An Inconvenient Truth

SOURCE; http://www.jeremylatham.com/images/an-inconvenient-truth.jpg


Many of you may have seen the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” by the former presidential candidate Al Gore. This documentary on global warming, its consequences for the planet in general and for human and animal life in particular won the Oscar for best documentary this year. I had the opportunity to see this film in the US on the campus of an engineering University – the Colorado School of Mines. This impressive climate lecture by Al Gore was followed by a panel discussion with several professors of the above University.
Before going into further detail concerning the discussion and film in itself I want to describe my first impressions when arriving in the lecture hall where the movie was shown with the help of a projector.
What struck me first was the crowd waiting to enter the lecture hall. Environmentalism seems to be a big issue in the US right now and students want to take part in the discussion. Another, less important, matter I realized immediately was the unfashionable way in which students, both men and women, were dressed. Actually, Harald’s brother had warned us on our way there that engineering students were not the most fashionable species (I know that this word is rather used to describe species of animals etc.). Still, I was amazed on how homey people dressed and seemed to feel good sitting in a lecture hall on a Tuesday night wearing sport pants and trainers (not the Addidas kind but rather the running version). Then, there was the ratio of men to women sitting there waiting for the government representative to end his speech and the show to begin. Unlike my expectations there were a quite astonishing number of women in the audience. However, I was told that this audience was not at all representative for the general men to women ration at the School of Mines (as to get some more girls into the bars of Golden, CO there are Ladies Nights were women can drink as much as they want for free… it isn’t that expensive for men neither, a pitcher(2L) costs about 3$ - if you want to know more about beer measures click here). Later, in the discussion I noticed that more women expressed themselves, asked questions or presented their theories than men did. Once more, Ulrich (Harald’s brother) confirmed that female students were generally more motivated and active in the courses he had attended in the US.
Anyway, I don’t want to summarize the plot of the film in this blog, however, I want to recommend everyone out there to go to your DVD-rental and watch this film at least once. Al Gore’s skilful presentation contains a lot of scientific information which is without controversy accepted by scientists around the world. Only the media and some politicians try to spread incertitude amongst the people.
The discussion on environmentalism and on what was to do to prevent the worst from happening (floods, more tornados, hurricanes, droughts etc.) turned out to be very interesting. Students were well aware of the fact that something had to be done, and that as engineers they had the possibility and responsibility to push this development. However, there was disunity on what to do. Generally speaking, ideas like carbon-trading systems or the development of biofuel engines were well accepted. Scepticisms on whether higher oil prices would result in fewer SUVs and increase the number of “clean cars” was all the while present. One student explained that in the past during oil crisis, when the prices for fuel were exorbitantly high for that time, people did consume less, however, this decrease in demand resulted in a surplus of supply provoking, following the rules of the free market, falling prices which in turn increased the demand again. To sum his point up, he said that if prices for fuel enhanced the demand for alternative fuels prices would fall and Americans might be tempted to start the engine of their good old SUVs and pick-up trucks again. To this point, nobody in the audience or on the podium had even thought about introducing taxes to regulate or enforce efforts concerning the emission of greenhouse gasses. It was, if I remember correctly, a girl from the Netherlands intervening in the discussion who finally described how the problem was dealt with in many parts of Europe. She pointed out that tax relief for companies making big efforts or even for a private person doing its best to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, could help to integrate the economy into an environmental program. Subsidies on “zero energy buildings”, on clean cars or on the development of new technologies concerning renewable energy could help our world and the human race to live in stable climatic conditions for a few more years.
Well, I think this is a hell lot of information I handed on to my readers and I hope that some of you will watch An Inconvenient Truth or read a book or two on the topic.

Comic Strip on Global Warming:
CLICK HERE