Savings & Loans held a screening of An Inconvenient Truth last night for our Adelaide-based staff, and I was really impressed with the level of interest the film created.
I’m sure that you would’ve heard about the film, which has generated lots of talk about global warming and the possible future we face. Some of the predictions Al Gore makes in the film are quite shocking, like the prospect that huge ice sheets in Greenland or Antarctica could collapse and raise sea levels by around six metres.
In fact, some of the predictions are so shocking that scientists were called in to comment on the accuracy of the film. While there were a couple of minor mistakes, the basic science behind it wasn’t really debated: the planet is getting warmer and humans are to blame.
One of the really good things the movie has done is made people realise environmental matters can have a massive impact on our lives. As I’ve said before, awareness is a great start, but moving forward requires real action. It’s a little bit disheartening to read that even though awareness of environmental issues is increasing, harmful emissions are too.
Having a few hundred people seeing the film can make a small difference by itself: everyone who sees it can change their behaviour and become more energy efficient. The real change comes from talking to friends. Hearing about a distant figure talking about climate change is one thing, but hearing the same information from friends can sometimes have even more of an impact.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a little overwhelmed by the potential effects of climate change. It’s not just a matter of summers getting hotter and rains being less predictable; the delicate balance of nature could be significantly and dangerously thrown out. I urge you all to try to learn a bit more about the issue and what we can do.
Something else you might want to do to find out what kind of impact you have on the planet is to head to the Victorian EPA’s Ecological Footprint calculator.
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