An Oscar award winning documentary on Global Warming featuring Al Gore, the former Vice-President of US during Bill Clinton's time is what this is about. Undoubtedly one of the best documentaries I have seen in the recent times. What makes this so interesting and compelling piece of work to watch is that it shatters so many myths and notions that you would have had about Global Warming and its long term affects.
Coming to the story of this documentary, it travels along the political and sociological conquest by Al Gore to address the problem of Global Warming and also explaining the major concepts and affects to a studio audience in front of a huge screen. As a student when his professor presented the first ever measurements of CO2 levels in the atmosphere and based on his predictions, Al Gore, states is what really compelled him to take upon this mission and this remained as one of his major issue during his entire political career spanning 3 decades. First as a senator and then as a member of the Clinton administration, Al Gore explains his battles fought in the court over the first ever case on Global Warming, then allegations on one of the chief member in Sr.Bush's regime and then also some on the Kyoto Protocol which he himself suggests is controversial in US....
What is equally interesting is the comparison he draws between the mother nature and his own son who was fatally injured in an accident while he was a senator. He terms it as a reaction when you see your beloved is fighting for their lives!....Also, he goes back and forth in his own life and talks about how his life in his childhood was...emphasizing that it is the responsibility of the current generation to make the future safe for our future generations. He uses his presentation on Global Warming to the best possible extent to explain several factors in the issue and the picture below is one among the slides.......
I want to talk about this slide and the elements shown; this infact has been my wall paper for sometime now...(a "safe" desktop wallpaper when at home, i suppose...hehehe!!)
What you see in the picture above is the direction of the principal ocean currents, where the red one indicates the warmer, lighter current and the blue one indicates the colder, heavier current. This basically explains that all the ocean currents are interconnected to each other....and the area right next to Europe where the warmer current becomes heavier and colder thus going back in direction...this inturn generates lot of heat which blows across Europe and keeps it warmer. But, as explained in the documentary, thousands of years ago, the whole of Canada was one huge landmass of ice which over a period of time melted and suddenly the water gushed into the Atlantic Ocean thus jeopardizing the whole conversion process. This created the five lakes on the US-Canada border and as a result of sudden injection of thousands of gallons of fresh water...the conversion of warmer current to colder one stopped, thus stopping the warmer air to blow over Europe....this had such massive implications that the whole of Europe went into an ice-age!!!
The modern day implication of this process is the process of another huge land mass of ice in the adjacent area of Greenland...and given the pace with which the ice is melting as a result of global warming, there is a possibility of triggering another ice-age in as less as 10 years time!!!...One possibility which the governments across the world shouldn't overlook while talking about this phenomenon....
Among other problems related to global warming is also that, it causes stronger storms and on the contrary, another major issue is the dislocation of precipitation; this is the reason why some areas across the world have been facing sever drought in the recent times...esp in North Africa, Darfur...while some other regions receiving excessive rainfall. There are other problems with migratory birds and the birth of caterpillars which are the food for the young birds....outbreak of new diseases and the resurface of problems which were minimized....and above all of this...the problem of migration under such circumstances....Are we ready for a huge wave of refugees??...That's one of the major issues right now, we can already see the implications of this thing about refugees in the ongoing Iraq war.
The documentary also stresses on stringent measures by the governments across the world to tackle the issue...for example...the Himalayan Glaciers are melting at a dangerous speed...and not in a distant future, 40% of the world population which gets water from these glaciers is in serious trouble. But, what's equally puzzling is the situation in which India is right now. The government says...this is all happening because somebody elsewhere in the world is contributing majorly to global warming and India and the adjacent countries are paying the price....true, very true!....Hope there is a solution for this problem soon....
I guess, there are enough reasons for everyone to watch this flick....even though it's a documentary, the style of narration is engrossing enough to keep you interested. It's a brilliant film from a scientific point of view, which I think should be shown in every school and college so that the students are aware of the danger of the present age because they as the future generation of the world would have to come terms with it....something which is even more threatening than Terrorism!.......
