Reaction to An Inconvenient Truth

Ole Pederson did an excellent job guiding the discussion after the screening. He summarized the discussion as follows:

The first meeting of the Legal Research Society following the Christmas Holidays took place yesterday with the showing of Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth from 2006. The movie, which recently landed Al Gore an Academy Award nomination in the category for best documentary feature, presents the problem of global warming facing mankind in an easy-to-understand tone. The event was extremely well attended and the movie was followed by a short discussion. The discussion raised a number of concerns and issues. These included: the efficiency of the current legal framework of the Kyoto Protocol; the justification for exempting developing states from the Kyoto Protocol; the need for developed states to be at the forefront of a campaign to tackle CO2 emission; the importance of individual and personal action; the juxtaposition between long term effects and short term investments; and the financial gain that might await states if they develop special ‘green’ technologies.



Well said. I'll admit to being skeptical of much of the global warming coverage in the media. However after seeing the movie, I thing it definitely changed my perspective on the debate. Though much of the media's coverage of the issue strikes me as superficial, Gore made an even-handed and reasonable case. I think his views accomplish a noteworthy first step: he's convincing skeptics that global warming is a very serious and very real threat. One wonders as well whether Gore will consolidate this good will over his academy award nomination and Nobel Peace prize nomination to make a run for the White House. He might, but I think he's accomplished a lot outside the White House. A lot of our discussion seemed to focus on what to do in the developing world. Cleaner alternatives are more expensive, and how should we encourage developing nations to skip the "dirty development" stage which the US embodies currently. Today's NYT had an article on China's claim that wealthier countries should do their part first.

I found it especially interesting to watch the film with a non-American audience. Some of Gore's statements understandably failed to strike a chord. In particular, he talked about the US refusal to ratify the Kyoto accord. Though that decision by Congress and the President does indeed seem unfortunate, we should remember that California, and much of the East Coast has voluntarily agreed to abide by the treaty. These two parts of the country account for the lion's share of US emissions. The fact remains though that the US is the World's largest CO2 polluter. Much of that has to do with American culture. It's a big nation; the whole of Scotland equals the size of South Carolina. We're a nation built around the car and the open road. I think Gore's most noteworthy accomplishment with the movie may be to highlight the futility of that kind of American wastefulness to themselves.




Comments

Unknown said…
Slate.com has a great article on why Kyoto may not be a viable solution:

http://www.slate.com/id/2159113/fr/rss/

It argues for a simple carbon tax.
The carbon tax has often been put forward by the opponents of the UNFCC and its Kyoto Protocol as a better way of tackling CO2 emission. Although Kyoto has its flaws and is at best perhaps 'a better than nothing tool' a carbon tax is often criticised for being just another tax to fill the coffins of various governments. Hence, a challenge for such a carbon tax would be to ensure that at least some of the revenues would be directed towards research into and development of better techniques in combating CO2 emission.
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