That the most consequential global warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, centered on the tepid rhetorical capacity of Al Gore was a bummer. While opposition to global warming was always going to be a partisan issue — if both parties didn’t take the money, one surely would — Gore’s pole position likely helped a segment of the populace dismiss the dire conclusions of climate scientists. So when An Inconvenient Sequel was announced I had my take: Arnold Schwarzenegger would be perfect for this fight. It would be his last chance to save the world. But something has changed since 2006. Not only has Al Gore become a better speaker, but the new face of his opposition makes Gore look downright charismatic. Facing off against the blubbering, wheezing dummy currently occupying the White House, our president Donald Trump, Gore might just have a shot at winning this argument.
Still, the first trailer for An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power doesn’t offer much hope for the future:
Opening on an adenoidal babbling through his mouth like he’s choking on boogers, An Inconvenient Sequel lays out the current power dynamic, which pits an increasingly energized international community against a semi-sentient hunk of ass fat screaming “it’s supposed to be 70 degrees today, it’s freezing here” in front of a handful of elderly Fox News targets and a stain-pocked American flag. “We need some global warming!” the president says.
“Despair can be paralyzing,” Gore says, though he seems optimistic that international cooperation and widespread adoption of solar can ameliorate the greatest ever threat to the human species (or, at least since the Toba supereruption 75,000 years ago): the United States of America and its corporate captors.
For now, this is only a trailer. And raising awareness only goes so far. But rhetoric matters and thanks to years of practice the dullest man in early 21st century American politics has somehow become a little good at it.
“The next generation would be justified in looking back at us and asking what were you thinking? Couldn’t you hear what the scientists were saying? Couldn’t you hear what Mother Nature was screaming at you?” Gore says in the trailer, to actual human affect. “This movement is in the tradition of every great movement that has advanced humankind.”
An Inconvenient Sequel comes out in theaters July 28.
