An inconvenient must see

Dear Editor:

Bob and Kathy Ezra, owners of the Crystal Theatre in Carbondale, are friends of mine, but that is not why I’m promoting the film that will be opening there Friday night, August 18, Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Sequel.” If you care about the future of the planet, it is a must see.

Eleven years ago, Gore released the academy award winning “An Inconvenient Truth” and it ignited an international movement to curtail man-made greenhouse gas emissions which are causing climate change. The movement culminated in the 2015 Paris accords which was signed by every nation on Earth with rational leadership.

That cause has gained momentum with this year’s long, hot summer, i.e., 120 degrees in Phoenix, 109 degrees in Portland, 105 degrees in Seattle, and many 90-degree days here on the western slope of Colorado. It’s important to remember one heat wave does not mean we have climate change. Worldwide, 37 years of steadily rising temperatures and 15 of the last 16 years with record average temperatures is climate change. Last December was a very cold month and the climate change deniers were saying, “I got your global warming.” On average, 2016 was still the warmest year on record.

“An Inconvenient Truth” dealt with what is going to happen. I have not seen it yet, so this is a promotion, not a review, but I hear “An Inconvenient Sequel” reveals what has happened: polar ice caps melting, sea levels rising, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic, the atolls in the Pacific, and Bangladesh on the Indian Ocean underwater, coral reefs dying, glaciers disappearing, chunks of ice falling into the sea in Greenland and Antarctica, more and more ferocious hurricanes, other storms, and erratic weather resulting in droughts and flooding.

Gore was criticized for predicting the World Trade Center would be underwater. Remember Hurricane Sandy? The World Trade Center was underwater. The birthplace of hurricanes is warm seas. Climate change is a more appropriate name than global warming. It’s not just warming. The entirety of the climate is changing.

Climate change deniers are either not intelligent enough to understand the science of climate change, value only money and are not creative enough to see how money can be made in renewable energy sources, can see that the climate is changing, but refuse to believe that man is responsible, or believe that God promised Noah he would not destroy the Earth after the flood. To the believers I say, God is not destroying the Earth. His children are.

The Aspen Times film critic, Andrew Travers, was bothered by the emphasis “An Inconvenient Sequel” places on Gore, himself, his travel around the globe in support of the cause and his contributions at the Paris conference. I don’t anticipate having that problem.

I find Gore to be a fascinating and admirable figure. He was an influential legislator from Tennessee who became vice president under a very dominant president, Bill Clinton. Then, Gore made a run for the presidency at the turn of the century and took a royal screwing, just like Hillary Clinton did in 2016. Instead of shrinking into the shadows, Gore took the lead in the climate change campaign. He is quoted as saying, “Future generations will look back on today and say, ‘Why didn’t they do something?’”

If climate change is half as important as scientists say it is, Gore could be the hero of the 21st Century. I hope he doesn’t run for president again in 2020. We need him doing what he’s doing.

Let’s not be the first species in the history of the Earth to cause its own extinction. Go see “An Inconvenient Sequel” and learn and act.

Fred Malo Jr.

Carbondale