Green Campus Project

The Green Campus Project hosted a screening of “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power” last week. Vice President Al Gore created the film as a follow up to his original film, “An Inconvenient Truth.” It has been over a decade since the first film came out, and society has changed as new information on climate change is now available. Al Gore wanted to show that the climate scientists were correct in the first film, where they predicted what could happen to Earth.

“I came because I wanted to learn more about the Paris Climate Accords and to learn more about weather refugees”, senior mechanical engineering major Curran Beckler said. “I knew that this film covered both of those aspects, so I thought it would be beneficial for me to attend.”

The Paris Climate Accords set international standards for fossil fuel emissions. The film also covered rising sea levels that have resulted in the flooding of Miami and the 9/11 memorial in New York City. The film covered President Donald Trump’s beliefs on climate change and how his opinions will affect the future of the world.

India played a crucial role throughout the film as they adamantly wanted to keep high fossil fuel emissions to bring their nation out of developing nation status, but for the good of the world, they can’t do that.

“The purpose of the screening was to educate people about climate change in our current political and economic system,” senior environmental horticulture and soil and crop science major and Green Campus Project president Valerie McGoldrick said. “Society is at a very interesting point right now as climate change is really visible and can be seen all around the world.”

McGoldrick went on to explain that some of the biggest world leaders have not accepted this reality of climate change being an issue. The other purpose of the screening was to try to make people feel empowered to use their voice and help the community, “It all starts here,” McGoldrick said.

The screening was impactful because it showed images of cities being destroyed, mass graves and was blunt in the impacts climate change is having.

“What I got out of this was how dire this situation is and how we need to act now as there is no time to wait,” senior history major Sean Stewart said. “I am leaving here feeling that I have a stronger voice for environmental advocacy.”