An Emotional Truth

[RestoreGore]

From his appearance in Canada last February:



An Emotional Truth

Excerpt:

There were, however, two interesting differences between Gore's live presentation and his filmed one. First, there was even more scientific detail last night, and a greater recognition of the complexity of the climate change issue. That's significant, because said complexity is often used by paid deniers (some of whom, by the way, are actually the same people who used to take money from the tobacco industry to tell us smoking didn't cause cancer) to try and create confusion.

Gore also updated his slideshow to include the latest science and more current examples (some as recent as last week). For example, in the movie a big deal is made of the possibility that melting ice in Greenland could stop the flow of the Gulf Stream. That now seems less likely to scientists, and Gore told us so. (On the other hand, a lot of the science has gotten more dire.)

The second main difference is how much more emotional the facts are when delivered in person. Three quarters of the way through the presentation, Gore piles on the bad news: carbon concentration in the atmosphere is higher than it's been in a million years; positive feedback loops (like the melting of the permafrost, which releases even more greenhouse gas) have already started to kick in; 100% of world fisheries have already peaked and declined in production; coral reefs are already starting to dissolve in more acidic oceans; floods and droughts (seemingly contradictory phenomenon caused by overall climate destabilization) are already costing people their water, food, and lives; both antarctic and arctic ice (the two "canaries in the mineshaft") have already started to break up much faster than was predicted.

Whispers of "oh shit" rippled through the crowed as different people reached their own realizations.

However, at no point did Gore become more emotional than when talking about the solutions that are possible, and his belief in humanity's ability to accomplish them. Straying from his typically American examples, Gore had some specific messages for Canada on this point. For one, he pointed out (as his slideshow omits) that per capita we are as bad as Americans when it comes to contributing to the climate crisis. On the other hand, he spoke of how respected Canada has been internationally for so many years, and then, under his breath and with deliberate coyness, said, "now, you wouldn't walk away from Kyoto, would you?" If we don't clean up our act, Gore explained, that makes it easier for the US not to act as well. "That'll be the homework," he said.

At the end of the presentation, Gore told the story (if you've seen the film you've heard it) of when his six-year-old son slipped from his grasp, ran out into traffic, and was struck by a car. His son was in intensive care for months before pulling through. It's the story of a father almost losing his son, and feeling like he could have done something to prevent it. It's an impossible moment to replicate, but trust that everyone in the room was leaning forward, holding their breath. "If I could go back in time," Gore explained, slowly, quietly, "I would go back to that moment right before his hand slipped from mine, and hold on tight."

Then, turning to the image of the Earth on the screens behind him, Gore delivered his final message in the most urgent of whispers. "It's beginning to slip from our grasp. I want you to hold on to it."

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For Mr. Gore:

This is where I started to cry reading this. It is so obvious how much this means to you, and how drastic the damage is that we have done to our Earth. I am not despairing believe me, but I am really trying hard to believe that people on the whole will get this message and act now, and I do think that is happening little by little. Just today I talked to a man about alternate fuels and hybrids and he said his next car was going to be a hybrid and that he would visit the climate crisis.org site. WE can do this, and it is because you are the leader of this environmental campaign that I believe we will do this. There is no one who can evoke the emotion and moral retrospection on this that you do, Mr. Gore.

Reading this article it is also obvious why Davis Guggenheim intertwined scenes of your life crises within An Inconvenient Truth. This is your life coming full circle. You as many of us, know what it is to lose someone you love and to almost lose one of the people in your life you love most, and now know that this Earth is slipping from us and that we cannot let it go.

And I will never believe the speculation that intimates that you are using this issue and any success related to this endeavor as a means to manipulate us into doing nothing but talking about "drafting" you or making this about you. I am convinced that this is not about you to you at all, this is about US as it should be. To me it is such a shame that some only seem able to use this to get their own 15 minutes of fame instead of joining now in the cause to mitigate anymore damage to this planet, because I believe that is your true message here. We have wasted too much time already waiting for someone else to do it and following the status quo business as usual way. This won't be fixed with one election (as you have also stated) as it has to come from people on a global scale having the education and tools they need to demand change and be the catalyst for it.

We not only hold the hand of Mother Earth which is slipping from our grasp, but we too hold the hands of our children. I will not let my child's hand slip from my grasp nor Mother Earth's. And thanks to you and the producers of An Inconvenient Truth, many more people will see this and begin to hold on tighter.

How gratified I am then that you went through the metamorphosis you did. As you said in the movie which I too say so many times, that which does not kill us makes us stronger. How I hope that is the case now. Thank you for baring your soul and for taking this tremendous challenge on. This IS the one endeavor out of many that I believe you will now be a part of as a free man that will not only have you remembered by countless generations, but will hopefully inspire us to be all we have yet to become.