[Movie Review] An Inconvenient Sequel : Truth To Power
One thing about documentaries is that they will either show you the reality or they will manipulate your thoughts and make you believe that these things are really happening. Some information can be very misleading yet they will present it to you in a way that they are something to believe in and that they came from very reliable sources. This, however, is not the case for The Inconvenient Sequel : Truth To Power. It is the sequel to the 2006 Award winning and critically acclaimed documentary “The Inconvenient Truth” which featured the former US Vice President who is now a devoted environmentalist Al Gore.
The Inconvenient Truth is a documentary that tackles about the climate change, the global warming and all the possible risks that this global phenomena can cause in the future. Some were telling that these are just exaggerated speculations with less scientific basis yet the world has experienced a series of drastic changes over the years turning this global phenomenon into a major catastrophe. The Inconvenient Sequel follows the journey of Al Gore and his seemingly endless battle against the climate change. The film will focus more on the events that occurred ten years after the first film. It gathers evidences on how much the world has changed for over a decade and how Al Gore, his advocacy through his Climate Reality Project, and his entire team exerted efforts in full extent just to raise the awareness about the global warming and its alarming effects to our environment. It also shows their struggles and the challenges they faced to promote and purse their project due to some political conflicts especially prior to the Paris Climate Agreement in 2016.
The film will greet you with some alarming footage of the melting glaciers and how much they changed over the years in such a quick period of time. Al Gore has devoted himself into this project despite of many struggles he encountered along the way yet the movie will show us how far they have come in this battle and how their efforts paid off as actions are starting to take place to resolve this global environmental problem.
Photo Credit : United International Pictures
A Global Catastrophe Is Happening!
The Earth is changing and that’s a fact! We do not need any visual presentations or any scientific explanation just to convince us that something is not right. The nature itself is giving us the hint! The film will emphasize all the notable natural calamities that shocked the world including the devastating Typhoon Haiyan or better known as the Typhoon Yolanda which struck the Philippines in year 2013 and killed over 6300 people. Al Gore also highlighted some events including the worsening flooding cases in Miami and other catastrophic events worldwide. It was also intriguing on how he managed to link the Syria Civil war on climate change as well as how much these changes can worsen an epidemic condition. The film also highlighted the devastation caused by Hurican Sandy in 2012 which flooded the World Trade Center. Interestingly, this was predicted by Al Gore in the first documentary.
Politics And the Struggle of Developing Countries
One thing I have learned about this movie is how politics can greatly interfere with this meaningful campaign. Al Gore will showed us how challenging it is to pursue such advocacy especially if there are conflict of interest much like what happened to India and the role of their leaders in the Paris Climate Agreement. Al Gore spoke to the country’s leader to encouraged them to make use of renewable energy as an alternative to coal which badly affects the environment. However, as a developing country, coal is the most affordable source of energy. But with continuous effort, India has reached a new milestone and now houses one of the world’s largest solar power plant!
Renewable Energy
One of the main purpose of Al Gore and his Climate Reality Project is to promote the advantage of renewable energy and to encourage everyone to make a switch. Renewable Energy or also known as Green Energy are energy that comes from natural sources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, plants, algae and geothermal heat. These energy resources are renewable, meaning they’re naturally replenished. He greatly encourage houses to make use of solar panels as an alternative source of energy. He even highlighted those towns and cities that are now using 100% of renewable energy including Georgetown , Texas and more.
Photo Credit : United International Pictures
A Peace Of Hope
Despite of all the challenges, everything paid off! The Paris Agreement was a huge milestone for their battle. In this treaty, each country determines, plans and regularly reports its own contribution it should make in order to mitigate global warming. Climate Change is a global phenomenon that is often being ignored or doesn’t receive much emphasis from the government so this agreement was a big step towards a great success of Al Gore’s climate change campaign. Al Gore gave us a peace of hope that this battle will soon come to an end and will eventually unite all nations with one mission and that is to save the planet from such terrifying condition for the sake of our future generations.
