an inconvenient truth

The trailer for Al Gore’s new film on global warming, “An Inconvenient Truth,” is now available online. (Thanks to Think Progress for the link.)

I don’t think that I’ve ever mentioned it here before, but the first time I heard about global warming was in 1987, when I was living in Washington, DC. I can’t remember the specifics as to who was speaking, but I attended a debate on the issue. I think that one side was represented by a scientist and the other side was represented by a a lobbyist-type. (Can you guess which side of the issue each was on?) I can distinctly remember the fellow representing the administration/industry, after saying that there was absolutely no evidence of global warming for almost an hour, making the claim that, even if it were true, we shouldn’t worry, because we’ll just “develop better air conditioning technology.” I was young and stupid at the time, but I can still remember thinking, “That’s the most amazingly asinine thing that I’d ever heard.” (A good portion of the audience just nodded their heads in agreement, not considering the ramifications in terms of agriculture and rising tides.) It’s amazing to me that it’s taken us 20 years to move the conversation from that point the very short distance to where it is today. Hopefully, it won’t take another 20 before we take some kind of meaningful, substantive action. By then it will be 20 years too late. (But, then again, global warming may have stopped in 1998… and great strides have been made in air conditioning technology.)