An Inconvenient Truth

A filmed version of the climate change presentation Al Gore had been giving around the world for years. The structure is simple: Gore on a stage, a screen behind him, graphs and photographs. Glaciers fifty years ago and now are set side by side, carbon measurements are shown, projections are explained. Passages from his own life are cut in: his son's accident, losing the 2000 election, how he came to the subject. Its effect happened outside cinema. The film carried the climate question to a large audience, was shown in schools and put the subject at the centre of political argument. It was also criticised sharply: some scientists said particular projections were overstated, and a case in Britain resulted in a ruling that when shown in schools the film had to carry qualifications at certain points. It won the Oscar for documentary in 2007, and Gore shared the Nobel Peace Prize the following year. Davis Guggenheim directed. Still a good way into the subject. But the data is twenty years old; today's measurements and projections have moved on, and it would be wrong to use the film as a current source.