" An Inconvenient Truth! " Or was it?

Having watched the film I think that Al Gore, The I.P.C.C and the United Nations Panel did deserve to win the 'Noble Peace Prize' when they won it in 2007. I think this because the film they produced between them, called 'An Inconvenient Truth' was very informative. Although it was at times bias and one-sided in that it didn't seem to take the view of the "Sceptics" into consideration. Instead he chose to destroy their ideas and theories by exploding what would see to be more of the truth in the form of graphs which show various data. This was a strange way to do this, and certainly not the way i would have done it. I thought that Al Gore was very persuasive in his argument. "He wasn't forceful, in a way to say this is the truth... this is what we need to do... now what are you going to do about it??" He had a much more gentle approach and was quite diplomatic.
However, this may in some people's opinion be a little controversial to say as they may choose to disagree of have a conflicting opinion.

I feel that Al Gore made some strong points and had a very convincing argument. I feel that he was pro-Climate Change and clearly demonstrated this. I think he has had a real wake-up call and realised it is a problem, something does need to be done about it and he is now trying to do things to make a differance. As for my opinion, I feel that he did partly represent my opinion although I do not agree with everything he said. He had good sources of data and in the film it looked like he was talking about the truth for the majority, but i do think he could have at least tried to do more.

With regard to other people's opinion, i feel that he did take most opinions into account when he was making the film, however i think that was fairly vague.
I do feel that people's opinion to Climate Change could definately have been influenced from watching that film, which is partly why it was very controversial when it was first released in 2007. Climate change is definately an issue and is going to have an impact at some point through time; whether it is in our lifetime, our children's life time, our grandchildren's lifetime or whenever it happens, it will have an impact somewhere. When this happens, things will change. Although not necessarily the way they are being predicted to. Perhaps Al Gore was right and his data is correct and if it is then we have got a problem and something needs to be done. Conversely if he is not, then it may be all a big fuss over nothing. Eitherway there will always be people who will say something against what people try to do to change things. I think the film has had an influence on me and I feel like i have been partly manipulated into thinking more about Climate Change being real from watching the film. Although I am still a little unconvinced because we are not supposed to believe everything we hear.

I thought the film was very good, very informative and conveyed a lot of information and opinions, however after watching it for a while i did get a little distracted and started getting bored. This was because the film went a little off topic and began to focus on Al Gore's near Presidental election. This is not what i would have wanted to watch the film to see if i was watching it at home. I would have wanted to see and hear about how much Climate Change is going to have an impact upon our lives and what we as individuals as well as countries and globally to change or at least try to help prevent Climate Change from happening.

I thought that the film was quite effective in telling the viewer about Climate Change, although i am not sure that it could have changed the opinion of a "Sceptic" it may have only opened their eyes. Climate change is a big issue to try to explain although i think that Al Gore did well to attempt it. Overall was the film effective? I think that the film was effective because it was able to get people engaged with the topic, to think about it and if nothing-else to talk about it. Afterall it is often through talking that the best ideas are achieved.

"Climate change is one of the greatest threats for the planet" David King (2004)

The image to the left shows an image of how or rather what Planet Earth may potentially look like after Global Warming has taken hold of the little (normally) 'Blue Planet' which we call home.

So now we all need to ask ourselves, and equally importantly eachother...

... Is Global Warming an issue?
This site has news about Climate Change and attempts to dispel the anthropogenic global warming hypotesis.

If you want to put a stop to Global Warming..
This is a website where people are uniting to encourage politicians and govenment to take action to stop the effects of climate change.

For more information see the above link (stopglobalwarming.org)
To Join the 1,323,258 people already on the march click here

The image below is the spectacular “blue marble” image and is the most detailed true-color image of the entire Earth to date. Using a collection of satellite-based observations, scientists and visualizers stitched together months of observations of the land surface, oceans, sea ice, and clouds into a seamless, true-color mosaic of every square kilometer (.386 square mile) of our planet. These images are freely available to educators, scientists, museums, and the public. This record includes preview images and links to full resolution versions up to 21,600 pixels across. (see "http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=2429" for more information).This image shows a fairly accurate depiction of how Planet Earth should look, although if we continue to burn fossil fuels, and emmit unsustainable amounts of polluting gases e.g CO2, Methane, Nitrous Oxide and Fluorocarbons into our atmosphere I don't think that our beautiful 'Blue Marble' is going to stay beautiful for much longer and may become more like the image nearer the middle of this page ('Red Earth') as a potential result of what I am going to refer to as Run-away Global Warming, which is simply when Global Warming has had such an impact upon the Earth is has passed the point of no return.

Just before you go, please take a quick look at the 2 images below, these are from ("http://veimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/1438/earth_lights_lrg.jpg") and ("http://soils.usda.gov/use/worldsoils/mapindex/popden.jpg") the first shows the light pollution from different countries around the world . The second image shows global population density in 1994. Although there is a gap of a few years between the images being created, there is a clear connection between them. If you compare the image displaying the light pollution with the population density map there is a corrolation that where there is a higher density population there is a larger amount of light pollution.

