So, let's talk green: An inconvenient truth that changed lives, and the planet
September 2006 was a defining moment in the lives of fifty individuals as they attended the first climate change training programme that former US Vice President and Nobel laureate Al Gore conducted on the Gore farm. Many of those who attended the session were originally inspired to do so because they had seen the film, ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, that was released in June of 2006. This year is the 10th anniversary of the film, and it is a good time to pause and look at how the film changed the outlook of the world forever.
Premiering at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and opening in New York City and Los Angeles on May 24, 2006, the documentary was a critical and box-office success, winning two Academy Awards. The idea to document the efforts of Al Gore came from producer Laurie David who was so inspired by Gore's slide show that she met with director Davis Guggenheim to adapt the presentation into a film. Laurie David assembled a team, including producer Lawrence Bender and former president of eBay, Jeffrey Skoll, who met with Gore about the possibility of making the slide show into a movie. It took some convincing. The slide show, she says, "was his baby, and he felt proprietary about it and it was hard for him to let go." David said the box office returns weren't important to her. "None of us are going to make a dime." What is at stake, she says, "is, you know, the planet.’’
Since the film's release, An Inconvenient Truth has been by far the largest singular factor that helped raise international public awareness about global warming, while re-energizing the environmental movement, which was losing its breath. The film eventually translated the awareness that it created on climate change into action, where thousands of climate leaders across the world have been evangelizing, lobbying, and pressurizing their government representatives to make policy changes. All this, along with efforts put in by thousands of NGOs, civil society groups, bureaucrats, concerned citizens, and leaders of countries, ultimately culminated in the historic climate change pact signed by 195 countries in Paris last year, where they committed to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, the prime reason for extreme climate events that the world is enduring every day.
With the film, the message was clear, that we need to stop burning fossil fuels. The need to come up with renewable energy alternatives became an urgent imperative. The world realized that we get enough sunlight every day to power the planet for the whole year, advancements in solar grew exponentially. While the projection in 2002 was that solar will grow by 1 GW per year by 2010, in reality it grew by 17X, and by 2015 it grew by 48X. Increased spends in R&D has resulted in Futurism.com reporting last week that Dr. Mark Keevers and Prof.
Martin Green at the University of South Wales achieved a record breaking sunlight to electricity conversion efficiency of 34.5% with a new solar configuration, as opposed to present levels of just 24%, marking a breakthrough for the future.
For me, personally, watching Al Gore train us in New Delhi for a day and a half, while he had an army of PhDs who could have done it, said a lot about his passion and dedication to the cause. Recently in Manila, I got to spend an hour with him, where I experienced firsthand, at close quarters his warmth, sincerity and down-to-earth demeanor. I know that like me, the lives of thousands of individuals around the world have been impacted by ‘An Inconvenient Truth’. On its tenth anniversary, let’s hope that thousands more will be motivated to take up the work of protecting the only place we all have to live – planet earth -- and change their lives forever.
