An Inconvenient Sequel – Truth to Power
4 stars
Directors: Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk
Stars: Al Gore, George W. Bush, John Kerry
Duration: 98 mins
Class: PG
KRS Releasing Ltd
It was quite timely that on the day I watched An Inconvenient Sequel – Truth to Power, temperatures in Valletta were a sweltering 38 degrees and seemed completely uninterested in letting up… just one of the many days we witnessed this summer that burdened us with no longer unusually high temperatures as global warming tightens its grip.
It has been 10 years since former US Vice-President Al Gore brought us An Inconvenient Truth, the Oscar-winning documentary that arguably brought the discussion of global warm-ing and climate change into the mainstream.
Since 2000, when he exited politics after the bruising 2000 presidential election, Gore has been actively and relentlessly engaged in campaigning for the environment. Together with scientists from around the world, he tackles the problem of greenhouse gas emissions head-on.
The documentary’s success surprised most people – Gore himself included – but its most powerful legacy is the aware-ness it raised among people about the dangers posed by climate change. It led to sustained action from governments, corporations, NGOs and individuals all around the world.
What resonates is Gore’s optimism, despite the many challenges... both from Mother Nature and from the naysayers
And yet, as An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power tells us, the effects of climate change continue to be felt as global warming reaches even higher, more perilous levels. So, Gore could not afford to sit on his laurels following the critical and commercial success of the documentary. Quite the reverse, as he continued with the work he carried out via his organisation, The Climate Reality Project, which since the first film has trained over 10,000 people around the world to spread the message.
The sequel dedicates quite a bit to Gore’s training programme, his lectures and his tireless campaigning around the world. It introduces us to many people who take on the crusade, and yet, it crucially also provides some convincing and unflinch-ing scenes of the devastation continuously being wrought by climate change worldwide. The reasons for the sequel become self explanatory.
Documentarians Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk follow Gore as he travels the world, personally witnessing and commenting upon some of the natural disasters that have wreaked havoc in various parts of the globe. The film opens in the breathtakingly beautiful but forbidding ice-caps of Greenland, where a magnificent glacier is eroding as a result of the constantly rising temperatures and its effects could not be more glaringly obvious… a station run by an environmental research institute has collapsed due to the melting surface.
A woman in India trips when her shoe literally sticks to the melting tarmac on the road… an amusing image if the implications were not so sobering. We also witness the death and devastation wrought by a typhoon in the Philippines.
In the US, extreme weather events caused major destruction in Louisiana as cars were swamped and floated away. Fish swam in the streets of Florida as ocean waters overwhelmed the city. As I write this piece, the havoc being inflicted by Tropical Storm Harvey in Texas continues unabated.
We learn that infectious diseases like the Zika virus can be so widespread because the higher temperatures provide thriving climates for the mosquitoes and other organisms that carry them.
The approach is relentless as Gore and his team drive the point home. Yet it is not all bad news. Slowly by surely, more countries are adopting renewable energy sources and many more world leaders have come together to tackle the problem, climaxing in the Paris Agreement on Climate Change of 2015.
Since the first film, Gore has obviously grown older and certainly wiser, looking more comfortable in his role of environmental mentor. Certainly, having worked in this sector for so long, his confidence has risen, as has his passion.
He imparts the information in a dignified and infectiously enthusiastic manner, whether in the privacy of his office with his dedicated staff meetings or on location in disaster zones. He witnesses first-hand the effects of climate change in public for as he rallies ordinary citizens and world leaders alike to the cause.
What resonates, however, is Gore’s optimism, despite the many challenges he and his team face both from Mother Nature and from the naysayers. He diplomatically describes President Trump’s announcement to withdraw from the Paris agreement as a ‘setback’. He is convinced that with so many millions of people taking his message on board there is hope for us all yet.