r v l . c o m

After putting off seeing this film untill I could pirate a DVD quality version, I’ve finally watched it - on this last day of 2006. Very interesting movie - but frustrating at the same time.

Firstly, how much does it make you want to rush our and buy a Mac laptop? A lot. I actually paused the movie half way through to go online and check prices.

Secondly, how fantastic is that presentation software he is using? I am so over PowerPoint - it is slow and the effects and transitions are so 1997. Microsoft - pull your finger out!! Unfortunately most conference venues only offer PowerPoint, so even if there was a better alternative already out there, I’m stuck with craptastic PPT files for the time being. I try to include video in my presentations these days, at least there I have more control over things - for my slides in Arizona later next month I have a rotating and zooming 3-d graph of 700 tumours in multi-dimensional gene-space. Tres cool.

But back to the movie…

Usually I don’t like listening to someone ‘dumbing down’ complicated science into a format that is palatable to the average person. I know that when I do this myself, in giving presentations, writing articles or just talking to friends, it is easy to emphasize and de-emphasize which ever parts of the full story best support your own personal bias or hypothesis. Unfortunately it is not the devil that is in the details, its the truth itself and for this reason, science presented in this HD-widescreen-glossy-spinning-icons style, should be treated with a little more skepticism than usual.

However I think Mr. Gore does an admirable job of taking a lot of complicated, multi-layered, but quite ‘dry’ geological data and making a compelling story of it. Most of the facts he presents were nothing new to me - I have been told about these trends and observations from high-school biology through to university level. Whilst some of the exact figures and subtleties of the message have changed, the core message and trend have not.

Ten or maybe even 20 years ago I would have been up in arms about this. As my parents can attest, I was a rabid environmentalist during my teen years. I lobbied my school to implement a paper recycling program, forced teachers to give up their disposable Styrofoam cups in the teachers lounge and bring in their own reusable ones and even personally washed out dog food cans so they could be recycled. Back then I really thought we could make a difference.

One of the aspects of the film that I really liked was its careful construction. Several times I thought ‘ok, but what about xyz’ and then the next section would directly address the ‘xyz’ in my mind. This is clever directing/editing/producing, whatever its called.

Whilst I dont want to be one of those people who go from ‘disbelief to despair’, I do think it is somewhat a lost cause. Why? Because it is a complicated issue. It requires people to sit down, look at the evidence, and use their brains to understand a message. Sadly, this is below what I estimate to be 95% of our species.

Why do I think this? Because as a population we cannot respond effectively to even “minor” problems that we come up against. For example, a single virus (HIV) has been ravaging different countries for 20 years now. Do we pull out all stops to cure it? No, we proclaim it to be a punishment from god for our debaucherous ways, then seek to exploit the countries hardest hit by selling them brand-name anti-retrovirals. If HIV had primarily hit white, middle class heterosexuals, do you think there would be a long term cure by now? I do.

And this is just one small example. I think we are fighting a losing battle in trying to preserve our environment because the largest perpetrators, the good ol’ USA - the worlds only superpower, is not capable of understanding the message. I’m not talking about residents of LA and NYC, but they do not represent the country. They do not represent the majority of the population that votes for the guy who receives weekly phone calls from closet-case crystal-meth-loving evangelical ministers, rather than listening to the evidence, listening to the results of decades of accumulated and refined science.

The winning message, every time, is simply this:

“Yes, science is complicated and scary - but Jesus understands it all, so you don’t need to worry. Donate now.”

That is all it takes to be President of the US or any ‘democratic’ country, Australia included. You cant argue with that stance either; science IS complicated. There are lots of numbers, graphs and concepts that are challenging for our small brains, mine included. And because we have been raised to fear what is unfamiliar, science scares most people. Scares them enough into voting for the guy who promises them they won’t have to see those disturbing images of gay and lesbian couples walking hand in hand, promises them that we won’t have to make up our own minds about whether terminating a pregnancy is ethically right or not. Promises us we won’t have to worry about anything.

And look where that ethos gets us!? Religious extremists armed with box cutters bringing the US to its knees. Hurricane-facilitated ethnic cleansing. Invasion of middle eastern countries and the slaughter of millions to maintain discount oil prices. The painful, but ignored, deaths of millions of children from treatable conditions such as diarrhoea and malaria.

So basically we are doomed, as depressing as that is to admit, because the fate of the world is in the hands of ignorant, myopic and xenophobic masses. Maybe education is to blame. If truly think if ‘people’ were better equipped to ingest information and objectively consider the facts, we would not be in this mess. But we do not do this - no matter how clear and colour-coded the facts are. We follow our leaders, who (at least profess to) follow a mytical sky-god and a 2000 year old handbook of racism, mysoginism and fear-mongering.

But, my personal bitterness aside, I do respect the initiative of this movie and scientists world wide.

At least noone can say they weren’t warned.