In this documentary, former vice-president Al Gore, describes a penetrating image of our planet in the future and with that our civilization. It is a documentary that opens your eyes, and that everyone who cares about the wellbeing of future generations should see. Al Gore makes short shrift with all the myths and common fallacies of the greenhouse effect in order to underline the fact that the earth is in immediate peril. With ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ Gore urges that everybody should undertake action now if we are to stem the tide. The message of the film is clear: we can all support the changes that are so badly needed and implement them in our way of living. This way we can contribute to the solution for a better and habitable world.

An Inconvenient Truth is an American documentary film about what the greenhouse effect has on planet earth, and in which manner the earth is warming up. The film is directed by Davis Guggenheim, and starring by Al Gore. Released in 2006, the film is largely based on a multimedia presentation that Gore has been given all around the world for several years. He also wrote a book under the same title as his film. This book, together with his presentation, are all in light of his message.

The film is an amalgam of images and predictions about our future world and technical details that support his presumptions. The documentary stresses that the scientific consensus is that we are causing global warming.  This is really not a political issue, so much as a moral one.

“Is it possible that we should protect against other threats than only terrorists?”, is one of the striking lines Gore uses to emphasize that high-politics agendas as war and terrorism are not the only threats we should worry about. There are several other major threat in the world, such as the Arctic which is experiencing faster melting. And that if this were to go, sea level worldwide would rise by a meter in the next century, causing many parts of the world (as the Netherlands) to be flooded. Another major threat that governments should be worrying about is the increase in temperature that is taking place all over the world. This is not only changing our climate dramatically, but is also causing stronger storms.

However, the film also received some critique. From politicians, but also even from scientists who question the statistics and ‘facts’ that Gore portrays as the truth. Scientists have scrutinized the film for playing down the uncertainty about the causal relation between the excess of carbon dioxide emissions and the rise in temperature of the earth. A more striking example is that this film might be partly based on incorrect scientific evidence. The English High Court, for instance, stated in 2007 that the film contains nine scientific errors.