An Inconvenient Sequel is a devastating follow-up

THE original film in 2006 sparked a movement — everyone wanted in. A decade later, the momentum has halted and the sequel is hoping to recharge everyone looking for a better future.

WATCHING An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power is a sobering experience.

Not just because it lays out the chilling facts of our perilous environmental situation. It’s sobering because of the undeniable impact the original documentary had when it came out in 2006 and where we are now 11 years later.

In a pre-GFC 2006, when Al Gore’s influential An Inconvenient Truth was released, it didn’t just win an Oscar or Gore that Nobel Peace Prize, it sparked a movement, a consciousness among citizens to take on the climate change challenge. Everyone wanted in.

That momentum has decidedly slowed, if not halted.

There are pockets of optimism — Elon Musk’s lithium-ion battery in South Australia, China’s commitment to spend $500 billion on renewables by 2020, France’s ban on petrol and diesel-powered cars by 2040 — but for the most part the conversation around climate change has been leadened with lethargy.

It’s not all because of denialists, though the tinfoil brigade has certainly made it more difficult. Much of it does have to do with the global economic turmoil of the past 10 years and struggling families not having the “luxury” of caring about issues beyond the increasing cost-of-living. The “too hard” attitude is understandable.

This is the context of An Inconvenient Sequel. Gore acknowledges the political debate has become more partisan and vicious in the past few years, which included personal attacks against him and calls from certain quarters to have his Nobel stripped.

Al Gore at the Paris Agreement in 2015. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Filmed in the lead-up to the Paris Agreement in December 2015, the global UN accords on climate change action, the film follows Gore around as he visits climate change-affected regions such as typhoon-hit Philippines or melting ice sheets in Greenland. The visuals are devastating.

He also runs through his presentation with groups of trainees in his program and that’s where Gore hits you with the terrifying stats about global temperatures.

Gore is older but energetic and he knows all too well that to get the wheels moving, you have to frame the argument as an economic imperative, not just a moral one.

You get a glimpse of the man behind the climate mission as he reveals he’s been discouraged and felt downtrodden by the pushback but it’s just that, a glimpse. You’ll never get a real sense of how much the humble public servant image he’s cultivated is authentic. There’s definitely a sliver of vanity here, like the inclusion of a brush-by in Paris as Justin Trudeau fanboys out over Gore.

The bulk of the substance in the film is when the action hits the Paris conference and it shows us the kind of dealing and manoeuvring it takes to get such an agreement passed and what it takes to convince a reticent India. This is how the sausage is made.

Of course, knowing that Donald Trump withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement in early June also tinges the segment with a semi-futile air.

Maybe it speaks to the apathy seeped through every aspect of the public discourse in 2017 that the idea of buying a ticket to An Inconvenient Sequel can feel like homework, like revising for an exam you think you’ve already failed.

When the public has so little faith in the institutions that are supposed to work collaboratively for everyone, not just for a small group of people on a company board or in a marginal electorate, it’s disheartening.

This movie isn’t really about waking people up to the issue — they already did. It’s trying to get people to re-engage on a topic they’ve set aside, and that’s a much harder ask.

Will An Inconvenient Sequel turn the tide of inaction over climate change? Unlikely. Especially not in Australia with our government so hostile to clean energy investment and still rolling out the tar carpet for coal like it’s 1967.

And that’s the real tragedy of An Inconvenient Sequel. More than a decade later, it’s a stark reminder of how little we’ve done — really done — since the flash-in-the-pan moment of 2006.

Maybe it will convince a few moviegoers to switch to a higher renewable energy plan, though, realistically, if you’re watching this doco, you’re probably already on one. But if it manages to spur even a tenth of its audience to take some kind of action, then at least it’s something.

Rating: 3/5

An Inconvenient Sequel is in cinemas from Thursday, August 10.

Originally published as An Inconvenient Sequel is a devastating follow-up