How to get more SUSTAINABILITY into my lifestyle

To make my life more sustainable (in theory I could):

Ways to make my lifestyle more sustainable:

Transportation
-Find a better mode of transport to get to university
-Use public transport more
-move house so i am travelling less to uni
-buy new tyres for my motorbike so that it has better grip and the engine doesn't need to work as hard and therefore reduces emissions and fuel usage
-walk or cycle to more places, if within a few miles instead of driving
-do shopping close to home and walk back with shopping instead of driving or getting a taxi
Food & Eating
-eat more sensibly (eat foods that take less time to cook)
-buy and eat more locally sourced ingredients and foods
-grow own fruit and vegetables
-buy more fair-trade and organic goods
Resources
-use less paper, food, fuel, etc. Be more precise and only use what is necessary, reuse and/or recycle any waste
Energy consumption / Usage
-use less electricity
-switch off tv at mains when i go out
-recycle more
-turn off my heating
-listen to less music
-listen to music on ipod/mp3 player/c.d player,etc. instead of hi-fi
-use rechargeable batteries instead of disposable
-use my mobile phone less so i dont need to recharge it as often
-use only the amount of water i need when boiling the kettle by measuring that amount and then pouring it into the kettle
-use energy saving lightbulbs in every room
-Only switch lights on before sunrise and after sunset when it is actually too dark to see
-use a wide-up touch if waking in the middle of the nigth to see if need to, instead of switching on the light
-limit tv watching time per day
-limit computer usage per day
-use more local resources to find out information instead of using the internet straight away
-use less water when having a bath
-have a shower instead of a bath
-use a washing line to dry clothes more instead of a tumble drier
Use of Time
-make better use of your time; make a plan for each day of what you need to do, allow time for things to over-run and then in the gaps do something productive

Preventing / limiting factors (in the same order that i listed the ways i could make my lifestyle more sustainable):

Transportation
-Cost
-It can cost upto twice as much as it would if I drive.
-It gets me to my destination after the time I need to be there.
-Sometimes timetable information is hard to obtain even with use of the internet
-Cost
-Crime rates
-Unfamiliarity of the area to move into
-Cost
-Do not own a bicycle
-Travelling time
-Distance
-Prices of products
Food & Eating
-Limited selection of products
-Sometimes difficult to find this information out
-Can be more expensive than the products you may normally purchase
-room to grow these fruit and vegetables
-limited to what you can grow throughout the year
-can also be effected by weather, especially early or unforcast ground frosts
- fair-trade and organic products tend to be more expensive so this can put consumers off from buying them
-flavour differences
Resources
-there are no limiting factors for this
Energy consumption / Usage
-may be impractical
-sometimes forget to
-lack of recycling facilities
-may get cold in the winter (wear more layers)
-there are no limiting factors
-there are no limiting factors
-purchasing these can be expensive
-may need mobile phone to be charged all the time incase of emergencies
-takes more time
-energy saving bulbs are often more expensive
-some energy saving bulbs give out pulsating light which can cause migrane
-could be dangerous trying to get to the light switch in the dark
-cost of a touch
-there may be something important on the news which could have a direct affect on you
-you may need to do some work on the computer and it may take a number of hours to complete which would make the idea of a time limit impractical
-this may take some time
-you may still have to go onto the internet eventually if you are unable to find what you needed using the local resources
-you need to stay next to the bath as it fill to be there to turn the taps off when the bath is sufficiently full
-there are not limiting factors
-clothes take longer to dry
-clothes may blow away in strong wind
-clothes ideally need warm weather with a slight breeze to dry best, therefore clothes are unlikely to dry in rainy weather
Use of Time
-this could be inconvenient or confusing to follow

I found that there is a lot being done nowadays to try to encourage people to change for the future. Change their habits and make more use of the resources they have available to them. I had a look and i found there are a couple of website which have been set up to help people realise just how much of an impact they are having as an individual even if they do not realise it. Here are the links:

Work out your Carbon Footprint

On this page you can click to use the 'carbon calculator' which is where you enter information on how you use you electrical appliances, how you travel, how you heat and light your home and then it will tell you what your 'carbon/CO2 footprint' is. In otherwords how much carbon is polluted during the production for the energy needed to run your appliances,etc.

Act now! With Act On CO2

ACT ON CO2 is a website that aims to help people save money, save energy and reduce their CO2 emissions. The campaign highlights how individuals can act to make a difference.
ACT ON CO2 is a cross-government initiative, currently involving the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), the Department for Transport (DfT), Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG).

The Carbon Trust Homepage

The Carbon Trust was set up in 2001 by the UK government as an independent company. Their worldwide mission is to accelerate the move to a low carbon economy.