Global Warming-Documentaries Analysis

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Global Warming

Over the past decades, the average global surface temperature has been increasing considerably at the fastest rate ever recorded in history with experts warning that this trend will keep on accelerating. According to DiCaprio and Stevens (2016), various scientists have argued that over time climate change has slowed down; however, recent studies have disputed this claim by stating that global temperatures will keep on rising. This situation highlights that climate change is real and happening; therefore bringing up the question of what can be done about it (Laurier & Guggenheim, 2006). Various documentaries such as The Inconvenient Truth and Before the Flood has featured top scientists and individuals with the capacity to do something about climate change. These two movies are on the mission to address climate change to the movie enthusiasts by calling for immediate action through focusing on the current environmental state of the earth from affected places and countries.

From the Before the Flood video clips, I learned that the Arctic and Greenland are on track to melt entirely. Leonardo Di Caprio showed in the documentary that the Greenland area is at risk of entering an irreversible phase of melting. Gradually, the ice in Greenland is turning into water resulting in the absorption of more sunlight that causes an increase in surface temperature. The melting of the ice in Greenland increases the danger of raising the global sea levels above the normal. The documentary features an interview of Dr Enric Sala who argues that the Arctic can be assumed to be the air conditioning of the Northern Hemisphere (DiCaprio & Stevens, 2016). The threat of the ice melting threatens the existence of the Arctic; thus, if it goes away then the wind currents and weather patterns would be subjected to change resulting to an increase in the risk of droughts.

After, The Inconvenient Truth I found out that Al Gore documents a widespread retreat of many glaciers by showing an impressive series of ‘then and now’. During his presentation, he shows how the rise in global surface temperatures has resulted in the melting away of the 11,000-year-old glaciers at Mt. Kilimanjaro (Laurier & Guggenheim, 2006). It is important to recognize that not all the glaciers across the world have retreated, but the movie The Inconvenient Truth uses the...