An Inconvenient Truth-The Book- HIGHLY Recommended

[RestoreGore]

And no, I'm not just stating that because I am biased ;-), I am stating it as fact. It only took me a day and a half ro read it, and I can definitely state from reading this book that it is not Al Gore selling himself to run for political office again. It is Al Gore setting the past right, setting people straight regarding misconceptions, and tying it all together to show people that the mistakes of the past and the unheeded warnings cannot and must not be repeated. He wrote this book for his children and grandchildren, and all of our children. His urgency on this issue shines through, and there is absolutely no doubt in my mind now that this man was destined to lead on this issue at this time. Almost losing his son, losing his sister, and living the life he has in the beltway taught him a very important lesson about priorities.

I can in a way corrolate events in my own life in the past decade regarding my own health, losing loved ones, and other personal events to fully understand what he is talking about in being given a second chance. Once you go through a life changing experience, you suddenly must make a decision. Do you go on as usual, or do you take that experience and learn from it and reassess your priorities? That is the question and inspiration behind this book. I thought Earth In The Balance was his soul on paper, but this book goes far beyond that excellent book. It tells us that before we can see into the soul of our planet to heed the warnings, we must first look into our own souls.

He interweaves pictures and experiences from his life with explaining very easily for the layperson to understand the repercussions of our actions regarding our treatment of this planet, and the concerted effort of special interests to keep that truth from getting out about this as the tobacco industry did all in its power to keep the truth about the dangers of smoking from the public. Having lost both of my parents to cancer because of their smoking habit, I could thoroughly empathize with his heartwrenching description of the relationship he had with his sister. How he manages to tie this all together with the information regarding the climate crisis and bring it across so effectively is very compelling to the reader.

The pictures included in the book are the same as those he uses in his slide show (and for a paperback they are a good size and the graphs are easy to understand) and show CO2 concentrations related to temperature, population, invasive species, permafrost melt, carbon emissions, etc. The pictures of his family are very well placed and necessary, and his explanation regarding the politicization of the environment and the lack of real action on it (and the actions reversed by the current administration) through all his years of trying to bring it forward makes a grassroots movement all the more necessary now.

I was actually drawn to tears in reading the dedication this man has to warning people about this crisis. As someone who has also thought about this practically everyday of my life since I was a young girl, while I am filled with trepidation for the future I am also filled with hope because people like Al Gore have decided to take it upon themselves to continue to be the missives alerting us to what we must now do to bequeath a better world to our children.

I feel by reading this book that we are on the edge of something very cathartic, and how we now choose to prioritize it will decide our fate. And at the end of the book he does write about different ways we can all become part of the solution from cutting our emissions in our home, our office, and in our daily lives. And that is actually crucial to this mission being a success. And there is only thing I wanted to add that wasn't included in that section:
http://www.arborday.org/
Plant trees!

That is a great way to make your life http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/carboncalculator/
carbon neutral while also contributing to the life of our planet.

I also wrote an inscription in this book and handed it over to my son to read and keep. "To my beloved son: You are the future, and so this book goes to you to guide you on your journey, as do I. Let it inspire you and give you hope." I am also going to instill in him that this must be a mission of his in his life as well as mine as he grows older... for him and his children. Only through our children can we now ensure that our planet will be saved. Thank you Mr. Gore for inspiring me and filling me with a hope I had not had for many years regarding our Earth. Let us hope it is contagious enough to once again pull our planet from the brink of disaster.

http://www.read-the-truth.com/home/?cm_mmc=Google-_-Al%20gore-_-NA-_-al%20gore
Read The Truth

Also, all of Mr. Gore's profits from the book and movie are going here:

http://www.allianceforclimateprotection.org/
Alliance for Climate Protection

[Jim__]

1. Did you see the movie?

Having seen the movie, I've been a bit hestiant about buying the book, thinking it will mostly be a rehash.

[RestoreGore]

2. Saw it twice

The book compliments the movie, but his writings in the book are different from what you experience in the movie. He goes into more personal depth about his life at it relates to his advocacy for this crisis and the political stalling on this issue, as well as the barriers to the truth. For me, it was worth buying for the illustrations and charts alone which are very educational, and I wanted my son to have a copy to read and keep.

[Lisa]

3. there's a lot more stuff in the book ...

... which just wouldn't fit into the movie because of time constraints. Also they were able to add last-minute updates. For example, there's a discussion of the ocean acidification problem, which is fascinating but which would have added another quarter-hour to the film (so I can see why they didn't include it).