“The Scariest Movie You Will Ever See” is the billing of the movie, “An Inconvenient Truth.”

I went to see the film to find and hear what this scariest movie was all about. It is narrated by Al Gore, who did a reasonable and adequate presentation of a major world impending crisis. I felt that Mr. Gore was doing a monologue with all the necessary prompts, graphs and video inserts about a subject whose magnitude should not be taken so lightly.

It is about planet Earth and human existence.

Mr. Gore’s presentation was on global warming. His topic started with how global warming came about, how it is now accelerating rapidly, and its unknown effects on peoples’ lives and the environment. He emphasized that global warming is not new, it has been with us for many years, but in a manner the earth would recuperate and thereby function as it has for eons.

Today, this picture is changing. Earth is presently encountering a malevolent crossroad caused mostly by human activities. Some years ago, I read where scientists and environmentalists were saying that the condition of Earth is irreversible. In other words, there is some self-destruction that is changing the very fiber of our existence and people are unwilling to recognize or acknowledge the dangers that confront us or simply want to ignore the signs that are affecting the dangerous impending results.

In the news lately, there have been mentions of polar bears facing dangers of extinction from lack of icebergs to take care of their offspring, and for their source of resting. Perhaps some people may have read the article and simply brushed aside the consequences that this implies.

Global warming is only beginning to show how destructive a force it can inflict in our environment. The Sun Journal on July 11, 2006, featured the article “Heat may squash wineries.” That article states: “Climate warming could spell disaster for much of the multi-billion dollar U.S. wine industry.”

We can be complacent, and simply say: “That is in California. Who cares!” In that same article, the “National Academy of Sciences reported the earth is heating up and “human activities are responsible for much of the recent warming.”

What has also recently been observed in the U.S. is the concern about species of birds which are feared to become extinct at the rate of one per year, and possibly increasing in years to come. When you read about this, it is  easy to say: “Birds have nothing to do with me. Who cares!”

It is very easy to say “who cares!”

The bulk of my sources are based on articles published in the Sun Journal. On July 12, 2006, a small cube was listed on the bottom left section of the newspaper. That small brief listed five mini-comments/awareness of possibilities to come. The title was: “By the Numbers:”

1. 2050: Year the Arctic Ocean will be ice free, devastating coastal areas worldwide, if global warming continues.

2. 20. Feet that global sea levels could rise with the loss of shelf ice in Greenland and Antarctica.

3. One million. Number of species worldwide driven to extinction by 2050.

4. 300,000. Number of people who will die each year from heat waves, droughts, wildfires and intense storms.

5. 30. Percentage of pollution-causing global warming that comes from the United States.

The source of these facts was “An Inconvenient Truth.” This article is a calamity of possible events to befall the Earth. Is this warning just another scare tactic to get people upset and afraid of what may happen in the near future?

In the film, Mr. Gore lightly breached the causes for global warming. Now then, what are some of the factors that that show such a horrid and gloomy tableau? After seeing the film, I felt that there are two major components that exacerbate the possible downfall of our planet, and they are: money and population.

Money appears to be primarily the cruel evil of our planet. The central theme of many nations — including the United States — is to have full production for goods to be sold and the making of profit. The bigger the profit, the more rewards in wages and bonuses to be meted out to those key players in the direction of making money.

In turn, many of these individuals now request a better lifestyle where their earned money can purchase just about anything throughout the world. Money will buy just about anything one desires. With money, you can purchase bigger and more elaborate homes and built on land that has become a commodity; whereby the land that helps to control the environment is ravaged and destroyed.

Homes are built from materials that are shipped from all parts of the world and in many cases, those materials are carved from forests and mountains that help shield the sun’s rays, for the satisfaction in having more unusual items in their homes. Those people, indirectly, propagate the destruction of our planet. People will work and destroy whatever is in their path to make money.

There is little concern about the environment and how it impacts on planet Earth. Money fosters destruction and greed in every facet of the globe. Money makes factories, mills, shops, businesses produce items that are capricious rather than for the benefit of goods good.

Everywhere you go and in any land, money is the magic word that determines whether you can be rich and wealthy, thereby partaking of the spoil of the land. The demand for many is for bigger and more costly goods that separate those who have money and those who are willing to allow to destroy the habitat for wages.

The new adage of: “I want, I need, for me” is so commonplace and prevalent.

The second destructive causing environment is population. Perhaps scientists can say that the earth can sustain all life with proper agricultural application and use. The population of planet Earth at the moment is over 6.5 billion according to world calculations.

That is a lot of people. Is planet Earth really capable of taking care of so many people? What does it take to feed all these people three times a day, every day of the year? How much destruction go on a daily basis for many to eke out an existence?

At this moment, forest and agriculture land are being torn, damaged beyond repairs, stripped of practical uses so that individual workers may say: I have to do this to support my family. It is called wanton destruction.

Where are we going! What course of action needs to be addressed in order to attempt to change or correct the behavior patterns that, for many of us, are accustomed in having. Can anything be resolved? It is for all of us, individually, to answer that question. It will need a gigantic effort by every member on this planet to make radical changes in lifestyles.

Specifically, the need to stop the buying of goods that are extravagant and causing environmental destruction. Money needs to be considered for living peacefully, with less demands for the “more and bigger,” coupled with a willingness to take a closer look at what is happening to our water sources.

More and more, fish habitat is being poisoned by industry refuse and discharge in streams, lakes, oceans. How long will it take before the supply of fish left will be edible? Factories whose smokestacks belch smoke and debris that settles on land where food we eat is produced.

Is that food from the soiled land fit to eat?

The air we breathe is infected with gases and minute particles that mills, factories produce and spew out into the environment where we end up breathing this poisonous mixture, all for the production of money.

I feel it is the nature of people to ignore what is happening. The environmental concern is not local. It is universal but always somewhere else. Global warming is made up of gases trapped in the earth’s atmosphere. What about the air that is polluted and water full of filth and trash? It’s scary.

There is a possible outside factor that is never discussed due to its sensitivity to so many peoples and nations, and that is: religion. Is it impossible to request that all world religious faiths make an earnest attempt to unite and play a leading role in perhaps changing the course of world events for the benefit of mankind?

It would then be appropriate for all believers and non-believers to join hands in asking each religious deity to reverse the destructive path people from all parts of the globe have created, and make a fruitful and pleasant habitat for mankind.

It would seem some religious teachings are that “God” will take care of all us in his own way and time. Is the right time now? If you wait, it will be too late.

Recently while in Las Vegas, Nev., and watching television, a spot announcement told viewers that if you visit fightglobalwarming.com, the site will get you acquainted with all sort of stuff. I suggest trying it.

My final comment is for people who read newspapers, magazines, books or who watch the news on television, and have undoubtedly observed the constant references to global warming caused by the temperature changes and environment. That automobiles exhaust gases are major pollution contributors shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Our toys are contributors. Our atmosphere is definitely changing. Life on earth is presently precarious and red flags of imminent and destructive omens are waving before us.

Every human person must answer.

Ron Jean lives in Lewiston.