An Inconvenient Truth

I watched a new release DVD the other night; shock upon shock. Not one I'd incidentally come across on the TV-- no an honest to God I-am-making-the-time-to-sit-and-watch-this-end-to-end. The last one was The World's Fastest Indian. This one was An Inconvenient Truth. The statistics were frightening. By the end, I was truly anxious about what the hell was happening to our planet. I went to sleep and dreamed of disintegrating glaciers and the thinning arctic shelf and the fact that I will be living up to my knees in water if the polar caps melt. Al Gore doesn't want us to be fearful, because fear is paralysing. This may be so, but my Richter scale of sensitivity jumps higher than others, perhaps. I remember when I was a child, learning about space and physics. Just the basics: how we are a speck in the solar system and were it not for gravity we'd all be floating off into nothingness. I would go to bed of a nighttime and grip the mattress for dear life. I would pray God to please, please keep sucking us back onto the ground like we were on the end of a great big straw, pretty please. Even to this day, when I try to fathom just how large the universe is, and what has come before us, and what will continue after us, I am filled with an existential nausea. Hamlet said, "There are more things on heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy". Damn straight. I suppose my brain gives up before it really tries to comprehend because perhaps I enjoy just feeling the wonder of life and don't always want it shoved in my face. In books, yes, OK, because that is 'fiction'. Fact? It scares me. I am a coward. So I don't know how Al Gore can go around talking about it. Kudos, though. Have you seen the movie? What do you think?