Awaken Your Inner Hippie

I must be a true flaming liberal, hippie at heart because I really, really enjoyed this movie, which we finally watched from Netflix the other night. Al Gore presents his case against global warming in a clearcut, descriptive, easy-to-understand, and entertaining documentary which illustrates something I learned in residency, "everthing really is related to everything". It doesn't dwell (too much) on the politics, but it does show the apathy of the current administration in efforts to stall the egregious amount of CO2 emissions which are causing warming of the oceans and melting of the polar ice caps. What amazes me is that despite this, we (all developed-countries) continue to produce massive, gas-guzzling automobiles. Even here in Japan, Hummers are becoming very trendy even though they're completely impractical as most streets and parking garages/spaces cannot accomodate their size. Some owners even subscribe to a service based on GPS technology that allows them to see a map which shows streets they can drive on and which they can't (which vastly outnumber the former). Yeah, they may look cool, but what's not cool is the $90 it takes to fill the gas tank ($120 here in Japan). Al Gore may be one of the most despised and ridiculed men in America, but he's got years and years of evidence and documentation to back up his points; oh, and he did win that Oscar. But then again, Hollywood is a hotbed of lefty liberals. Just ask Ann Coulter (whose favorite band is the Grateful Dead - what!?! How does that make any sense!) Anyway, this is a great documentary, well-deserving of any of the accolades it's received, and may even make you consider investing in a smaller vehicle, turning off the computer when you're finished surfing the porn sites, and possibly even using a reusable eco-bag instead of paper or plastic when you do your grocery shopping!