Using “An Inconvenient Truth” to improve students’ critical thinking skills
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Using
“An Inconvenient Truth”
to improve students’
critical thinking skills
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Using “An Inconvenient Truth” to improve students’ critical thinking skills
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In this set of worksheets, there are 4 activities related to the film “An Inconvenient Truth”
and the development of critical thinking skills. For Activity 1-Activity 3, each of them is
divided into 3 parts – 1) Activities before watching the film; 2) Activities when watching the
film; and 3) Activities after watching the film. You may finish them in 3 stages according to
such arrangement (i.e. Finish Part (A) of Activities 1-3 before watching the film. Then,
complete Part (B) and Part (C) of these 3 activities when you are watching and after watching
the film respectively). For Activity 4, it is a summary of Activity 1-Activity 3, so it should be
done after finishing all the activities in Activity 1-Activity 3.
(A) Activities before watching the film:
The film “An Inconvenient Truth” won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in the 79th
Academy Award. The actor of the film is the United States (US) former Vice President Al
Gore who has made the issue of global warming a recognised problem worldwide in recent
years. He has joined the environmental conversation campaign after his failure in 2000 US
president election. Seminars of “Global Warming” were hold in different states in US which
aimed at calling peoples’ attention on climate crisis, and suggesting actions that need to be
taken immediately before desperation.
1. a) Have you heard “Al Gore”?
Collect information about Al Gore and jot down key points in the following box.
Using “An Inconvenient Truth” to improve students’ critical thinking skills
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(B) Activities when watching the film:
1. According to the information in the film, how does Gore’s personal experience affect his
work in environmental conservation? Record them in the box below.
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Using “An Inconvenient Truth” to improve students’ critical thinking skills
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(C) Activities after watching the film:
1. a) Some people have uploaded many comics related to Al Gore onto the Internet after he
won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 so as to express their opinions. How do you interpret
the following comics? Think and share with your classmates.
Comic A


Two Properties of Gore:
A 10,000-square-foot, 20-room,
eight-bathroom house, with a
swimming pool in Nashville,
Tennessee
A 4,000-square-foot house in
Arlington, Virginia.
&
An inconvenient house
You’re
feeling
warmer
-
£50,000-£85,000 per
speech
Hold stock options of
Google (worth £15 m)
Earn £4m by selling
books
Using “An Inconvenient Truth” to improve students’ critical thinking skills
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Comic B
Forgive me for
buying a private
car, please!
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Using “An Inconvenient Truth” to improve students’ critical thinking skills
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Comic C
Band Itinerary:
-Private jet to London
-Received at airport by four Hummer limos
-Perform at Live Earth Concert to increase public
awareness of global warming
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Using “An Inconvenient Truth” to improve students’ critical thinking skills
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b) Collect the comments of mass media on Gore’s promotion of environmental protection
and jot down some key points below.
Using “An Inconvenient Truth” to improve students’ critical thinking skills
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c) Now, what do you think about his motivation behind his action? Why?
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Using “An Inconvenient Truth” to improve students’ critical thinking skills
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(A) Activities before watching the film:
1.
a) Brainstorming about the concepts of “global warming” in groups of 4. Record them
below.
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Using “An Inconvenient Truth” to improve students’ critical thinking skills
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b) Complete the concept map below by classifying the above concepts of “global
warming” into different categories.
Concept Map – Global Warming
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Using “An Inconvenient Truth” to improve students’ critical thinking skills
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c) i) Complete the following activities:
1. Refer to the concept map on P.10.
2. Choose ten most representative concepts. Then complete column 1 of Table 1
(P.12).
3. Deduce and differentiate that ten concepts into the following three kinds of fact
systematically. Tick the appropriate boxes in the column “Before watching the
film” in Table 1.
A. Definite Fact
B. Possible Fact
C. Theory
(B) Activities when watching the film:
1. When you are watching the film, check your classification in column 2 of Table 1 with
the information in the film and jot down relevant information.
(C) Activities after watching the film:
1. a) With reference to Table 1, review your original ideas and classification of fact
(definite fact, possible fact and theory) about global warming after watching the film. Put
a tick in a suitable box of the last column.
b) After completing the activity in a) above, highlight which part(s) of your answers
has/have been changed? Why?
