reading log: an inconvenient truth

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@@ -6,6 +6,108 @@ author: Joe Carstairs
 
 ## 2025-04-23
 
+### @{inconvenient-truth}
+
+Big idea: global warming is happening, you can do something about it, reduce
+your own emissions and get involved in politics. International agreements can
+save the day and you can make a difference. It made me feel inspired to do
+something, it was hopeful. However, I look on his faith in politics with
+nostalgic longing, I don't feel I have that faith in UK politics now.
+
+A few things struck me especially:
+
+- Science-saviour narrative. Roger Revelle. Galileos reporting what they see,
+  inconvenient truths, against the Bellarmine fossil fuel companies. We must
+  listen to the warnings of the scientists. Fossil fuel lobby defiles the
+  prophetic office of the scientists.
+- Use of horror. Hurricane Katrina prominent. Destruction of beautiful
+  environments, polar bears drowning. Allusions to 9/11. 'Nature hike through
+  the Book of Revelations.'
+- Preciousness: Earthshot, Pale Blue Dot, reminiscences of rural idyll, as a boy
+  lots of contact with nature, no notion of the difference between work and play
+- Faith in politics, and particularly international agreements, we can do
+  something about it! (I find it difficult to get on board with this faith now,
+  as much as I would love to)
+
+Al Gore speaks over the soundtrack almost the whole time. The film featured a
+few different threads woven together:
+
+- Al Gore reminiscing about growing up in a rural idyll and going back to visit
+- Al Gore presenting his global warming presentation
+- Al Gore travelling the world on a mission to convince people to do something
+  about global warming
+- Al Gore remembering his early experiences with Roger Revelle
+
+Lots of what Al Gore was saying was illustrated with video montages. There were also isolated snippets relating the story to his 2000 election campaign and the
+time his 6-year-old son was hit by a car and nearly died.
+
+Notable features of the presentation:
+
+- Pictures of Earth, opening with Earthshot and concluding with Voyager 1's
+  Pale Blue Dot
+- We used to assume the continents were too big to move, likewise, we used to
+  assume the climate was too big to move, but we were wrong
+- Global warming is already shrinking Lake Chad, melting huge glaciers, chomping
+  chunks out of Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets
+- CO2 and temperature changes are way out of order with natural changes in
+  human history and the last 650,000 years, could be in for unimaginable change
+  in what Earth looks like, comparison with Ice Ages
+- Temperatures clearly increasing, new records always being set. Results:
+  heatwaves killing thousands, hurricanes, tornadoes, typhoons, Katrina!
+- There were warnings before Katrina, now we must listen to the warnings of the
+  scientists
+- Europe had a year of catastrophes 'like a nature hike through the Book of
+  Revelations'
+- Ice getting thinner (had to sail on a nuclear sub to get their data)
+- Greenland ice sheet melting could stop Gulf Stream, plunge Europe into Ice
+  Age, last time took as little as 10 years and lasted for 1000 years
+- Nature's calendar changes
+- Sea level rise threatens 10s of millions, World Trade Center memorial
+  underwater, terrorism not our only threat
+- US contributes the most, not ratified Kyoto, though states and cities have
+
+I thought I could just tell the story to Congress and they would be startled
+into doing something. I had faith in the political process. But Congress wasn't
+startled. (Later in the film, he clearly expresses faith in politics and
+encourages people to get involved in politics.)
+
+Tobacco: we kept growing tobacco after link to lung cancer was clear. Dad grew
+tobacco all his life until mum died of lung cancer. Sometimes we hit a day of
+reckoning and wish we'd connected the dots quicker. Tobacco funded science
+denial, likewise fossil fuel lobby funds science denial, commits scientific
+fraud, persecutes scientists willing to do their duty to report what they see,
+their inconvenient truths. White House staffer removed stuff from a memo, fired,
+next day got a job at Exxon.
+
+So far, I see no signs we're about to change. Politicians don't do anything
+because their constituents don't want them to. That's why I'm on the campaign
+trail. Enough minds may change to cross a tipping point. 'City by city, person
+by person, family by family.'
+
+Some skip from denial to despair, don't! We have everything we need to do
+something about it! End-use efficiency, renewables, CCS, etc. All we need is
+political will. 'In America, political will is a renewable resource.' We made
+massive political successes: ending slavery, women's suffrage, fighting fascism,
+non-violence, Mandela, ending the nuclear arms race, ending Communism, closing
+the ozone hole. We can do it again. 'It is our time to rise again to fix our
+future.'
+
+I had the privilege to be shown the future as a young man. Revell went and
+measured CO2, was startled by what he found, joined the dots, showed it to us
+young students. 'I had the privilege to be shown it as a young man. It's almost
+as if a window was opened through which the future was very clearly visible. See
+that? he says, see that? That's the future in which you're going to live your
+life.'
+
+Future generations will ask why their parents didn't wake up. 'We need to hear that question from them now.'
+
+The film concluded with a reel of ways people can take action interspersed
+amongst the credits: reduce your personal emissions, recycle, vote, run for
+office, plant trees, speak up, support international agreements, 'if you believe
+in prayer, pray that people will find the strength to change. When you pray,
+move your feet' and get people to watch this movie. Learn about the issues and
+then do something about it.
+
 ## 2026-04-22
 
 ### @{ultimate-things}