Blog 2

Al Gore (and the IPCC) won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 (BBC 2007) largely for the production of the film 'An Inconvenient Truth'
The committee cited "their efforts to build up and disseminate knowledge about man-made climate change".

To what extent do you think this was deserved? Having watched this film in class did you feel that your opinion (or perhaps the opinion of others) to the issue of climate change could be positively influenced? What did you think of this film? Was it effective?



Through media sources, I have been well-informed about Al Gore's and the IPCC’s efforts to educate the international public with vital facts and statistics about the biggest threat that we, as a planet, face today. The film has made people across the world recognise the severe urgency that is required for the world to make even just a small change to global warming; it has also informed the world of the concerning links between mankind and climate change.

At first, hearing about how the film was laid out with the “PowerPoint presentation” theme, I was sceptical and thought that I would not find the film very interesting or as powerful as I did. The statistics were very fascinating and made me realise how potentially serious that climate change could be. It was useful to contain much historic data, this definitely helps show the audience that this pattern of climate change and of course, the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have never been seen before. In contrast to this, the diagrams, animations and clips proved to be a very welcome “breather” from viewing charts, graphs and figures. Seeing how our emissions are affecting the atmosphere and the subsequent impact of that on the ice sheets, wildlife and the oceans was very effective for the spectators, these send the audience into an imaginative trance that allows them to perceive what they think the earth would be like if these things happened in real life.

After watching the film, I had many thoughts and perceptions about what might happen and what could be done to prevent or at least slow this catastrophic outlook. Unfortunately to me, it looks like there is very little that mankind can do to stop this disaster in waiting, all we can do is learn how to cope with the changing world and see how the global community and environment can evolve sustainably without excessively polluting our planet and speeding up global warming. I believe that Al Gore and the IPCC have made an impressive effort to educate and alert the world to this new phase in our history, therefore I feel that the Nobel Peace Prize awarded was given deservingly.

What actions could you (in theory) undertake that would improve the 'sustainability' of your lifestyle? What might be preventing you from doing these?

In order to improve the sustainability of my lifestyle the first thing I would look at is what I buy, particularly food shopping, I could look at the quantities of the products I am buying and their sources. I would aim to buy just the right amount of food shopping to avoid wasting food and unnecessarily draining resources and impacting on the environment. I would also consider the geographical source of the products and consider buying fair trade if the option was available, as fair trade is considered as the best way of keeping things equal between the consumer and the producer. I may be prevented from doing these things by a number of factors, the main one being cost, although I would be saving money by cutting back on the quantities of the products I buy, I will almost definitely be increasing the amount I spend by purchasing higher priced fair trade goods.

Secondly, I would look at the way I travel. There are many ways to travel nowadays that reduce carbon emissions, road accidents, environmental damage and cost. I would consider walking or cycling when possible and using trains or buses for longer journeys. The main reasons that would prevent me from changing my travel habits would be time and comfort. Most people prefer to travel by car as opposed to walking or cycling due to the time consumption, you may have to walk for an hour to cover the same distance that you could in a car in 10 minutes. Comfort and hygiene are big factors in peoples decisions to use public transport, for example, you could be on a bus for half an hour standing up and being coughed and sneezed on, this prevents a lot of people from using public transport.

There are many ways that I can improve the sustainability of my lifestyle but it would take some time to sit down and work out the pros and cons to decide which ones would be the most rewarding to me and to the environment.