an inconvenient truth

sat through Al Gore’s lecture on global warming the other night with my sister and Xun. it’s a pretty good & sincere production, comprehensively informative & persuasive – leaving no stones unturned on trying to convince the audience of the disastrous effects of global warming; albeit one “cheesy” reason of him pursuing this cause because he nearly lost his son.

there were not just breath-taking scenes of glaciers splitting into two, alarming projections of the cities that would be drowned if Greenland & the Artic were to melt; there were also quite a number of memorable quotes that left her with mind with much to chew on. even the title…

The documentary started with the premise that people choose to be blind to the effects of global warming because “the moral imperative to make big changes is inescapable” – hence (I believe) the title “an inconvenient truth”.

I like Gore’s association between the truth and a moral imperative. Honestly the problem with mankind today, is the unbelievable ability to divorce truth and moral action. If everyone acted on the truths that stared so starkly in our faces, maybe we will not have slavery, or oppression, or discrimination, or people dying of obesity in one corner of the earth and malnutrition on the other, or global warming at least. If only people saw the need to act, and not remove the self when confronted with inconvenient truths. If only they would say “I need to and can do something…”

paradoxically, it is precisely the clear understanding of the moral imperative of Christianity that causes people to reject Jesus. When inconvenienced with the truth that I am not a good person but a sinner and have to bear God’s wrath. That me a sinner cannot save myself, but have to depend on Another to die for my sake. And I have to believe in Him to be saved. “I know where this is going, but I don’t want to believe…”

I like another quote toward the end of the show.
“it is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon him not understanding it” Upton Sinclair

Truths are inconvenient- if they aren’t they won’t be truths. So the question is, if something is true, will you act on it? Does the truth matter to you?



perhaps my little bit for global warming for now, check out http://www.climatecrisis.net/ or watch the film.