Using “An Inconvenient Truth” to improve students’ critical thinking skills
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Concepts of Global Warming
e.g. Greenhouse Effect
Before Watching the Film
Definite
Possible Fact
Theory
Fact

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Table 1
Classification of facts about the concepts of global warming
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After Watching the Film
Definite
Possible Fact
Theory
Fact

Using “An Inconvenient Truth” to improve students’ critical thinking skills
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(A) Activities before watching the film:
1. Study the information in the column “Arguments of the skeptics and objectors” of Table 2
(P.14-18). Collect relevant information and jot down key points in the following box.
Using “An Inconvenient Truth” to improve students’ critical thinking skills
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Arguments of the Skeptics or Objectors
Arguments of Gore in “An Inconvenient Truth”
Temperature is not increasing continuously
Temperature is increasing
We should investigate the pattern and the speed of
temperature rise. In fact, increase in temperature in the
20th century was not continuous. It rose mainly in two
periods - 1910 to 1945 and 1976 to 2000. All those studies
which show an increase in global temperature are not
representative and have bias because most of the
measurements are taken at weather stations in urban
areas. Normally, they are warmer than rural areas. These
weather stations are also located primarily on land, and
most are in the Northern Hemisphere.
Rising amount of CO2 may not
cause temperature increase
In the past 135 years, carbon dioxide increased only 20
percent. This increase coincides with the start of the
industrial revolution. As a result, some scientists claimed
that human beings should be responsible for the rising
amount of CO2. According to Kenneth Watt of the
University of California at Davis, increasing level of
carbon dioxide will cause increase in temperature. This
will increase the evaporation of tropical oceans and lead
to an increase in condensation of clouds at high
elevations. Cloud cover then blocks sunlight from heating
the earth with a cooler globe as a result.
Human beings should bare the responsibility of
global warming
Your Personal View
Using “An Inconvenient Truth” to improve students’ critical thinking skills
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Arguments of the Skeptics or Objectors
Arguments of Gore in “An Inconvenient Truth”
Biodiversity in regions of high elevations and latitudes
is higher than before
Global warming leads to lower biodiversity
Peter M. Vitousek’s research discovered that the
biodiversity in regions of high elevations and latitudes
were higher than those in the past under the effect of
global warming. Well-publicized examples are the
migration of robins to Alaska and the dog salmons to the
Arctic Ocean. In the past, these regions were too cold.
They turn to be better habitats for creatures with the effect
of global warming. Thus, global warming increases the
number of species and habitats of living things in these
regions which enhances biodiversity and reducing the
risks of species extinction.
Increasing amount of glaciers in some regions
Although some researches show glaciers are melting, Ola
Johannessen (a scholar in Norway) pointed out in his
research that glaciers at the inland of Greenland were
growing.
Global warming has led to the melting of
glaciers in the Arctic and Antarctica
Your Personal View
Using “An Inconvenient Truth” to improve students’ critical thinking skills
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Arguments of the Skeptics or Objectors
Arguments of Gore in “An Inconvenient Truth”
Increasing amount of solar radiation leads to
global climate change
Human beings should be responsible
for global warming
A study by Swiss and German scientists suggested that
increasing amount of solar radiation was responsible for
global climate change. Dr Sami Solanki, the director of
the renowned Max Planck Institute for Solar System
Research in Gottingen of Germany, discovered that the
Sun was at its strongest over the past 60 years. More solar
radiation is released and affects global temperature. The
Sun is now in a changing state. It is brighter than it was a
few hundred years ago and this brightening started
relatively recently - in the last 100 to 150 years.
Large-scale increase of pest after using pesticides for a
long period of time
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization
(FA0) discovered the massive increase of antibiotic pest
after using pesticides for long term. The research showed
there was an increase from 50 types of antibiotic harmful
insects in the 1950s to 552 types in the beginning of
1990s. In the late 90s, the number increased to 900. In
addition, changes of land uses also increase the number of
harmful insects.
Global warming leads to
large-scale increase of pest
Your Personal View
Using “An Inconvenient Truth” to improve students’ critical thinking skills
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Arguments of the Skeptics or Objectors
Arguments of Gore in “An Inconvenient Truth”
No change in the frequency of cyclones globally over
the past thirty-five years
Rising ocean temperature causes
stronger hurricanes
Peter Webster found that there was no change in the
frequency of all tropical storms and hurricanes over the
past 35 years globally. Although he discovered an
increase in the frequency of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes,
there was no proven link between global warming and
hurricanes.
