August 24, 2017 -- Wyoming Republicans firmly believe that burning trillions of tons of coal and releasing billions of tons of CO2, a greenhouse gas, into the air has nothing to do with climate change. It is just a coincidence. There is some other cause. There has to be. The fact that Wyoming is a leading coal producing state may have something to do with this view.

This movie, which argues that CO2 released by burning coal, not to mention all that methane produced by cattle in Wyoming, is contributing to warming temperatures around the globe, is not getting a warm reception in Wyoming. I was the only person in the auditorium in Laramie during the screening I went to. The film left town really fast. The fact that this film was even shown here is unusual. Theaters here very seldom show any documentaries at all.

As in the first film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” the main character in this film is former Vice President Al Gore. Again, his subject is human-caused climate change. Most people agree with Gore's view that climate change is caused by human activity and that this is a growing problem that needs to be faced. However, political and media forces, largely financed or influenced by coal companies and others interested in preserving lucrative CO2 producing activities, have tremendous political influence over environmental laws in America. This is not the case in most other countries.

This film has Gore flying around the world to places like Greenland, where we see spectacular shots of melting glaciers, actually exploding, because of unnaturally warm conditions. We see the devastating impact of “clear day flooding” along the Florida Coast and the millions of dollars it takes to mitigate the effects of a rising ocean. In Florida, politicians have forbidden state employees from even saying the words “climate change.” Similar climate change-denying efforts are being made at the federal level under the Trump Administration.

An interesting sequence takes us to Georgetown, Texas, where most voted for Trump. Efforts are under way there to remove the entire town from the fossil fuel grid, by getting all of its electrical power from renewable energy, such as wind and solar energy. According to the town's mayor, this is being done according to solid, conservative values. Wind and solar energy are getting cheaper all the time. It makes good economic sense, and it is good for the atmosphere.

Gore does spend a good deal of time on politics, including complaining about the way he lost the U.S. Presidential election in the Supreme Court, and how his successor, President George W. Bush, shut down his pet climate study project, the Triana satellite (also known as Goresat). The satellite sat in storage for 12 years until it was refurbished, during the Obama Administration, and repurposed by NOAA as the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) with some of Triana's instruments still aboard. One of those instruments is a radiometer to measure how much heat is being emitted into space by the earth. This can theoretically be used to measure the effect of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere.

The film also spends a good deal of time on the Paris Climate agreement, and Gore's role in the negotiations, including his call to convince SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive to give solar panel technology to India in return for India's agreement to sign the treaty. There are those who dispute the extent of Gore's role in these negotiations.

The film also spends time showing Gore training environmental activists and future leaders in his Climate Reality Project forums. This film does effectively show that the earth's climate is changing and that human activities are the main cause, but a lot of the film seems to be publicity for Gore himself. He certainly gets his due in this film as a force in the climate change cause. This is a worthwhile film, although it seems to be a vanity project, too. This film rates a C+.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in digital formats, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

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