Al Gore, what were you thinking? Is the truth still too inconvenient?
After building widespread climate awareness in 2005 by creating the documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, which contributed to your winning the Nobel Prize shortly thereafter, you had us all at hello.
Thanks to your efforts, many of us developed a common understanding of the climate challenges we faced. You encouraged each of us to do something, anything, to be the change we wanted to see in the world. Back then, many of us were only starting to really understand and talk about how animal agriculture was contributing to warming the planet, so we cut you some slack for leaving that out of the film and praised all that you did include about emissions and energy waste. We thought to ourselves, next time, he’ll include the food.
It’s the food!
It wasn’t as if no one noticed that you neglected talking about how our food choices were significantly contributing to climate change. In 2005, EarthSave wrote a report on environmentalists overlooking vegetarianism as the most effective tool against climate change. In 2007, a member of the Netherlands Parliament gave an amazing presentation that became the documentary Meat the Truth, one of my all time favorites. It made it clear how raising livestock has surpassed fuel emissions, and then challenged Al Gore’s meat omission. Hmm, could leaving livestock out of the dialogue have something to do with the Gore family business, a cattle ranch? … Did I mention, I really love this documentary and it is still relevant today, though I am guessing the numbers may be even more dramatic? So worth it.
And Al, you are not the only one who appears to kowtow (or perhaps better to say cow-tow) to special interests. More recently, many of us were disappointed as we watched the 2014 documentary Cowspiracy and were reminded that even environmental champion non-profits were not immune, and some even beholden to big food money on which they depend. Follow the money.
You said so, yourself!
And in the years since your first movie, you first explored and then committed to a plant-based diet, following the success of your former boss, Bill Clinton. In 2009, you said in a media interview at that time ”I’m not a vegetarian, but I have cut back sharply on the meat that I eat. It’s absolutely correct that the growing meat intensity of diets around the world is one of the issues connected to this global crisis — not only because of the CO2 involved, but also because of the water consumed in the process. You could add in the health consequences as well.” In 2013, you said <in eating a vegan diet> you felt better and were likely going to continue it for the rest of your life. It is not a surprise you felt better since a plant-based diet helps our health in so many ways, from our hearts down to our bones.
But here we are, in 2017, and you invited us all to come with you again, follow what has happened since the first movie and challenges us to each #BeInconvenient. While it was great watch your new movie Inconvenient Sequel: Power to Truth to celebrate what we have learned and done since 2005, acknowledge what is standing in our way, and be inspired to do more, it left me wanting more. Where was the complete list of current causes and proposals for how we can reverse climate change and how the average person leaving the theater could do something the very next day to make a difference, ideally with their fork?
A solution we can sink our teeth into…
The timing of Paul Hawken’s amazing new book which was published in April, Drawdown (‘the most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming’) stands in sharp contrast, empowering every reader to act, especially since the #4 solution is a global shift to a Plant-Rich Diet, one plate and one forkful at a time.
Al, thanks for keeping the climate change conversation moving forward, but we can no longer ignore the impact that our dietary choices are making to our planet. According to Drawdown, “Livestock-emissions, including carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane are responsible for an estimated 18-20 % of greenhouse gases annually.” If you add in other food production practices including deforestation, industrial farming and food waste, our dietary choices as a planet combine to be the number one cause of global warming. What and how each of us eat not only matters to our planet; it can save the lives of hundreds of animals each year and prevent and even reverse many chronic health conditions.
Invite others to eat plant-based and cool the earth!
Al, you had the chance to include so much more that just reducing fossil fuel in your movie. Rather than wait another 12 years for the next sequel, I encourage you right now to add a trailer to the movie and update your website to include another source of power. As we replace fossil fuels with renewable power sources, requiring long lead times, capital investments and sometimes opposition, there is something every one of us can do today with no additional cost or need for delay. It’s not inconvenient at all. In fact, it’s really very simple, affordable, healthy, compassionate and delicious!
Each of us can help to cool the earth using the Power of our Fork!
