Written by: Susan Granger
www.susangranger.com

Former Vice-President Al Gore has two passions in his life: commitment to the moral imperative surrounding global warming and running for the Presidency again. In this fascinating, often terrifying, documentary, director Davis Guggenheim, thankfully, concentrates more on the former rather than the latter.

Utilizing his fascinating multi-media presentation of the facts and issues arising from global climate change, Al Gore explains complex environmental phenomena, illustrating what has happened and what may/will happen with credible scientific evidence: graphs, maps, cartoons and photographs. Much of the timeliness is traced to recent weather-related disasters, like a record number of tornadoes in the Midwest, the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and torrential flooding in Mumbai, India.

Resembling an earnest, even ardent intellectual more than the cautious, awkwardly stiff politician who "used to be the next president of the United States," Gore delivers this well-researched information in a scholarly, if often pedantic tone. He credits Roger Revelle, a university professor who introduced him to the topic, and cites his young son's near-fatal accident in 1989 with compelling him to question "How should I spend my time on this earth?"

Perhaps the only discordant notes are his rueful ruminations about his defeat to a man who, along with his Republican predecessors, does not consider global warming to be a credible threat to humanity. It's discordant only in dividing the potential audience along red state/blue state lines - when all of humanity is at stake. Gore makes the relevant point that environmental protection is good for the economy, not bad - yet, like Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," no other voices of opposition are heard. No other voices of approval, either, come to think of it.

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "An Inconvenient Truth" is a relevant, persuasive 9. It's a convincing plea for activism.