An Inconvenient Truth

Al Gore

"Well, I read An Inconvenient Truth some time ago, actually before I saw the movie. I saw the movie only recently. I've cared about global warming for a long time. As a science educator, I care about it very deeply.

What is An Inconvenient - well, it's about a very inconvenient truth, and it's bold and kind of very charming of Gore to use the word "truth" and not be afraid of saying that. It basically, as a book, is his attempt to take these PowerPoint presentations or versions of his PowerPoint presentation that he's been touring around with, which you get to see a lot of in the documentary, and put it into a book form.

I was interested in reading the book whether I would find out something new to me scientifically or whether it would just give me more of a perspective on what I already felt is pretty strongly - pretty clearly the case. Whoever you are listening to me here, who knows where you're coming from politically, but global warming doesn't have anything to do with politics in the end. One is a fool if one persists in pretending to oneself that it does. It's the reality we all live in.

The way I read it is much more personally his - essentially his faith, his orientation towards his family is, compared to a lot of people not very difficult but still very real and emotional and true experiences that he's been through, relating all that to how he deals with having been a politician and now moving into this sort of meta-politician. It's certainly attempting to reach more of a mass audience.

As I recall, he ends the book by, as you might expect, with a section, "here's what you can do, some online resources and specific ideas." It might be ten - a sort of ten ways you can help to save the planet kind of section. So overall, I think it's hard not to give this book five stars. This is a book that everybody has to read."

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