Who's going to pull the frog out of the boiling water?
Every so often it is necessary to be dealt a cold, hard slice of reality. Last night was my 'every so often' and the cold, hard slice of reality was watching An Inconvenient Truth. What ever one may think of Al Gore, he presents the case very convincingly and is obviously very passionate about his subject matter. To be honest, when presented with the facts and figures he shows it's hard not to be convinced that humanity is driving Planet Earth to a fairly nasty end.
At school I studied Geography for 'A' Level (with a side of Geology A Level just for good measure!), our Geography teacher was very sceptical on the subject of global warming and climate change, as far as she was concerned it was just a 'momentary blip' that the world was warming up and she guessed at it all being over within a 20 year period. My school being overly religious and the teachers fitting the mold, the general concensus was that God would take care of it! Maybe He will, however, in the meantime I think the world's population could help out!
The movie features a lot of pictures comparing glaciers, mountain peaks and lakes and rivers..some of the photos only 10 or 20 years apart showing massive glacial retreats due to temperature increase and lakes and rivers drying out due to man diverting the water supply for irrigation, industrial use or to support the population, one such case which isn't mentioned in the film but is one very close to my heart is that of the Dead Sea.
Something I found very upsetting was the information that for the first time, scientists are finding that polar bears are drowning because the Arctic Ice shelf is melting.
Having watched Gore speak passionately and clearly in the movie and on the news as he has globe trotted with his message, it brings home to me that thanks to the decision of the US Supreme court, it's possible that the world was deprived of a very good and very intelligent president.
Not directly connected to the election (but I thought it somewhat amusing) Gore shows us what would happen to the Florida coastline if Greenland melted. The sea level would rise some five or so meters and the map would look a like this (unfortunately I cannot find the exact graphic he used in the film, I can just see gore thinking 'that'll teach you to quibble over hanging chads'!
If the Greenland Ice Sheet melts, the impacts will be enormous. Red areas in this image of southern Florida show locales susceptible to a five-meter rise of sea level, based on elevation. Yellow areas denote urban locations.
The one, apparently being the consequence
of the other...
And what's with the frog in the boiling water? Well it's an old story, often told - particularly in the political arena, however, according to this article it may not be true!!
An Inconvenient Truth, should be required viewing for all of humanity...unfortunately as that's not practical, let's ensure the world's politicians, leaders, teachers, business leaders and Big Oil executives see it...and, most importantly all school children so they can ask their adults "What are you doing to ensure that when I am grown up I still have a planet to live on?"
At school I studied Geography for 'A' Level (with a side of Geology A Level just for good measure!), our Geography teacher was very sceptical on the subject of global warming and climate change, as far as she was concerned it was just a 'momentary blip' that the world was warming up and she guessed at it all being over within a 20 year period. My school being overly religious and the teachers fitting the mold, the general concensus was that God would take care of it! Maybe He will, however, in the meantime I think the world's population could help out!
The movie features a lot of pictures comparing glaciers, mountain peaks and lakes and rivers..some of the photos only 10 or 20 years apart showing massive glacial retreats due to temperature increase and lakes and rivers drying out due to man diverting the water supply for irrigation, industrial use or to support the population, one such case which isn't mentioned in the film but is one very close to my heart is that of the Dead Sea.
Something I found very upsetting was the information that for the first time, scientists are finding that polar bears are drowning because the Arctic Ice shelf is melting.
Having watched Gore speak passionately and clearly in the movie and on the news as he has globe trotted with his message, it brings home to me that thanks to the decision of the US Supreme court, it's possible that the world was deprived of a very good and very intelligent president.
Not directly connected to the election (but I thought it somewhat amusing) Gore shows us what would happen to the Florida coastline if Greenland melted. The sea level would rise some five or so meters and the map would look a like this (unfortunately I cannot find the exact graphic he used in the film, I can just see gore thinking 'that'll teach you to quibble over hanging chads'!
The one, apparently being the consequence
of the other...
And what's with the frog in the boiling water? Well it's an old story, often told - particularly in the political arena, however, according to this article it may not be true!!
An Inconvenient Truth, should be required viewing for all of humanity...unfortunately as that's not practical, let's ensure the world's politicians, leaders, teachers, business leaders and Big Oil executives see it...and, most importantly all school children so they can ask their adults "What are you doing to ensure that when I am grown up I still have a planet to live on?"
Labels: Al Gore, climate change, Dead Sea, movies
posted by Madame Chiang at 10:32 am
1 Comments:
No matter how good or correct the movie, no one in the current US government will accept its conclusions because of who the messenger is.
Kind of like Iraq -"All is well!"
We Anericans are too busy making oil companies and others rich to see what we are doing to the environment. Plus anything the West is doing , China is doing 10 times as bad. When was the last clear day in Hong Kong?
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