Al GorePresented on by Elissa Vaidman

What gets us into trouble

Is not what we don’t know

Its what we know for sure

That just ain’t so. 

-Mark Twain

Global Warming Greenhouse gases trapping heat in our atmosphere Ice shelves melting expected to raise sea levels Consequences: species loss, climate change,

geographical transformations Purpose of the film

Educate world about the severity of implications Disband doubt and reinforce reality through science Create global action to reverse the consequences

Past and Present representations of once-ice covered locations

Important examples for visual literacy

“This is NOT a political issue, but rather a moral one.” – Al Gore

“Scientists have an independent obligation to respect and present the truth as they see it.” – Al Gore

This sums up the responsibility of all scientists, including library and information scientists. This documentary provides a current representation of the global crisis and will signify an important place in the history in environmental awareness.

“Information Literacy is the ability to locate, evaluate and effectively use information”

An Inconvenient Truth’s implications on Information Literacy: Provides concise, relevant, current and

accurate information about global warming Provides a starting point for moving forward

and decreasing the effects of global warming Provides resources and data for the viewer to

make the decision for themselves

“Visual Literacy is the ability in interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image. “

An Inconvenient Truth’s implications on Visual Literacy Gore’s use of charts and graphs provides

scientific data that makes a strong impact. Viewers are able to see the long term progression as well as the trends from the past

The images included a few slides back clearly represented impactful visuals for the viewers to interpret and build meaning for.

“Media Literacy is the process of analyzing, evaluating and creating messages in a wide variety of modes, genres and forms. …It encourages people to ask questions about what they watch, hear and read.”

An Inconvenient Truth’s implications on Media Literacy: Gore says he tries to identify the things in people’s

minds that serve as obstacles to them understanding the information and then disband those obstacles

He says he delivers this information the only way he knows how: city by city, person by person, family by family. He was able to widen his audience by releasing his presentation as a documentary. This media provided mass dissemination and attention to the issue at hand

The benefit of this documentary is that it creates a centralized medium of the science and information on global warming.

It has become the foundation of environmental education and can be used for a # of lesson plans including:

Science History Geography Sociology Politics

Library and Information scientists will be able to combine information, visual and media literacies by providing this documentary for the public. It is the most effective presentation of information on the subject of environmentalism.