Former vice president offers an impassioned plea for the planet

“An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It,” by Al Gore. Rodale (Emmaus, Pa., 2006). 325 pp., $21.95.

Reviewed by Mary Breslin

Catholic News Service

Among people of faith, heads are likely to nod in agreement with the title of Al Gore’s book -- “An Inconvenient Truth.” Often it’s easier to turn away than face the facts about pressing issues such as poverty, injustice, war and more.

Truth be told, the text is apt to make readers squirm, clear their throats, shift in their seats -- it’s as much “uncomfortable” as it is “inconvenient.”

Gore is nothing short of blunt in the introduction, where he writes: “Not only does human-caused global warming exist, but it is growing ... at a pace that has now made it a planetary emergency.”

Calling the subject matter -- essentially global warming caused by excesses of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases -- a “moral issue,” the former U.S. vice president asserts that the world community has moved from denial to despair where the problem is concerned.

In the 300-plus pages in paperback that first hit bookstore and library shelves in 2006, Gore’s presentation is graphically dramatic; he wraps together impressive four-color photography, informative graphs and easy-to-read charts with hypotheses offered by experts from academia such as John Mercer, Roger Revelle and Lonnie Thompson. Gore holds the reader’s attention by weaving in family vignettes that add human emotion and support to the otherwise textbook-style writing.

Alarming before-and-after photos, such as the drastic changes in glaciers over the past 50 years, are compelling. And captions in oversized fonts give the reader pause. For example, a photo of the havoc in New Orleans taken in the August 2005 aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is matched with the following statement: A major study at MIT in July 2005 “supported scientific consensus that global warming is making hurricanes more powerful and more destructive.” Another, a double-spread photo of a refuse dump in Mexico City, is accompanied by the simple sentence: “We are witnessing an unprecedented and massive collision between our civilization and the earth.”

Global warming is a searing subject, making filmmakers, scientists and senators alike sit up and take notice. Undeniable facts, such as the 35,000 killed a few years ago in a European heat wave along with the documented steady rise in global temperatures since 1860, are cause for a meltdown among those who would refute Gore’s claims.

Though this may not appear on any professor’s list of required classroom reading, it might well be recommended for students from advanced junior high through university level studies and certainly the general adult reading population.

It should be noted that readers might be justifiably disappointed that the Tennessee native regularly injects partisan politics and takes frequent jabs at the present administration, placing blame and responsibility squarely on the shoulders of legislators who sit on the aisle opposite his party of choice.

Nevertheless, the message outweighs the distraction of political affiliation. And if you’re a “believer” and ultimately swayed by the author’s assertions, he has saved the best for last. The final 15 pages at the conclusion of the text are a composite of individual and collective action responses to the thickening of the atmosphere that has trapped infrared radiation from the sun, adversely affecting air, land and water.