After losing the 2000 Presidential election, former Vice President Al Gore decided to rededicate his life to environmental issues. He traveled around the country presenting a multimedia slide show about climate change in an effort to bring awareness to the threat the planet is facing due to global warming.

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH is a compilation of Gore’s various presentations interspersed with personal events from the former politician’s life, which makes this documentary far from a dry list of data and statistics.

One does not need a scientist to understand what Gore is trying to convey. By using graphs, charts, and cartoons to illustrate certain points along with film footage and photos from around the globe, the message is clear: Global warming is real and it’s not a political issue, but a moral one that should not be ignored.

In a major show-don’t-tell moment, Gore uses “before and after” photos to prove his point that the Earth is adversely affected by climate change. Photos from years past of various places, such as Mount Kilimanjaro, were shown and then compared to recent pictures taken of the same exact locations using the same exact shot set-ups. The differences in the images are disturbing. Where the area was once ice-covered, there’s now only a hint of ice left to be seen.

The movie also touches on how global warming and its negative effects on the planet, such as throwing ecosystems off balance, are related to and effect all human activity. For example, the massive population boom in the last half century alone has stressed the Earth immensely, as has the demand for goods and factory orders, motor vehicle usage and the fossil fuels they guzzle, and increased deforestation and cultivation. A rapidly increasing human population that acts irresponsibly can only lead to doom (in a Lovecraftian sort of way).

As if trying to show the harmful affects climate change has on the planet wasn’t hard enough, Gore also has the challenge of proving that global warming actually exists. It appears that the skeptics are people like Jim Inhofe, chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works who in 2002 received over $1 million from oil and gas companies. Fortunately for Gore, the evidence presented in the documentary has been confirmed as accurate by many climate scientists.

This film can easily be considered the scariest movie of the year. Fortunately, the frightening facts conveyed can lead to a positive change. No matter who you are — democrat/republican, man/woman, young/old, geek/non-geek, alien/humanoid, wookie/klingon — it’s not too late to reverse the negative affects of global warming. One need only acknowledge and understand AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH’s message of hope.

The environmentally-friendly packaged DVD hits stores tomorrow and a portion of the proceeds from its sales will go to the bipartisan climate effort, The Alliance for Climate Protection. Bonus materials on the DVD include a “making of” feature, a 30-minute introduction by Al Gore with updated information, a music video by Melissa Etheridge, who provide’s the film’s theme song, and commentary by the film’s director and producers.