If Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” left you feeling as if we’ve already lost the battle against global warming and that we are all doomed then, “Cool It” is a refreshing counterpoint that will make you wonder if maybe we’ve just been going about it the wrong way.
Bjorn Lomborg, the controversial Danish economist/political scientist at the centre of this documentary, doesn’t find Gore’s truth inconvenient so much as distorted, a position that has made him about as popular as the gulf oil spill in many circles both left and right.
In fact, our planet might not turn into a burning hell after all, Lomborg believes. Harrowing first minutes use the same fear-mongering techniques Al Gore hammered on with An Inconvenient Truth, but the intent is different, pointing out the negative effects of such hyperbole. Independently, Lomborg began to question those techniques and the data presented, authoring ‘The Skeptical Environmentalist,’ which dared to suggest that things might not be as dire as certain scientists might believe. This lead to his being pilloried in the press, demonized and labelled The Anti-Christ of Environmentalism.
This quite thorough documentary continues on in a somewhat breathless 90 minutes to suggest a number of plausible, low cost ways to cool the planet that don’t ignore the reality that we’re going to continue burning fossil fuels while their cost is low. But while Lomborg takes apart Al Gore’s plans, you won’t find anyone disputing the feasibility of the plans Lomborg presents. Nonetheless, Cool It represents a reasonable, circumspect look at some good ideas shouted down by well intentioned but myopic environmentalists. If you’re really concerned about climate change, don’t simply buy into the party line, stop patting yourself on the back for using a few fluorescent bulbs and give this documentary a look.
Just how mainstream and accepted the beliefs stated in “An Inconvenient Truth” have become is laid out in the artwork and answers of a classroom of articulate elementary school kids in Britain that are used to open the film. Their hand-drawn paintings of an Earth mostly covered by water, dying penguins and massive deserts pretty much sum up the current consensus on the toll of unchecked global warming. Their solutions will sound just as familiar: recycling, carbon offsetting, hybrid cars, a lot of light bulb replacement and, as one puts it, “I pray a lot.”
Lomborg isn’t suggesting we shouldn’t worry, but he does resist what he contends are the fear tactics and overstatements being used to get our attention. He is, after all, a numbers guy, so when he convened a think tank to look at how the $250 billion a year the European Union plans to spend on carbon offsets might be better spent, the group was packed with top economists drawn from around the world. Basically, he argues there are ways to divert some of those funds to address poverty, disease and education without slowing things on the global warming front if we look for ways to spend more wisely. Needless to say, he has a few ideas.
