Republic of the Philippines

PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MAYNILA

(University of the City of Manila)
Muralla Street, Intramuros
Manila 1002, Philippines

“An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore”

A Reflection Paper

AYOB, Shania Elyne T.

CASUGA, Glocel Faith R.

SORIANO, Kathleen DL.

BSCE 1-7

October 10, 2018

 “An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore”

“What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know, It’s what we know for sure that
just ain't so”

-Mark Twain

An Inconvenient Truth provides several factual statements that have proven true over
time since the movie came out a decade ago. The extent of the catastrophic climate situation
has made itself more evident, as confirmed by science. Let's take a look at the main claims in
the film and what science says to support these facts.

 The increase in major storms and high category hurricanes has been substantiated,
though some of the increase is attributed to differences in the severity rating systems
and the cyclical increase in storms.

 The doubling of the death toll of global warming in the next 25 years is an extrapolation
of data including numbers during deadly heat waves, the likes of which are expected to
occur with greater frequency.

 Over one million species will become extinct as a result of climate change. Scientists
identify global warming as becoming as dangerous to animal species as habitat
destruction and land clearing.

 New species that are more dangerous and invasive will proliferate as a result of global
warming. Scientists are more concerned about the human influence of moving species
around. Even campers cannot bring their own wood to national parks because of these
invasive migrations.

 Melting ice shelves will rise sea levels over 20 feet. Scientists agree that the ice caps are
melting, including Greenland's ice sheet, but they disagree on the extent and speed at
which it will occur.
 "The problem we now face is that this thin layer of atmosphere is being thickened by
huge quantities of carbon dioxide," Gore asserts, which is not correct. The build-up of CO2 has
virtually no effect on the density or thickness of Earth's atmosphere. The correct thing to say
would have been, "The problem we now face is that this thin layer of atmosphere is being made
more opaque to the transmission of infrared radiation (heat) by huge quantities of carbon
dioxide."

The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in mass. Data from NASA's
Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show Greenland lost an average of 281 billion tons of
ice per year between 1993 and 2016, while Antarctica lost about 119 billion tons during the
same time period. The rate of Antarctica ice mass loss has tripled in the last decade.

Glaciers are retreating almost everywhere around the world — including in the Alps,
Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska and Africa. Satellite observations reveal that the amount of
spring snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere has decreased over the past five decades and
that the snow is melting earlier. Both the extent and thickness of Arctic sea ice has declined
rapidly over the last several decades.

Gore shows an impressive series of "then and now" images documenting the
widespread retreat of many glaciers over the past century. Most dramatically, he shows
Tanzania's Mt. Kilimanjaro, whose 11,000 year-old glaciers are almost gone. He shows
animations of what a 20-foot rise in sea level would do to Manhattan, Florida, India, and China.
A 20-foot sea level rise is what we expect if all of Greenland or all of the West Antarctic Ice
Sheet were to melt. Such a 20-foot rise is not expected by 2100, and it would have been
appropriate for Gore to acknowledge that the consensus of climate scientists--as published in
the most recent report by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC)--is that sea level is likely to rise between 4 and 35 inches, with a central value of 19
inches, by 2100. He should have also mentioned that temperatures in Greenland in the 1930s
were about as warm as today's temperatures, so the current melting of Greenland's glaciers
does have historical precedent.
 Nevertheless, the risk of a catastrophic melting and break-up of the Greenland or West
Antarctic ice sheets is very real, when we consider that sea level before the most recent ice age
was 15 feet higher than it is now. Gore is right to draw attention to what might happen if sea
level rose 20 feet.

Global sea level rose about 8 inches in the last century. The rate in the last two decades,
however, is nearly double that of the last century and is accelerating slightly every year. The
planet's average surface temperature has risen about 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit (0.9 degrees
Celsius) since the late 19th century, a change driven largely by increased carbon dioxide and
other human-made emissions into the atmosphere.4 Most of the warming occurred in the past
35 years, with the five warmest years on record taking place since 2010. Not only was 2016 the
warmest year on record, but eight of the 12 months that make up the year — from January
through September, with the exception of June — were the warmest on record for those
respective months.

The oceans have absorbed much of this increased heat, with the top 700 meters (about
2,300 feet) of ocean showing warming of more than 0.4 degrees Fahrenheit since 1969.

We are told that Katrina grew "stronger and stronger and stronger" as it passed over the
warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico that were heated up by global warming. We are told that
global warming is increasing the intensity of hurricanes, but not provided information on the
great amount of uncertainty and vigorous scientific debate on this issue. Graphs showing recent
record insurance losses from natural disasters are presented, but no mention is made of how
increasing population and insistence on building in vulnerable areas are the predominant
factors causing recent high insurance claims from disasters such as Katrina. Gore points to some
unprecedented events in 2004 as evidence of increasing severe weather events worldwide--the
record 10 typhoons in Japan, the most tornadoes ever in the U.S., and the appearance of
Brazil's first hurricane ever.

The number of record high temperature events in the United States has been increasing,
while the number of record low temperature events has been decreasing, since 1950. The U.S.
has also witnessed increasing numbers of intense rainfall events.
 Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the acidity of surface ocean waters has
increased by about 30 percent.13,14 This increase is the result of humans emitting more carbon
dioxide into the atmosphere and hence more being absorbed into the oceans. The amount of
carbon dioxide absorbed by the upper layer of the oceans is increasing by about 2 billion tons
per year.

This movie should act as a rallying cry for governments around the world to innovate,
invest, and raise ambition to avert catastrophic climate change. Governments must increase
climate action now and submit more ambitious plans for the future. This includes increasing the
level of support to developing countries to enable them to develop and lift their people out of
poverty without going down a traditional, unsustainable development pathway.

A safer, more prosperous future is possible with immediate action to implement

transformative change across societies. There is a need to take advantage of the increasing
availability of affordable, renewable and efficient energy solutions, rapidly reduce the use of
fossil fuels, with coal phased out by mid-century, preserve and restore forests and soils,
promote sustainable agriculture and implement other real climate solutions that together can
bring about a zero-carbon economy.

We need to take bolder, faster action and shift our mind-set to one of embracing the
inevitability and opportunity of the low-carbon economy. As human technology gradually
progresses, the environment continues to be degraded. The environment suffers endlessly
because our desire for comfort has no bounds. The inconvenient truth really concerns man and
woman as we are the guardians and caretakers of the Earth. For all expression on this Earth
comes from us.

This movie is not a mere documentation, it possess a strong and very passionate
message to all the people all over the world that our planet is not on a slow progress to its
destruction, but rather starting to experience the beginning of the end.

This should serve as wakeup call to every one of us that is continuously consuming and
abusing the nature. This movie has brought us so much realization regarding the current status
of our planet. No wonder if we all do not make an action regarding this, it will lead to our
planet’s total destruction and it would be a loss for the future generation. If all the people have
self-discipline there is no pollution, no global warming and no destruction for our planet.

For some reason, most individuals will not take action unless they are affected by an
issue personally. Not realizing what this global crisis can give us in return for all the wrong
doings and abusive acts that we did but still everything is not yet too late, we still had the
chance to make all things right. The power is in our hands to save our planet we just have to
start while the situation still permits.