In neighbourhoods bordering China's largest cities, streams and rivers are polluted with industrial wastes and clean drinking water is hard to find.
Photos by Marie-Claire Holmes, 2005
China's rapid economic growth has produced impressive cityscapes, but contributed to hazardous environmental pollutants.
Al Gore is my hero. If you haven't yet seen the powerful film An Inconvenient Truth or read Gore's book An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It, I urge you to do so. As Gore says, what's happening to our environment "is not a political issue, it's a moral one. Our future is at stake."
You can read the transcript of Gore's impassioned appearance June 13 on CNN's Larry King Live here.
I agree with Al Gore and I'm looking forward to reading his book.
Posted by: mary jane | 16 June 2006 at 11:13
I'm really looking forward to seeing that movie. It hurts my head that Gore isn't president.
Posted by: Laini | 15 June 2006 at 17:34
Wow, it's always hard not to have a visceral reaction when you see to striking images like this juxtaposed against one another.
I hadn't heard of either the book or the movie. Normally I can't get my husband to watch movies with me, but maybe he would watch this one...
Posted by: krista | 15 June 2006 at 12:28
Thank you, Tara, for bringing this topic to the forefront - I hope everyone can put political affiliations aside and realize we need to all row in the same direction if we're going to get anywhere in this lifeboat.
As much as I'd have loved to see Gore win the presidency, I wish Larry King had let him focus on the more pressing topic he was there to promote - I worry that his focusing on the presidential campaigns (past & future) is just going to polarize people into the 2-party camps again. And that is SO not productive if we really want to save our planet for future generations.
Thanks again for helping raise public awareness on this topic. I agree wholeheartedly with you (and Al, of course!) upon it. It's the most important issue humankind faces right now.
Posted by: tinker | 15 June 2006 at 01:47
Thanks Tara for putting the word out. You're a good soul.
Posted by: Rosa | 15 June 2006 at 01:12
Many choose to ignore the warnings of global warming thinking "not in my lifetime"..I applaude anyone(that includes you Ms. Tara) who brings to our attention the tragedy that we are headed for!I will surely read the book thank you for bringing it to my attn....to OUR attn.! I just knew you were a soulsister!!A nature caring
girl!
Posted by: naturegirl | 14 June 2006 at 22:19
Yes, I plan on it! I so agree that it shouldn't be a political issue. But then, SO many things should not be political issues! Grrr.
:)
Posted by: amber | 14 June 2006 at 20:55
He is my hero too. I think he behaved like a gentleman over the stolen election, and I could never understand people not wanting to vote for him because he was too "wooden" (what???). I never thought that. Anyway, his new role may be his most important one, for him and for us.
Posted by: Colette | 14 June 2006 at 17:22
An amazing contrast of images. Have not seen the film
Posted by: AscenderRisesAbove | 14 June 2006 at 17:20
We saw Gore on Larry King last night and he's a smart, funny man. It would be a very different US if he'd won as he should have ~ sigh.
Posted by: kristen | 14 June 2006 at 17:04
Thank you so much for putting this before us - bdfore me. Truth may be inconvenient, but refusing to look at it is unconscienable. I wish we could say he represents our collective conscience.
Posted by: Rebekah | 14 June 2006 at 15:39
Tara, I am so glad you posted this. I caught the tail end of Gore's appearance on Larry King so missed the entire context of what was being discussed. So glad to have this transcript to read.
Posted by: annieelf | 14 June 2006 at 15:24
every time I see Al Gore I wonder what the world would be like if FL hadn't goofed up. sigh.
will look for the book and/or add the film to the netflix queue. thanks for making me more aware of it.
Posted by: ally bean | 14 June 2006 at 14:06