A decade later, An Inconvenient Truth’s legacy is acceptance

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Tomorrow (Tuesday) marks 10 years since former vice president Al Gore released his documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.”

And a lot has changed in the decade since.

The film’s biggest impact was getting people to understand and accept that climate change is happening across the planet says Dr. John Innes, the dean of UBC’s Faculty of Forests.

“People like Al Gore were talking about how important climate change was, but weren’t receiving much of an audience. Today, governments are very much aware of it, particularly governments who are directly affected by climate change,” says Innes.

“I think we’ve learned a huge amount since then. Our science has gotten a whole lot better than what it was and we understand the climate system now much better than we did then.”

That has led to more certainty among governments, most of which accept that climate change is indeed happening and lay out a plan to reduce carbon emissions.

Innes says the sheer number of people who attended last year’s climate change summit in Paris was largely due to the film.

But he points out, awareness doesn’t always equal action.

“It’s very to say that we’ll reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It’s much more difficult to actually do so, and we’ve seen that in Canada as much as anywhere,” he adds.

In the end, it all comes down to how much money is behind an idea or cause.

“The biggest disappointments are related to the lack of finance available to actually do the work that people are talking about,” says Innes.