Tuesday, April 27, 2010

What I got out of "An Inconvenient Truth"

1. "..And in the distance you can hear a cow.. moo."

2. Student [looking at the east coast of South America and the west coast of Africa]: "Hey, did those two fit together at one time?"
Teacher: "No! What a preposterous idea!"
Al Gore [He's telling this story]: That student went on to be a drug abuser and a ne'er do well. That teacher went on to be a lead scientific adviser in the current administration."

3. Al Gore: "I'm not going to explain the basics of it. It's just Global Warming." -- It's a film ABOUT GW..

4. "Global Warming.. or.. NONE LIKE IT HOT!"


5. He bounced up and down on a cherry picker..

6. His father was "Breeder of the Month"

7. "I had a dog there. I had a pony there. I could shoot my rifle there."

8. Drunken trees-- not caused by wind damage or alcohol consumption.

9. Al Gore is still quite bitter.

10. Mr. Almost-the-Next-President-of-America-Comedian-Not-Funny-Man

11. "We need to stop using dirty methods"

12. Although this one is quite sad..
"My 6 year old son let go of my hand to run after a friend. He got hit by a car. A machine was breathing for him. We were in the hospital for a month."--This involves GW how? Silly Al Gore.

13.--Who was the genius who put a RESIDENTIAL neighborhood RIGHT NEXT TO a NUCLEAR plant?!--IDIOT

14. It is important to rescue the frog!

15. --This is actually just comical. I'm not making fun of the movie right now--
Chief of the government's environmental program [a man with NO scientific training WHATSOEVER] took it upon himself to completely edit a memo sent by the EPA in regards to the hazardous effects of GW. In his corrections, he told the EPA that they were completely wrong.
The staff of the White House did not take to kindly to this. The man resigned. His very next job? Executive at Exon Mobile.

16. In a clip of Al Gore working on his computer, he had a link that was his own name in his favorites tool bar in his web browser.


Okay. All funny aside, this documentary focuses on two things:

A) That the issue in solving the problem of GW is entirely lack of political will. Politicians tend to have the mindset of "repositioning Global Warming as a theory, and not as fact." If governmental agencies, and not just the US, took the initiative that several have already taken, the steps to combat GW could begin to take place and the planet will immediately benefit. A key point to make is this, political will is a renewable resource.

B) It is a common misconception that the problem is just too big to handle. This is entirely incorrect. We as a society already possess the means and understanding to combat this issue. there are several ways we can lower our CO2 emissions. If we took all possible steps to do so, rates of emission would be lower than that of the 1970's in just a few years.

If nothing is done about the issue, there are several major threats to humanity.

1. Greenland. It is the largest mass of ice in the Northern Hemisphere. Pools of melt-water are rapidly forming on the surface of Greenland. Many think that "oh.. just some lakes.. or whatever". Wrong. These "lakes" extend all the way down to the bed rock. When the melt-water reaches the bed rock, it creates these things called "Moulins", or a layer of water between the ice and rock. When this water layer is formed, it causes the landmass above it to greatly weaken. When the landmass is weak enough, it WILL break apart. If Greenland breaks apart, it will raise the world wide sea level by about 20ft. Coast-lines will disappear. New York City will be almost completely underwater.

2. The Antarctic Peninsula. The same thing that I mentioned as a possibility with Greenland HAS happened here. A major ice shelf on this peninsula developed the same "lakes' that are now forming on the shores of Greenland. ~23 DAYS after scientists took note of these melt-water reservoirs, the shelf was gone.. GONE.

3. To wrap it up, I'll mention the most obvious of all hazards this issue poses. CO2 in the atmosphere. Pollutants in general are on the rise all over the world. This undoubtedly has an effect on the animal and plant life all over the world.

okay. there are about 23490823490 other things I could say on the subject, but I will refrain for now. :]

Congrats to those who have read this far. :]

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