'An Inconvenient Truth' 20 years later: Inconveniently, too many people still in denial

News and commentary from Florida for everyone living on Spaceship Earth

Al Gore

By J.C. Bruce

Tropic Press

It’s been 20 years since former Vice President Al Gore’s global warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, captured the public’s attention with its message about the perils of man-made climate change.

Unfortunately, there’s a difference between “capturing the public’s attention” and actually persuading people to learn.

This comes to mind as a result of an article in The Guardian this week in which a public opinion survey shows a majority of American voters now believe that extreme weather is increasing and that climate change is the cause. And nearly half of all Republicans now say climate change worsens heatwaves.

At first blush, when I read that, I was elated. Finally! People get it, I thought.

However, on closer examination, the root problem hasn’t changed much in the two decades since Gore’s Oscar-winning documentary was released.

While there now does seem to be more acceptance that a warmer climate and extreme weather are linked, a depressing number of people have yet to connect the dots between pollution and why our atmosphere is heating up—that it is caused by man-made activity.

Gore even hinted at why this would be such a challenge during An Inconvenient Truth, which I just rewatched, by quoting Mark Twain:

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

It’s hard to get people to change their beliefs, especially when they are continually spoon-fed misinformation (witness the number of election deniers who still believe Donald Trump was cheated out of the 2020 election).

And Trump, of course, is one of the cheerleaders denying global warming, calling climate change a “con job” and a “hoax.”

I do take some small comfort, at least, in that more people now recognize that extreme weather is increasing. Here are a couple of graphics that show the results from the polling firm Data for Progress, which were shared exclusively with The Guardian:

But recognizing the obvious—yes, it is hotter; yes, the weather seems more extreme lately—is not, sadly, the same as grokking that there’s a connection to human activity—that it is man-made air pollution that makes it harder for heat to leave the atmosphere.

The Pew Research Center has been tracking this for the past two decades, and here’s what their research shows about the public’s attitude:

… Democrats and Republicans have grown further apart in their views, eroding areas of common ground between the parties…

Consider climate change. In 2009, Democrats were already 36 percentage points more likely than Republicans to say climate change is a major threat to the U.S. (61% vs. 25%). But by 2022, that partisan gap had grown to 55 points: 78% of Democrats, but just 23% of Republicans, considered climate change a major threat.

Globally, people in many advanced economies tend to have similar levels of concern to U.S. Democrats. A median of 75% of adults across 19 countries we surveyed in 2022 said climate change is a major threat to their country.

The Guardian spoke to Jennifer Marlon, a senior research scientist at Yale who studies climate communications. She noted:

“This is probably the biggest misconception out there – many Americans still think the warming is due to some kind of natural cycle. But it isn’t…a spring survey from Yale Program on Climate Change Communication found 27% of people think that the changes are mostly natural.”

When your president is calling it a hoax and warning that windmills cause cancer, and that coal is “clean and beautiful,” and that scientists are “stupid people,” it isn’t surprising—just sad—that so many Americans still have blinders on.

It’s also dangerous.

As Gore noted on the 20th anniversary of his film:

"It really is insane that we are continuing to use the sky as an open sewer and we're trapping so much heat every day it's equal to the amount that would be released by 800,000 Hiroshima-class atomic bombs exploding every day on the Earth."

That certainly sounds like it leads to something far worse than mere inconvenience.

Related:

Majority of US voters link extreme weather to climate crisis, study finds

‘Scientists were dead right’: Al Gore says on 20th anniversary of ‘An Inconvenient Truth’

How U.S. Public Opinion Has Changed in 20 Years of Our Surveys

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Our democracy as we’ve known it for 250 years is at risk. To save it, we will need a groundswell of support from voters in the coming midterm election.

The purpose of this newsletter—and the accompanying Tropic Press website—is to encourage that engagement.

Currently, Tropic Press is reaching more than 700,000 subscribers in Florida and elsewhere, which is great, but there are literally millions of Florida Democrats and independents we are not reaching yet.

You can help spread the word.

Please like this post. Comment if you are so inclined. But, please, also take a moment to share it with people you know.

With mid-term elections on the horizon, the more people we reach, the more effective we can be in helping turn our state and this country around. You can play a vital role in that effort.

Thanks.

J.C. Bruce

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