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“In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to.”
-Roger Ebert

From the opening moments of the film, Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, you are made to feel like a humongous, gas-guzzling, resource depleting, carbon monoxide emitting, ozone destroying idiot. And throughout its entire runtime, the film does not let up. From Gore’s own personal back story to the gigantic graphics displayed on God’s own video projection screen, the viewer is forced to ask himself just how we, as human beings, have been so willfully ignorant of the most basic of environmental issues of our planet.

The primary focus of the film, of course, is global warming and it’s residual, ongoing effects. But, the underlying message is much deeper than that.

When we talk about issues like the environment, we invariably use terms like “the average American,” or the “typical person,” which denotes a sort of continuity between us all that explains things like how many pounds of beef we, as average people, consume in our lifetime or how much water we typically use in a 24 hour period. The terms end up creating a form of global camaraderie. But, conversely, this categorization can also serve to make us - as average, typical individuals - feel as though any incremental changes we could make for the good of the environment – OUR environment – are wholly inconsequential when viewed against the whole. What difference does my using a recycled, reusable bag whenever I buy groceries from my local farmer’s market or co-op make if my next door neighbor uses the disposable plastic bags straight from the chain grocery store then tosses them in a landfill bound dumpster after he gets home? I could walk to work every day, no matter the weather, to save the fuel I would burn in the 5...