Reflecting on a Decade after We Learned of "An Inconvenient Truth"

Though the film is a decade old now, I find An Inconvenient Truth to be an incredibly compelling narrative on climate change.  The clarity and focus of the work resonates strongly with the increasing visibility of climate change impacts on the earth’s surface today.  Many new documentaries on the subject bring me to despair, including National Geographic’s “Before the Flood,” with Leonardo DiCaprio and the new series featuring David Letterman, the film “Merchants of Doubt,” and contrary to its intentions even Naomi Klein’s “This Changes Everything.”  I strongly dislike them all.  In this time of significant need, I wish new climate documentaries could reach the heights of accessibility, honesty, detail, and utter lack of snarkiness present in Al Gore’s work on the subject.

Sources:

David, L., Bender, L., & Burns, S. Z. (Producers), & Guggenheim, D. (Director).

(2006). An Inconvenient Truth [Motion Picture]. United States: Paramount Classics.

PlaNYC and Urban Design

Urbanized is an exceptional documentary that compares different cities, the tensions in development and the programming that cities promote.  NYC and the High Line are featured.  I can't help but wish that the story of NYC was more similar to the one for Bogota, Colombia.  I love the perspective that "parking is not a right," but rather transportation should be public, and therefore more inclusive and democratic.  According to the UN World Urbanization Prospects Report, NYC and Newark are expected to grow by over one million people by 2030 (UN 2014, 26), which suggests that transportation constraints will also grow tighter.

Sources:
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, 2014.  World Urbanization Prospects: The 2014 Revision, Highlights (ST/ESA/SER.A/352).
 
Urbanized.  Directed by Gary Hustwit.  2011.  London: Swiss Dots.