What does Scripture tell us about environmental stewardship? Genesis 2:13 says: The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. We can infer from this that the Lord expects us to take good care of the world, but what, exactly, does that mean? An Inconvenient Truth and Who Killed the Electric Car? are two new documentary films that evaluate our treatment of the environment. They’re both interesting and provocative, especially if we can set politics aside.
An Inconvenient Truth is Al Gore’s plea for us to take global warming seriously. You probably wouldn’t think that watching excerpts of Gore’s worldwide slide show would make for an interesting movie, but it does. The claims Gore makes are perhaps familiar: the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere keeps going up; 2005 was one of the hottest years ever; global warming causes both drought and increasingly severe storms (e.g., Hurricane Katrina); the polar icecaps may melt and flood coastal areas. What does Gore think we should do? Among other things, we can commit to personal recycling, consider buying a hybrid car, and pray. A good bit of An Inconvenient Truth seems on target. Unfortunately, Gore gets political at times; his film would have been stronger without the political barbs.
Who Killed the Electric Car? is a fascinating series of interviews with the former owners of the electric cars produced by General Motors starting in 1996. The California Legislature had passed an electric car mandate, and for a while there were quite a few of these autos on California highways and in other places. They were popular with their owners. Actually, the word owners is a misnomer, for consumers could only lease the cars; they couldn’t buy them. According to the film, this was all part of GM’s plan to throw a bone to environmentalists without being serious about improving the environment, as witnessed by the fact that GM later withdrew all the cars from the market and destroyed them.
Good environmental stewardship should not be a political issue. These two films ask penetrating questions and challenge us to look beneath the surface in judging how to care for the world. They’re both well worth seeing, if only to get ourselves to think carefully about the questions they pose.
My Ratings:
An Inconvenient Truth: 3 stars (PG)
Who Killed the Electric Car? 3 stars (PG)
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