Review of An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power (2017) by Luke M — 27 Jul 2017

An Inconvenient Sequel is a phenomenally important film, and in that sense it's a great film. You cannot judge this documentary in the same light as Captain America or Dunkirk. This film is a message, not popcorn escapism or a cinematic art project. It's a wake-up call to those still asleep, and a re-invigorating jolt for those already attuned to the fierce, urgent, and existential threat we have wrought upon ourselves, and from which we have very little time to still escape.

Gore is brilliant: humble, human, funny, frustrated, passionate, but most importantly inspiring. It's simply incredible that he keeps hopeful against a backdrop of such apathy and intentional resistance and setbacks.

It's a logical update to the original, building to a crescendo at the Paris Accord - and then Trump. All the charts have another decade of data, ramping as we all know, but they're intercut with heart-wrenching news footage of flooding and drought and refugees. In my mind, it's another stark reminder of just how insulated from the real front lines of climate change most of us still are in America. Yes, Katrina and Sandy were devastating (as Gore displays), but to an incredibly tiny fraction of us (my emphasis).

Most of us wonder if our Starbucks cup is recyclable, while in North Africa and the Middle East, stampedes of drought refugees shoulder their children and push through border fences to survive.

It's just maddening how hard it is to change society, and America's @#$% politics are the conspicuous fly in the ointment. (Again, my words and opinion, not Gore's).

Humans simply MUST choose to change. We MUST make this threat our priority. Countless lives will be devastated in the coming decades from our ongoing complacency (not to mention overt retrograde denialism).

Please go see this film. See it to update yourself but ALSO see it to send a signal. (Note that the abysmal 'Audience Score' here is heavily polluted by climate denier trolls who have not and never would see the film, and that is radically skewing potential viewership, just as they hoped.) Politicians and pundits on both sides will be watching to see if attendance across the country reveals a serious constituent interest in global warming as we're about to start ramping towards the mid-terms.

The 2016 election cycle was completely devoid of discussion of this existential crisis - and look what we got. The 2018 mid-terms have serious potential to tip the balance of power in the Capital, which in turn can squelch the fossil-fuel agenda of Trump and his cabinet.