Latest update: Truth still inconvenient

When Kristy and I saw An Inconvenient Truth, we both thought it was an excellent film, and encouraged everyone we know to go and see it (Have you seen it yet?!). In fact we thought it was so good, that we both jumped at the chance to see it presented live, by Al Gore himself, in the ECOSOC chamber at the UN. And given that the Secretary-General himself was chairing the event, it promised to be an interesting evening!

Unfortunately, we weren’t the only ones who were jumping at the chance. It was lucky that I could get off work early to grab us a couple of seats. Kristy wasn’t so lucky, so by the time she made it to the chamber, it was packed out. Though I had been dilligently fighting off the hoardes of people vying for the spare seat, the security guards wouldn’t let her in to claim it. After about 20 minutes of trying, we both gave up – Kristy went home disappointed, and I gave her seat to some thankful Russian broad.

To be completely honest here, the presentation didn’t have as much impact (for me, anyway) as the movie. I’m not sure if that’s because I knew what was coming to an extent, but overall I felt like Big Al rushed through some of the slides which in the movie I felt had the most impact – especially those which showed the “before and after” shots of regions with disappearing ice/snow coverage.

Still, it was overall an excellent presentation – again – and you could feel the reaction from the room. Mr Gore was kind enough to take a Q&A after the session, during which someone asked the hotly debated question – “Will you be running for president again?”. He answered by saying that he hasn’t ruled out politics being in his future, but that he doesn’t see himself running again. Instead, he’d rather continue to educate people about the harms of global warming, so they can demand more action from their political leaders.

At the conclusion of the night, there was a book signing, so I shelled out my $19 in order for a chance to meet the man. But what do you say to someone that was once the vice-president of the United States? Well, I said, “Thanks for the presentation sir, and sorry that we didn’t sign the (Kyoto) protocol“. (Australia and the USA are the only developed nations that didn’t ratify the treaty). Big Al smiled and said, “That’s ok, we’ll get there”.