by Rachel Frazer

Created on: March 09, 2009

Hurricane Katrina killed countless people and left countless others homeless in the early twenty first century. Warnings had been sounded by the leading scientists of the time. Did society have ears to hear with? Indeed. Did society heed these warnings? Tragically, it did not. An Inconvenient Truth declares that whether said society has learned or will learn is now at the test, for in fact a terrorist is arising. This terrorist is called global warming. Indeed, apparently at society's own fault, a catastrophe even greater than Hurricane Katrina is imminent.

Why is this society's fault? Al Gore, himself a politician, puts forth through this documentary his underlying conviction that "political will is the only thing we're really missing." Politics is one of the very things that hold society together in a rational, predictable fashion. Society naturally adheres to the system and, by adhering to the system, it shuts out that which the leading politicians shut out. Even now, according to the documentary, politicians hold Hurricane Katrina and other such catastrophes (for which society was, presumably at the fault of its leaders, highly unprepared) at arm's length, in order to avoid the moral imperative therein. Politics and society together with one voice presently declare, "We'll deal with that tomorrow."

The primary factor in the human tendency to "downsize" the issue of global warming is the lack of knowledge and understanding of said issue. An Inconvenient Truth sets out to eliminate this factor and, to a very large degree, succeeds. The very title of the documentary indicates that the subject matter at hand may not be appealing to know; however, it is almost invariably always truth that ultimately produces freedom. Be it global warming, religiosity, or any other issue: "You will know the truth and the truth will set you free."[1]

They are the Industrial Revolution, the Scientific Revolution, and the consequent rise of consumerism, which hold the key to the present predicament. An Inconvenient Truth puts it in the simple terms of habits and technology. For instance, the combination of age-old habits and age-old technology (that is, those habits and technology which were implemented within society before the Industrial Revolution) will produce "age-old," predictable results. Take those same old habits and introduce, after these revolutions, new technology, and the results cannot be foreseen.

The vast change that has occurred within society during the past two generations

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