An Inconvenient Screening
Bon Jovi (above) and his lead guitarist Richie Sambora played four songs tonight at the California Plaza. There were Livng on a Prayer, Who Says You Can’t Go Home (their recent number one country song), What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace Love and Understanding, and Wanted Dead or Alive. After hearing these songs in a karaoke context so many times, it was nice to have the man himself show how it’s done.
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It was enough of a show that would have made the night worthwhile. That’s saying something given that I had to slog through late Saturday afternoon traffic into downtown LA and then try to find a spot that wasn’t already taken in the venue that had way too few seats. Because there were no tickets or assigned seats and I traveled alone, there was no reasonable expectation that I could find a good seat and retain it througout the night. As options started running out, I just found one of the marble benches that have trees growing out of their soiled center. It was comfortable enough although with a view obstructed by a tall climbable metal pole (you can see it to the left of Bon Jovi and Sambora). And with the constant threats of people standing up to block the view or making noise, the evening progressed remarkably smoothly. I guess it helps to forgive when you’re attending a free event.
But what many people were actually there to see and what Bon Jovi ultimately introduced was Los Angeles Film Festival screening of the documentary An Inconvenient Truth. It was a pretty faithful account of Gore’s book on global warming of the same name. It is also verbatim the same speech he’s given hundreds of times around the world. And it is a cause that is growing in numbers due to the way it is affecting more and more people.
A few of the reminders of it are rather visible. Gas prices. Hurricane Katrina. Record-breaking heat waves. Some are less visible. South America had its first hurricane ever last year. Japan had a record number of typhoons last year. Ice shelves are collapsing. Snow fall is getting smaller and smaller each year.
Ironically, the real danger the film points towards is the imminence of another Ice Age. No not the movie, the actual world just becoming real f-ing cold. Gore basically says that if the world’s supply of stable frozen water starts to melt, it will dump a bunch of cold water into the oceans causing the currents to lose their strength causing Mother Nature to put the world under a block of ice. Well, he doesn’t say that, but it sounds like The Day After Tomorrow.
Is the threat real? Well, maybe not a full on Ice Age for a while, but as our CO2 emissions are up in the stratosphere (literally and figuratively), the temperature of our planet will increase. And as our population grows exponentially, our needs for water, food, and care will increase as the possibility of diseases increases as well. And as our technologies become more reliant on energy, the amount of fossil fuels needed to create that energy triggers more damage. In short, yeah, better start working on the shuttle to Mars.
It’s amazing to see how much of a grasp Gore has of the science involved in his lecture. While he doesn’t exactly come off as being a great speaker, he shows at least the hallmarks of true passion and mastery of the topic. When he spoke a little before the screening, Gore was as verbally-challenged as he was in his ill-fated Presidential campaign. To his credit a heckler did scream, “Stop complaining!” to interrupt his train of thought. The difference is that now he is not asking you to put him in office, but simply to speak about a topic of concern. By very stark contrast, you cannot conceivably see George W. giving a scientifiically thorough speech like Gore’s with any amount of sincerity. Perhaps that was Gore’s downfall…he was too academic.
The film does get into Gore’s failed 2000 campaign for the White House. While i felt this was unnecessary, it is still effective for the simple reason that it keeps the Michael Moore crowd happy. People alternately cheered and booed appropriately when Bush was being referenced. Other vignettes feature Gore talking about various aspects of his life that have shaped him. Though he keeps denying any Presidential ambitions, AIT plays like campaign film…a great man going off into the world to do great things.
And who’s to say this portrayal of Gore isn’t a truthful one? He isn’t seen as being any more of less charismatic than he actually is. And while the film drags when the focus is more on Gore, it comes back to Gore telling it like it is. This movie is not perfect or even necessarily very important in the scheme of things. What it does is codify the basic tenets of what global warming is and delivers them to an audience that knew about them but not all the facts. Gore tosses them off like used tissue, which does get somewhat tiring. But for those who are illiterate or can’t afford the book, go see this movie. It will probably enforce your political views one way or the other. If for no other reason, go to find out where you stand.
