Response to Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”
Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” is a well made documentary that uses clever rhetoric. Throughout the film, Al Gore attempts to appeal to the viewers pathos in order to push the agenda of global warming. Gore seems to be playing the role of an every day American to make him more relatable to the audience, which makes them feel closer to him. For example, when Al is walking through the airport carrying his own luggage and waiting in line like a normal traveler. I have a hard time believing that this is a reality. Another example of Gore targeting our pathos is when he shows all the intense images like the glaciers falling into the ocean. These kinds of images give the viewer a real life perspective on what it actually looks like when the ice caps are melting otherwise it is hard to imagine the intensity. To further appeal to our emotions, Al discusses his family’s history of being tobacco farmers and how his sister died from lung cancer.
I really liked how Gore related the climate crisis to the tobacco industry. The tobacco companies simply denied scientific facts that cigarrettes cause cancer much like global warming “deniers” call it a theory and the scientific proof is debatable. I was unsure who these deniers were and why they would want to deny this problem anyway, besides the major fuel burning industries like Exxon.
In conclusion, I found this documentary to be very informative and touching, but not very persuasive. Most people who watched this film are probably already supporters of Al Gore and his agenda, so they were not in need of persuasion. By Al Gore putting his name on this film blatenly targets left wing supporters, who mostly already agree that global warming is a serious problem. The conservatives are largely the opposition to the “theory” and because his name is on the film, they will probably never get to see it thus not being persuaded. Furthermore, I feel that his wrongly targeted persuasive documentary lacked in solutions.
