Maraniss, 2001). This battle against global warming is one Gore believes must be won if society is to continue. When people are exposed to An Inconvenient Truth (either the movie or book), they are made aware of the problems of climate change and are urged to focus on means that can be used to prevent the greenhouse effect and global warming.

Since the first showing of the movie, Gore has run hundreds of training sessions, in which he has taught thousands of people to be ambassadors to the planet for An Inconvenient Truth. These ambassadors, known as climate project presenters, have traveled the planet, giving abridged versions of Gore's slide show and answering any questions that arise from the audience. Thanks to Gore and those that have been trained by him, many more people are aware of the problems of global warming and are taking steps to prevent it.

References

1. Gore, Al. Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000.

2. Maraniss, David, and Ellen Nakashima. The Prince of Tennessee: Al Gore Meets His Fate. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001.

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