by James Clarke

Created on: December 26, 2006   Last Updated: April 19, 2007

Yesterday a friend and I were doing a puzzle of a 1715 map of Great Britain and
Ireland, and were were about halfway through when we realised that some of
the pieces were missing. I had a long diatribe about missing puzzle pieces
and how it was the end of the world all ready to blog. Then I got
distracted by watching Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, and in that context,

do I care about Birmingham? [actually who cares about Birmingham
anyway?]

Fantastic film, and just in time for Christmas too! I haven't done ANY
shopping yet, so I'm going to buy as many copies of that film as I can, and
give it to anyone I can. It's a pretty easily followable recording of one
of his lectures that he gives all over the world, with a few personal
anecdotes about his story and what got him to where he is now, spread
throughout to keep it interesting.

It covers most/all of the most crucial causes and effects of global warming
bought together in one place, which I found pretty distressing/informative.
I reckon I'm pretty informed about global warming and climate change, but I
usually read about one aspect of it, coral reefs or droughts. Seeing so
many aspects of it bought together in one place was pretty heavy.

Some things are pretty near to my heart, like coral reefs. If
temperatures keep rising, in 50 years they will be all gone. I knew that,
and it makes me bite my teeth to think that I might live to see them die,
but seeing it in the larger picture, and seeing how it could happen was
terrifying.

The death of the Gulf Stream, the ocean current that keeps Europe warm, is
something that I always try to explain to people here in England when they
say that warmer temperatures would be nice. If temperatures keep rising,
then eventually the gulf stream WILL stop flowing [the most likely cause of
this would be the ice in Greenland melting, which it is] and all the
lovely warm tropical waters will stop coming up, and the few extra degrees
of heat that we currently enjoy will not make a lick of difference when
everything is frozen.

It's a really well made film that didn't have an ounce of despair or
finger wagging that I think everyone one should see.

My only negative thought was that the film may upset some people, who can be
broken down into three groups -

1) big time George W. Bush supporters: it does talk about THAT election,
which is fine by me, but if you are a Dubya supporter, stick with it, it's
worth gritting your teeth and sitting through the few minutes that discusses those heady days.

2) fundamentalist Christians - like Pearl Jam said- "It's evolution, baby!"
Again, try & grit your teeth and hear the message of the flick

3) Captains of industry and finance - Don't grit your teeth, try to listen
and change the way we do things.

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