Whatever you thought of Al Gore as a politician, you’ll have to give him credit here for being a great teacher. He spends most of his time in An Inconvenient Truth guiding us through the data and science of climate change, demonstrating cause and effect and noting the impacts, both present and future—and doing so with wit, charm, and only an occasional (though deserved) political barb. Though this is largely a speaker-on-stage style documentary, it’s backed by great pictures, charts, and graphs, with cutaways to on-site footage and personal annecdotes, all woven together in a way that makes the whole thing very watchable. Gore’s three-decade-long study of climate change shows in his seemingly effortless presentation of the material. The result is 100% convincing, showing climate change to be not just an environmental issue, but a threat to our way of life—perhaps even to life itself. This is the last nail in the coffin of the climate skeptics.

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