Images of melting glaciers and flooded streets flashed before students at a screening of former Vice President Al Gore’s new documentary Thursday.
UCLA’s Renewable Energy Association and UCLA Residential Life hosted a screening of “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power” on the Hill on Thursday night. The documentary featured Gore’s efforts to persuade governments around the world to adopt more renewable energy policies and encourage individuals to adopt more sustainable lifestyles.
The screening was followed by a recording of a nationwide Q&A session with Gore that was livestreamed earlier that day.
Joshua Abraham, president of REA and a third-year chemical engineering student, said REA wanted to share the documentary with students because the film’s topic of environmental advocacy is relevant because of recent natural disasters linked to global warming.
“It’s is one of the most pressing issues of our time, so it’s important to stay aware of what’s happening,” he added.
The event was designed to encourage UCLA students to take action in environmental sustainability, by joining student organizations that advocate on environmental issues, or making more eco-friendly choices in their daily life, said Matt Paterno, REA marketing and membership co-chair and second-year electrical engineering student.
Ryan Condensa, REA finance director and second-year chemical engineering student said he thinks educating younger individuals about climate change will make them able to advocate against factors behind climate change.
“There’s the accountability factor,” he said. “If you educate students on (the damage) by industries like manufacturing and transportation, we’re able to hold them accountable.”
The event’s recorded Q&A session featured questions from students all over the nation, including one fifth-grader from Connecticut who asked Gore about where to find accurate information online about sustainability efforts. Paterno said REA members collected questions from students on Bruin Walk and submitted three of them to the Q&A session. None were selected.
Some students said they were disappointed they were not able to directly interact with Gore at the event but added they learned new information about recent community and government efforts to combat climate change.
Arden Dressner Levy, a first-year pre-international development studies student, said she thinks the documentary did a good job of showing how countries in the developing world deal with environmental issues, and thought the footage of Gore discussing potential environmental policy changes with Indian lawmakers and their efforts to come to an agreement was engaging.
Dressner Levy added the documentary made her more interested in UCLA’s sustainability efforts.
Chris Nicol, a first-year material science and engineering student, said he was surprised the film focused on what individual Americans can do to combat climate change despite President Donald Trump’s decision earlier this year to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement. The 2016 agreement was signed by 195 countries to address pollution and other climate change issues.
Gore said during the Q&A session he wants younger individuals to start educating themselves and advocating for environmental sustainability in their communities.
“I really hope that you personally will decide to be part of the solution of this process,” he said.
Only five questions out of the hundreds (maybe thousands) submitted across the country were directly answered by Al Gore and his answers were thorough enough to cover a wide array of topics within those five topics discussed. The question we submitted, asked by Aneri Suthar, asked Gore’s preference of cap and trade programs versus a carbon tax, which Gore directly answered in response to the question of a San Jose State University student, so the issue wasn’t with the quality of questions submitted by UCLA student, as this article implies, but the time restraints placed on Gore in the live streamed event.