'An Inconvenient Truth'

To what extent do you think this was deserved? Having watched this film in class did you feel that your opinion (or perhaps the opinion of others) to the issue of climate change could be positively influenced? What did you think of this film? Was it effective?



The nobel peace prize in 2007 was awarded to Al Gore and i believe it was a deserved acheivement on the whole. The film 'An Inconvenient Truth' opened the publics eyes to the true dangers that lie ahead for the globe if humans contuinue to act in the way in which they are, emitting high levels of carbon into the atmosphere. After watching 'An Inconvenient Truth' i came to realise that it was indeed effective in raising peoples awareness due to the fact that the explanation of each issue backed up with evidence he had found that linked the amount of carbon in the atmosphere to the global temperature was accurate and easy to follow. However i feel that the film was extremely directed to make climate change the biggest of the worlds problems. I do believe that climate change is happening to an extent and partly due to human activity but there are also many other important issues in the world at the moment such as the access to clean water that that needs to be a higher priority:



Causes of Poverty
Author and Page information
by Anup Shah

1. Almost half the world — over 3 billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day.


2. The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the 41 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (567 million people) is less than the wealth of the world’s 7 richest people combined.


3. Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.


4. Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.


5. 1 billion children live in poverty (1 in 2 children in the world). 640 million live without adequate shelter, 400 million have no access to safe water, 270 million have no access to health services. 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (or roughly 29,000 children per day).
http://www.globalissues.org/issue/2/causes-of-poverty



To me all of these stats are more important issues that need to be seen to before trying to combat climate change. I believe that issues happening in the world NOW need to be dealt with before we can start thinking about the future years to come. We cant save all of the problems as a global community but we can definetly go a little further to help people who arnt as wealthy as ourselves. The stat that less than one per cent of what the world spends on weapons is needed to put every single child in the world through schooling is sickening. If the world were to spare just a little bit of money it would make such a differnece to those in poorer parts of the world that need it most. Instead we are spending ridiculous amounts of money on an issue which ultimately cant be stopped. However global warming and climate change could pose a massive threat to the future inhabitants of the world:



http://actonco2.direct.gov.uk/actonco2/home/climate-change-the-facts/Rising-temperatures-and-the-greenhouse-effect.html

This tells us that over the last 100 years the Earth has warmed by 0.74 degrees, sea levels have risen and drought, floods and forest fires are becoming more frequent and devastating many peoples lives. The change in temperature may not seem a lot but even 1 degree change in the Earths temperature could see sea levels rising uncontrollably and would make many countries that inhabit numerous people impossible to live in.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maldives#Environmental_issues



The Maldives are a country that is currently facing the problem that if sea levels continue to rise, with the majority of their islands only being a mere 1.5 metres over sea level making them the lowest in the world, it will threaten their existance. The Maldives are also one of the countries who were seriously affected by the boxing day tsunami and left many people homeless as well as causing terrible damage to the natural environment. This is just one of the many examples of the problems that climate change could cause and Al Gore putting this message across to people will have seemed worthy of being awarded the nobel peace prize.

Overall the film 'An Inconvenient Truth' did deserve to win the nobel peace prize but it did not change my opinion on climate change. I still realise that climate change is an important issue to deal with but i have always felt that there are many other issues mainly to do with poverty such as access to clean water, sanitation, healthing systems and educational stability that need to be dealt with quicker. It was overall an effective film and could easily have a positive influence on the way people see the future of the Earth. People realise after watching this film how big climate change is as an issue and can try themselves to reduce their emissions to save many parts of the world that will not exist any more, due to the melting of the polar ice caps and rise in global flooding.