"Two Thumbs Up"....."Must watch Flick"....rent it/buy it/ copy it....ain't matter...if you miss this, you really are missing a masterpiece....[:)]
Coming to the story of this documentary, it travels along the political and sociological conquest by Al Gore to address the problem of Global Warming and also explaining the major concepts and affects to a studio audience in front of a huge screen. As a student when his professor presented the first ever measurements of CO2 levels in the atmosphere and based on his predictions, Al Gore, states is what really compelled him to take upon this mission and this remained as one of his major issue during his entire political career spanning 3 decades. First as a senator and then as a member of the Clinton administration, Al Gore explains his battles fought in the court over the first ever case on Global Warming, then allegations on one of the chief member in Sr.Bush's regime and then also some on the Kyoto Protocol which he himself suggests is controversial in US....
What is equally interesting is the comparison he draws between the mother nature and his own son who was fatally injured in an accident while he was a senator. He terms it as a reaction when you see your beloved is fighting for their lives!....Also, he goes back and forth in his own life and talks about how his life in his childhood was...emphasizing that it is the responsibility of the current generation to make the future safe for our future generations. He uses his presentation on Global Warming to the best possible extent to explain several factors in the issue and the picture below is one among the slides.......
I want to talk about this slide and the elements shown; this infact has been my wall paper for sometime now...(a "safe" desktop wallpaper when at home, i suppose...hehehe!!)
What you see in the picture above is the direction of the principal ocean currents, where the red one indicates the warmer, lighter current and the blue one indicates the colder, heavier current. This basically explains that all the ocean currents are interconnected to each other....and the area right next to Europe where the warmer current becomes heavier and colder thus going back in direction...this inturn generates lot of heat which blows across Europe and keeps it warmer. But, as explained in the documentary, thousands of years ago, the whole of Canada was one huge landmass of ice which over a period of time melted and suddenly the water gushed into the Atlantic Ocean thus jeopardizing the whole conversion process. This created the five lakes on the US-Canada border and as a result of sudden injection of thousands of gallons of fresh water...the conversion of warmer current to colder one stopped, thus stopping the warmer air to blow over Europe....this had such massive implications that the whole of Europe went into an ice-age!!!
The modern day implication of this process is the process of another huge land mass of ice in the adjacent area of Greenland...and given the pace with which the ice is melting as a result of global warming, there is a possibility of triggering another ice-age in as less as 10 years time!!!...One possibility which the governments across the world shouldn't overlook while talking about this phenomenon....
Among other problems related to global warming is also that, it causes stronger storms and on the contrary, another major issue is the dislocation of precipitation; this is the reason why some areas across the world have been facing sever drought in the recent times...esp in North Africa, Darfur...while some other regions receiving excessive rainfall. There are other problems with migratory birds and the birth of caterpillars which are the food for the young birds....outbreak of new diseases and the resurface of problems which were minimized....and above all of this...the problem of migration under such circumstances....Are we ready for a huge wave of refugees??...That's one of the major issues right now, we can already see the implications of this thing about refugees in the ongoing Iraq war.
The documentary also stresses on stringent measures by the governments across the world to tackle the issue...for example...the Himalayan Glaciers are melting at a dangerous speed...and not in a distant future, 40% of the world population which gets water from these glaciers is in serious trouble. But, what's equally puzzling is the situation in which India is right now. The government says...this is all happening because somebody elsewhere in the world is contributing majorly to global warming and India and the adjacent countries are paying the price....true, very true!....Hope there is a solution for this problem soon....
I guess, there are enough reasons for everyone to watch this flick....even though it's a documentary, the style of narration is engrossing enough to keep you interested. It's a brilliant film from a scientific point of view, which I think should be shown in every school and college so that the students are aware of the danger of the present age because they as the future generation of the world would have to come terms with it....something which is even more threatening than Terrorism!.......
"Two Thumbs Up"....."Must watch Flick"....rent it/buy it/ copy it....ain't matter...if you miss this, you really are missing a masterpiece....[:)]
1 comment:
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