“An Inconvenient Truth” combines terrifying images with scientific studies to create “the scariest movie of the summer.”

The documentary about global warming premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews. It features former Vice President Al Gore, who, after his defeat in the 2000 presidential election, returned to his crusade against global warming, something he has been passionate about since college.

The film is based off of Gore’s initial global warming project, which included a presentation dubbed “The Traveling Global Warming Show.” He has traveled around the world for years presenting the facts to packed auditoriums in the hopes of raising awareness. Finally, he decided to try and reach more people and teamed up with director Davis Guggenheim to attack the problem on a bigger scale – through film.

“An Inconvenient Truth” shows riveting images of what could happen to our planet within the next 50 years if we choose to ignore the problem of global warming. Gore shows many images of glaciers, rivers and rainforests 30 years ago and what they look like now. The differences are astonishing. He presents charts showing the increase in temperature over the last 15 years, the increase in rainfall and drought and the growing viciousness of hurricanes.

Not only does he show the science behind the increasing threat of these natural disasters, he explains why and how our contribution to global warming is quickly making the problem worse.

Although the film is quite disturbing and the feeling of doom may be lurking over the theater, Gore leaves the audience with a sense of hope, if we, as a country, start to do something about it, and now. He offers multiple ways for concerned citizens to get involved in any way that they can.

This film may not be the most entertaining film of the summer, but it is the most important. “An Inconvenient Truth” leaves it’s audience with the undeniable reality of global warming and the urgency to go out and do something about it.

Gore argues “global warming is a moral issue,” and after seeing this film we can only hope that the rest of the country will agree. “An Inconvenient Truth” is a must-see documentary that should be viewed by anyone who cares about the future of our planet, our home.

Sarah Shiner can be reached at [email protected].