Film review: An Inconvenient Truth

Former US presidential candidate Al Gore's bold film offers renewed hope for combating climate change, says Maddy Fry.

''I was slightly apprehensive about how much of An Inconvenient Truth I'd understand.'' ''Gore talks of America's changing attitude to climate change.'' ''The world's biggest polluter is beginning to wake up to the threat we all face.''

As someone who, like most of the contributors to Generation Why, is deeply concerned about climate change (and yet had my head on the table for the duration of my GCSE science classes) I was slightly apprehensive about how much of An Inconvenient Truth I'd understand. I had heard that its content was mostly made up of Gore presenting the scientific evidence for mankind being responsible for speeding up the effects of climate change to audiences around the globe. As I am not scientifically minded, I felt that I might not be in for an easy viewing session.

However, the film is an absolute delight on many levels. Although the bulk of it indeed involves Gore standing in front of an enormous screen with many intimidating graphs and figures, it is basically a course in climate change. The science is articulately and intelligently explained, with little biological mumbo-jumbo. Gore liberally uses visual aids to illustrate the impact that climate change has already had on this planet, including photos of melting ice caps and whole swathes of woodland destroyed by fires. Then he details the frankly frightening changes that will happen if action is not taken; this includes a view of the world with entire countries submerged below sea-level due to melting glaciers.

The film also has personal touches, with Gore puncturing the science with stories about his family and his life. This includes his recollection of when he first experienced a 'day of reckoning,' when his beloved older sister died of lung cancer caused by smoking. This, Gore claims, was when his family woke up to the effects of their tobacco business, a lifestyle which - a lot like our own fossil-fuel dependent lifestyles - was harmful not only to themselves but to the wider world. Moments like these make for a moving and yet unsentimental film at times.

The film also contains revelations which will be uncomfortable viewing for many Europeans, environmentalist or not. Gore talks of America's changing attitude to climate change, showing how many US states, including New York, Oregon, California and Washington have themselves signed up to Kyoto independently of the Bush administration. He also lists the hundreds and thousands of cities and towns across America that have taken on board their own strategies to reduce their carbon emissions.

Although the Bush Administration has rightly been condemned for not signing up to the Kyoto treaty, many Europeans have used this as an excuse to unfairly condemn all Americans as being selfish and unethical. For those people however, the inconvenient truth is that the world's biggest polluter is starting to wake up to the threat we all face.

At the end of the film, Gore lists many ways in which individuals can help to stop climate change. The message is clear: the time for blaming one country for universal sins has passed. Americans are getting busy; it's time that the British in particular stopped complaining and got busy too.