Visuals in An Inconvenient Truth
In his An Inconvenient Truth presentation, Al Gore used a great deal of visuals to both enhance his presentation and also to better explain his points. One of the ways visuals enhanced his presentation was by showing the audience exactly what global warming is doing to our planet. He used comparative images of glaciers to show the extent of the melting. Similarly, he used comparative images of lakes and rivers to show the extent to which they are being dried up. I think that these images make a bigger impact on the audience, rather than just telling them that glaciers are melting and rivers and lakes are drying up. Another example of his use of visuals to enhance his presentation was his use of animation clips. One clip that appealed to pathos was of a polar bear swimming in the middle of the ocean, unable to find a place to rest and ultimately drowning because the ice chunks that would normally be available to rest on had melted. One other clip that added humor to Gore’s presentation was a Matt Groening animation which Gore used to explain global warming in a basic manner. All of these visuals I think were used to better show Gore’s points and to make a bigger impact on the audience. These visuals supplemented Gore’s presentation and allowed him to reach a wider audience.
Gore also used a lot of graphs and charts to convey the information to his audience, rather than just reading the numbers and statistics to them. I think this was much more effective because by both seeing and hearing the statistics, the audience will probably be more likely to remember what Gore was trying to tell them. In one instance Gore enhanced his use of graphs even more by using a scissor-lift. This was used to demonstrate how much higher the earth’s temperatures are now than they have ever been before.
Gore also made a point to mention his family and the farm he grew up on. He described how his family grew tobacco and continued to do so even after it was found that smoking was bad for you and how they only stopped after his sister died of lung cancer due to smoking. This was done to parallel global warming. In the older generation, people grew up smoking and when it was found that smoking was dangerous, it was already ingrained in people, so no one really made a move to change and faced the consequences of that. Similarly, our generation has recently found out that global warming is an issue and is causing problems for the planet. Now is when we can either be like the previous generation with smoking and not do anything and face the consequences or we can step up and do something to make a change. The visuals Gore used during this section of the film were pictures from his youth that included his sister and current shots of the farm he grew up on. These visuals offered the audience a different side of Gore. It showed the audience that Gore is a regular person, not just a politician. This allows Gore to appeal to the audience as a person who is concerned about the environment and who is making a difference, which in turn shows that audience that they too can make a difference as a person.
