An Inconvenient Truth
The Planetary Emergence of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It
by Al Gore, copyright 2006


(Click for Amazon book review)

BOOK REVIEW by OnTheIssues.org:

This is one of the most important political books of the year, even if Al Gore does not end up running for President again. It's important mostly because it was made into an Oscar-winning movie (a documentary, which normally would not be seen by many people, ended up being seen by millions).

The book is pretty much the same as the movie -- they're both presentations of a PowerPoint slide show that Gore had been showing around the country for several years. It's hard to imagine a duller concept than a movie ABOUT a PowerPoint slide show, but, well, it seems to have worked. A book about a PowerPoint slide show is not as bad a concept as a movie about it, since you can put in splendid photographs. The book, accordingly, is on extra-large size extra-shiny paper -- excellent for coffeetables, but also with enough text for some serious content.

And the content is what Al Gore is all about these days. He claims he's not running for President (despite consistently coming in 3rd or 4th in the polls for the Democratic primary) so that he can focus on spreading the warning about global warming. His slide show is pretty smooth after several years of working on it, and the book is even smoother. So even if you're not a fan of global warming politically, you'd benefit by reading this book, because it lays out the arguments cleanly.

-- Jesse Gordon, jesse@OnTheIssues.org, May 2007

OnTheIssues.org excerpts:  (click on issues for details)

Corporations     Commerce wounds nature that can no longer heal itself.

Energy & Oil     Skeptics point to historical warming--but today is hotter.     Ocean warming causes stronger hurricanes, like Katrina.     Global warming causes more floods & also more droughts.     Supported ethanol in 1970s & cellulosic ethanol now.     Arctic ice is melting & may disrupt global weather patterns.     Carbon exchange market can cap-and-trade CO2 like we did SO2.     Consensus on global warming, but newspapers fabricate doubt.     Current tech can reduce CO2 emissions to 1970 levels.     Dealing with global warming inconvenient for rich & powerful.     We solved ozone crisis; can solve CO2 crisis by same methods.     Steadily increase energy from clean, renewable sources.

Environment     Humans can impact earth’s ecology; especially the atmosphere.     To let earth continue warming would be deeply immoral.     Use market capitalism as ally of environmentalism.

Foreign Policy     Drought from global warming set stage for Darfur genocide.

Homeland Security     Real danger to WTC is not terrorism, but rising sea levels.

Principles & Values     Son’s serious accident spurred interest in environment.

Technology     Tech makes us a force of nature; obligation to use wisely.     Internet restores press integrity lost by 1-way TV dominance.

Click for quotations from other sources by: Al Gore Jim Douglas