The Agenda
Like the first documentary, some people might be skeptical about the real purpose of this film. Is it something related to politics? An agenda? A Propaganda? The film might have tackled much about politics and its role on solving this global environmental issue but everything you will witness from this movie is something to ponder on. At the end of the movie, Donald Trump was highlighted. He recently announced his withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. It means that Gore and his team will have to start the battle once more. Gore, however, is no longer alone in this battle because most of his Climate Reality trainees are now leaders who help him spread the awareness of global warming all over the world.
From L to R : Rodne Galicha, Atom Araulio, Yeb Daño, Fr Edu Gariguez, John Leonard Chan and Volataire Tupaz
The Philippine stand on Global Warming
After the premier screening of the Inconvenient Sequel, a quick panel session was held. Senator Loren Legarda, Senator Risa Hontiveros and other media personalities were present in the discussion about climate change and the climate change project in the country. Panelists includes news reporter Atom Araulio (ABS-CBN), Naderev ‘Yeb’ Saño (Greenpeace Philippines), Fr Edu Gariguez (Caritas Philippines), Rodne Galicha (Climate Reality Project Country manager), John Leonard Chan (Climate Reality Leader) and Voltaire Tupaz(MovePH). They have tackled the things that are government and other organizations are doing with regards to the climate change and global warming. They have mentioned too the plans of including climate change in one of the school’s curriculum to educate the students about this matter. A brief yet meaningful message from Al Gore himself was shown prior to the panel discussion.
An Inconvenient Sequel Truth To Power will be shown exclusively in selected Ayala Malls Cinemas (Trinoma and Glorietta 4) starting August 30! You can also request for block screening to your province by contacting Climate Reality Project Philippines via email at philippines@climatereality.com
Seems like it has dealt with a powerful topic. Definitely hard to ignore.
We need more environmental related movies like this. I am eagerly looking forward to its release here.
I wish more people were on board to make the necessary changes to help slow down the process of global warming… If we don’t have earth we don’t have life, so it’s a HUGE problem that needs to be addressed stat! I love that this documentary is out there and that it DOES show alarming footage to shock and scare us to make a change. This should be shown to ALL ages, start them young so they can do better for the future. Let there be more nature instead of condos, hotels, malls, and other developments! (people are being greedy with the land)
LOVE this post ; )
This should be a fun and interesting movie to watch then. Because you said that it tackled about renewable energy sources yeah? You see, there are already companies in america who are all about renewable energy but are being closed down by the bigger oil companies. I heard about it in Adam Ruins Everything and a documentary as well.. Just can’t remember the name though. hahaha!
Better rush to the cinemas then to get fully informed :p
I think it’s time for us to join this kind of topic. We can preserve the nature by doing something today. News reporter Atom Araulio really into global warming which he has a very good insight about this topic.
Thanks for complimenting my country India in this article. It is unfortunate that the US has walked out of Paris Climate Treaty because that country considers its national development more important that Climate goals.
Climate change is truly happening… And at a faster rate than desirable. More people need to be informed and educated about this and its harmful effects. I have friends who are very active in this advocacy. That includes Yeb and AG Sano. I hope more politicians would listen and be responsible.
A documentary movie like this one that tackles about the climate change, the global warming and all the possible risks that can possibly happen anytime soon will surely help us understand that we should as well be ready and take good care of our mother earth. I love this movie cause it brings awareness to us about global warming. I always love watching a documentary movie and I should really find time to watch this one. Thank you so much for sharing this with us.
Documentaries are eye-opener. I like watching them but there’s also a point that I skipped them because I feel bad with the situation featured on that program. It raises awareness to all people who can watch it. I always make it a point to introduce some documentary whenever I have new lessons in class.
I like watching documentaries especially those that tackle social issues like politics, environment and poverty. I think at the end, our role as citizens and as moviegoers is not just to enjoy the movie but to learn something from it. Climate change is a pressing issue and the only way to at least alleviate its future effects is to start working in our own homes.
My favorite quote is When the power pf pover overcomes the love of power, then we will know peace. We should let go of greed too because more often than not, it’s the greatest hindrance to development be it in a country or just one’s self.
I’ve watched An Inconvenient Truth and back then it was already disturbing. No wonder we have all the these movies and books on apocalypses. With the way human kind is going trash and waste will outlive us!