Alex Kollar

BIOL 314
27 September 2016
Video Response

Responding to An Inconvenient Truth

I remember watching this film years ago in middle school and
being completely won over by Al Gores rhetoric. Watching this movie
again, his rhetoric is still powerful. Throughout the presentation, Gore
infuses witty narratives and jokes to keep his audience engaged. He
also draws on the American spirit generated by the retelling of the
Apollo space missions in order to frame his argument as an issue of
patriotism. The heavy use of visuals and animated clips also kept the
audience awake and catered to our need for visual storytelling. Of
course, as a politician Gore also used this production as a strategic
political move. If you pay close attention, you can see many parts in
which Gore makes jabs at the administration and comments on his own
experience. Honestly, this movie a communication critics dream.
As for the actually issue of global warming, there were many
facts and claims that I had not considered or had completely forgotten
about. When you think of global warming you think of the planet
heating up and ocean levels rising, but maybe you dont consider the
kind of paradoxes the problem can create. Gore shows evidence of all
the heat sucking the moisture out of the earth and causing intense
droughts all over the world. Gore also explains that the warmer
temperatures cause longer summers and shorter winters. This means
that insects carrying infectious diseases are not being naturally killed
off by seasonal changes and are infecting more people.
This argument of global warming directly affecting the human
population is Gore main charge of saying that this is more than an
environmental issue; it is a moral issue. At one point he says that if
ocean levels continue to rise, millions of people living in costal areas
will be completely consumed by water. I have to say its a pretty
compelling argument when you watch your own home (mine in South
Florida) be taken over by the oceans water. Gore continues to say that
it is our responsibility to combat global warming in order to save lives.
As shown in the first paragraph, I was fascinated with the way
that Gore shaped and presented his arguments in such an effective
way. I knew they were effective because I could feel my blood boiling
gradually throughout the film. Its just so frustrating to have all this
evidence of global warming and virtually nothing is done about it. I
remember a specific part o the presentation where Gore displayed a
scale on the screen. On one side of the scale were gold bars and the
entire planet on the other. Why would the expenses outweigh the
welfare of the entire planet? To think where we, as a nation, would be if
events in 2001 didnt happen. Its no secret that 9/11 completely
switch our countrys attention from basically anything that wasnt fight
terrorism; which is a completely natural response. Its just so
unfortunate that there still doesnt seem to be a collective charge to
combat this issue, even though there is clearly a problem.