An Inconvenient Truth

Gore notes that some of the dramatic changes taking place include melting glaciers. In places like Kilimanjaro, Glacier National Park, Columbia Glacier in Alaska, the Andes mountains of Peru, Upsala Glacier in Argentina, the Swiss Alps, and the Himalayas, the differences over time are stark. And yet, he tells readers that “[e]verywhere in the world the story is the same” (52). He explains how Scientist Lonnie Thompson takes glacier samples to examine levels of carbon dioxide inside them. This helps them determine how much CO2 was in the atmosphere in the past. The data they have gathered shows the world has seen large temperature increases in the last five decades.

In a personal reflection titled “A Turning Point,” readers learn about an event that changes Gore’s perspective on the world. His 6-year-old son had an accident. Though the boy recovered, the experience changed Gore’s priorities and forced him to question his commitment to public service. He believes, he says, that he was given not just a second chance to help safeguard the things that really matter, “but an obligation to pay attention to what matters and to do [his] part to protect and safeguard it” (71).

Another effect of climate change is increasing temperature. Gore notes that “[t]he hottest year recorded during this entire period was 2005,” (73), bringing attention to the year just before the book was written. Here, Gore looks at heat waves and record-breaking highs in different parts of the world, including the oceans. Warming oceans mean stronger storms, says Gore. Scientists believe that global warming leads to increased frequency and intensity of hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones, and tornadoes–up to 50%, according to a 2005 MIT study: “As water temperatures go up, wind velocity goes up, and so does storm moisture condensation” (89).

Gore then focuses on specific storms, starting with Katrina in Florida, where “the consequences were horrendous” (95). Gore chooses to highlight the effect on the insurance industry, pointing out that insurance companies have had to pay more to victims because of damage done by extreme weather. Katrina alone, he said, cost $60 billion in insured losses. Knowing what could be at stake, risk management firms must consider global warming in their calculations for the health of their businesses.

In the following pages, the book looks at more storms–all twenty-seven from the 2005 hurricane season. In 2005, in Europe and Asia, flooding increased to unmanageable levels as well. He quotes United Press International as reporting, “Nature is going crazy in Europe” (107). At the same time, parts of China also experienced drought, a phenomenon caused not just by increased precipitation but relocated precipitation, which is also brought about by global warming. Globally, Gore asserts, the amount of precipitation has increased in the last century by almost 20%. He inserts a case study here: the disappearance of Lake Chad. The world’s formerly largest lake, as it withers, has wreaked havoc among the people who live on its edges. Violence, famine, and genocide have put many at risk.

Desertification is covered here, and is another result of global warming. Paradoxically, as global warming sucks moisture out of the soil, it produces more evaporation from the ocean. This affects broad swaths of growing regions in the US, leading to more fires and less production.

Gore ends this section with another personal reflection, called “Concrete and Countryside.” Here, he considers the dichotomy he experienced living on a farm in Tennessee four months a year, and residing in a small Washington, D.C. apartment the rest of the time. This allowed him to understand the duty of caring for the land. Being deprived of nature at the end of summer also “allowed [him] to know it by its absence and to better appreciate its incomparable grace” (125).