An optimistic sequel for our partisan and troubled times
An Inconvenient Sequel (PG, 98 mins), Directed by Bonni Cohen,
Of course this is a partisan review.
I am an ardent believer that mankind is actively interfering with, and altering, the Earth’s climate. I believe this because it is true.
It was Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, back in 2006, that tipped me over the edge from being someone who watched and read about other people’s actions to change the above situation, to being someone who decided to get involved.
We live in partisan times. Especially in the US, where I have been living for most of the last 18 months, where even something as basic to society’s functioning as belief in science has become politicised.
So it makes sense that An Inconvenient Sequel is a film about politics as much as it is a film about the science of climate change. The science is in and the evidence is all around us. Climate change is real and mankind is exacerbating it. To disbelieve that is to be wilfully delusional. But, wilful delusion is not in short supply in 2017. That I’m writing this in a country under the stewardship of a proven serial liar kind of proves that I reckon.
An Inconvenient Sequel is structured around Gore’s own presentation to rooms full of people training to be ‘‘climate ambassadors’’. Interwoven with the onstage presentation is film – of sites around the world where the effects of climate change are most dramatically visible.
Running through the film are visits to the Paris Climate Conference – the one that produced the Paris Accord – and the ongoing debate with the Indian delegation and their stated intention to build 400 new coalburning power stations.
The Indian argument – that the West have had 150 years of cheap energy production via coal and oil to enrich themselves, so it’s a bit rich for them to now tell developing nations they can’t do the same – is valid and treated with respect. The solution – partly brokered by Gore – is ingenious and a cause for real optimism.
And this is an optimistic film, even as it covers Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Accord. Gore’s final speech, appropriately lifting Martin Luther King/ Theodore Parker’s gorgeous, ‘‘the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice’’ line, is a clarion call for hope and for action.
Yes, I loved this film. But these are partisan times. My fervent hope is that you will go and see it before you pick a side. And perhaps that when you vote this year you might spare a thought for the future of this planet we all share. – Graeme Tuckett