Over the weekend I finally had the opportunity to watch Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. The documentary was educational, compelling and downright scary at times.

I consider myself to be fairly knowledgeable about global warming, but even I was unaware of some of the points that he makes in his presentation. This is a documentary that should be shown in every high school and college science class as well as on network television for the entire nation to see.

The scariest part about global warming is that such a large portion of the population either doesn’t believe that it’s true or thinks that the effects from it are going to be so far down road that there’s no need to start fixing the problem right now. Both of these views are of course completely incorrect. It only took 10 years for our climate to shift from one similar to what we have now into a total ice age that lasted 900 years. Do you really want to take the chance?

I’ll be the first to admit that there are things that I could do, yet haven’t, to lower my carbon emissions. I could buy a more fuel efficient car. I could switch my remaining incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescent. I could replace my 20 year old furnace with one that’s more efficient. But I haven’t done these things yet. Buying a new car or furnace is just too expensive if they still work fine. So if I, an environmentally conscious individual haven’t made these changes, how can I expect the average person to do so?

The only way that we are going to be able to make the necessary changes are through government regulations. We’ve done it before with the Clean Air Act. Why can’t we mandate increased fuel efficiency, energy efficient appliances and limits on factory and power plant emissions? Right now the big reason is the current administration. The oil industry helped put Bush into office and he’s not going to do anything to harm them. Of course if the ocean levels rise from global warming many of their headquarters and refineries in Texas will be underwater. With the Democrats coming into power in January we have our first real chance in six years to pass regulations, but will Bush sign them into law? Not likely. Remember, to Bush this is all just a “naturally occurring cycle.”

I have always been a big fan of Al Gore. He is intelligent, experienced and personable. And he has grown a lot in the last six years, especially when it comes to public speaking. He has repeatedly hinted that he has no plans to run for President in 2008, but I sincerely hope that he does. He is what America and the world needs right now. He can bring the environment to the forefront of American and world politics and give us something that we can all rally around.

I encourage everyone to go out and rent An Inconvenient Truth. If you’re in high school encourage your science teacher to show it in class. If you’re out of school, invite your friends over to watch a movie and put it on (global warming may sound like a boring movie night, but this documentary is actually quite interesting to watch). Do whatever you can, just get the message out there.

Have any thoughts on the movie or global warming in general? Leave them in the comments section!

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