Altering dry and wet periods periodically
Analysis of climate data from Africa, Asia, and Europe
fails to prove the linkage between global warming and
drought. Dry and wet periods have changed during
periods of warming and cooling for centuries.
Global warming makes droughts
more severe and frequent
Your Personal View
Using “An Inconvenient Truth” to improve students’ critical thinking skills
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Arguments of the Skeptics or Objectors
Arguments of Gore in “An Inconvenient Truth”
Increasing number of polar bears in
eastern part of Arctic
Polar Bears are at risk of extinction
Hmmm. So (a biologist) discovered that global warming
did not lead to the reduction in the population of polar
bears at the Arctic Circle adjacent to east Canada. Studies
showed that in the Davis Strait area (the part of Arctic
Circle near east Canada), the size of one group of polar
bears had grown from about 850 in the mid-1980s to
about 2,100 now.
Table 2
Your Personal View
Using “An Inconvenient Truth” to improve students’ critical thinking skills
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(B) Activities when watching the film:
1. With reference to column one of Table 2, summarise briefly in column 2 what Al Gore
claims in the film about each of these issues.
(C) Activities after watching the film:
1. After watching the film, evaluate the arguments of both sides about the issues in Table 2
and then express your own views on the issues. Complete column 3 of Table 2.
Using “An Inconvenient Truth” to improve students’ critical thinking skills
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With reference to all the information in Activity 1-Activity 3, collect more relevant
information to conduct a class debate.
Aims: To gain a deeper understanding on the issue of global warming and to learn to
think from different angles through the process of debate.
Motion: Global Warming is a disaster induced by human behaviour
What do we need to note in preparing for
the above debate?
We should think about the questions below:
1. How does Gore’s personal and political background
affect his arguments about global warming in the film?
2. How do those physical factors affect global warming?
3. To what extent is the physical factors and human
factors affect the degree of global warming?
4. Are the arguments of the ‘skeptics’ and ‘objectors’
believable? Why?
5. What actions have been taken by the countries
worldwide to lessen the effects of global warming?
Using “An Inconvenient Truth” to improve students’ critical thinking skills
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1. 《與氣候一起飆舞?坦然面對氣候變遷》，二零零七年十月二十五日
http://www.alps.ntct.edu.tw/env96/source/warm/GCC.pdf
2. 「全球暖化減緩墨西哥灣流活動 可能導致歐洲酷寒」
，《東森報》，二零零五年五
月十一日。
3. 吳俊傑(2006)，〈颱風與氣候變遷〉，《科學發展》，第403期，76-78頁。
4. 全球暖化與生態教育的路向
http://www.ecotourism.org.hk/other%20files/Eco-review_0207.htm
5. 《研究：墨西哥灣流減速10%可能是1200年至1850年小冰期的成因》，二零零七年
十月二十五日
http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:IAjtJOkR59oJ:e-info.org.tw/node/17150+%E5%A
2%A8%E8%A5%BF%E5%93%A5%E7%81%A3%E6%B5%81%E5%9C%B0%E7%9
0%83%E8%87%AA%E8%BD%89&hl=zh-TW&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=hk
6. Anne Johnson, Reforestation as a Carbon Sink: Toward Slowing Global Warming? TDRI
Quarterly Review, Vol. 7 No. 1 March 1992, pp. 8-14
7. Global Warming: Early Warning Signs
http://www.climatehotmap.org/index.html
8. Polar Bear Baby Boom Occurring in Eastern Arctic, Will Media Notice? October, 28,
2007
http://newsbusters.org/node/12694
9. Climate resets ‘Doomsday Clock’ , October, 28, 2007
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6270871.stm#story
10. Climate Change , October, 28, 2007
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/
11. Experts say global warming is causing stronger hurricanes, October, 28, 2007
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/2005-09-15-globalwarming-hurricanes_x.htm
12. Widespread amphibian extinctions from epidemic disease driven by global warming,
October, 28, 2007
http://www.utpa.edu/dept/biology/pounds.pdf
13. Sun's Direct Role in Global Warming May Be Underestimated, Duke Physicists Report,
October, 28, 2007
http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2005/09/sunwarm.html
14. Scare Mongering as Journalism: A Commentary on Time’s “Special Report” on Global
Warming , October, 28, 2007
http://cei.org/pdf/5288.pdf
15. Common Sense on Climate Change: Practical Solutions to Global Warming , October, 28,
2007
http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/solutions/common-sense-on-climate-change-pra
ctical-solutions-to-global-warming.html