An Inconvenient Truth: The Crisis of Global WarmingThis young readers' version of the recent documentary film's companion adult volume cuts the page count by about a third but preserves the original's cogent message and many of its striking visuals. After explaining that his interest in the environment predates even his mother's reading of Silent Spring aloud to him as a teenager, Gore proceeds to document steeply rising carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere, and then to link that to accelerating changes in temperature and precipitation patterns worldwide. Using easy-to-grasp graphics and revealing before-and-after photos, he shows how glaciers and ice shelves are disappearing all over the globe with alarming speed, pointing to profound climate changes and increased danger from rising sea levels in the near future. O'Connor rephrases Gore's arguments in briefer, simpler language without compromising their flow, plainly intending to disturb readers rather than frighten them. He writes measured, matter-of-fact prose, letting facts and trends speak for themselves but, suggesting that "what happens locally has worldwide consequences, " he closes with the assertion that we will all have to "change the way we live our lives." Like the film, this title may leave readers to look elsewhere for both documentation and for specific plans of action, but as an appeal to reason it's as polished and persuasive as it can be. |
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Africa AL GORE Animals Antarctica Aral Sea Arctic areas atmosphere Beach buses Caney Fork River carbon caterpillar chapter twelve Collision China climate crisis coral countries dump in Mexico Earth electricity energy floods FLUORESCENT LIGHTBULBS forest Frans Lanting Fuel-Cell Glacier global warming graph GREEN ROOF greenhouse gases Greenland happened heat hurricanes HYBRID CAR HYDROGEN FUEL CELL ice cap ice shelf Images Inconvenient Truth increase Islands Japan Katrina Lake Chad Land Larsen-B layer Lonnie Thompson massive collision MDA Federal melting meltwater Michael Fornalski miles million mosquitoes NASA nations North NUMBER OF MAJOR ocean Park peak Penguin photograph pine beetles pollution population Project and Michael RATIFIED Refuse dump released Sant/GeoSphere Project Schiff scientists sea level SOURCE South storms Thanks Tipper Gore Tom Van Sant trashing the planet trees twelve Collision Course United unprecedented and massive VIKING RODALE warmer wind farm worldwide Yann Arthus-Bertrand