"An Inconvenient Truth": More Right Than We Knew

People laughed (and still are) at Al Gore over his film, “An Inconvenient Truth”. The planet’s not laughing.

I’m frankly tired of the lie that Al Gore’s predictions from his film were all wrong.

Yeah, he got a couple of things wrong, especially the timing. But the science behind what he said? Still very real—and in some cases, it’s even worse than he predicted. Let’s break it down:

Claim: “Within the decade there will be no more snows of Kilimanjaro.”

What Really Happened: Timing was off, but the ice is disappearing quickly. Gore was a little early on the timing, but he wasn’t wrong about the big picture. The glaciers on Mount Kilimanjaro are melting fast. Since the early 1900s, more than 80% of the ice has vanished! The biggest ice area shrank from about 11.4 square kilometers to less than 1 by 2022.

Claim: “This is happening in Glacier National Park. I climbed to the top of this in 1998 with one of my daughters. Within 15 years this will be the park formerly known as Glacier.”

In this picture of Glacier National Park, you can see tall mountains with bare rocky ground and pine trees in the front. A river flows through the middle of the scene. There’s just a little bit of snow. In the distance, you can spot a small patch of glacier ice, and even farther back, there’s a larger glacier still hanging on. — Image: Glacier National Park Credit: National Park Service

The Real Truth: Timing was off, but the ice is disappearing quickly. This comment was based on one research paper from 2002 that said, “Over the 20th century, the (area) of Kilimanjaro’s ice fields has decreased 80%, and if current climatological conditions persist, the remaining ice fields are likely to disappear between 2015 and 2020.” Unfortunately, the available data was limited and utilized poor resolution satellite imagery.

The park has already lost 60% of its namesake glaciers since the 1850s, and scientists predict their complete disappearance by the end of the century.

Claim: “In the Himalayas there is a particular problem because 40% of all the people in the world get their drinking water from rivers and spring systems that are fed more than half by the melt water coming off the glaciers. Within this next half century those 40% of the people on Earth are going to face a very serious shortage because of this melting.”

“An Inconvenient Truth” Nailed it! Himalayan villages are facing a water crisis.

Claim: “Carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels are way above natural cycles—and they’re going to keep rising. In 50 years, it’ll be off the charts.”

Graph of CO2 from NASA showing the past 800,000 years to spring 2025. Until recently, CO2 levels were between 180 and 280, but at one period reachiThis NASA graph shows carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels over the past 800,000 years up to spring 2025. For most of that time, CO₂ stayed between 180 and 280 parts per million (ppm), and only once did it reach 300. But today, CO₂ levels have shot up to 427 ppm—way higher than anything seen in nearly a million years.ng 300. Today's CO2 levels are at 427 ppm. — Image: CO2 past 800,000 years updated to Spring 2025. Credit: NASA

What really happened: It’s already worse than Gore guessed. CO₂ levels have soared even higher than expected.

Claim: “The 10 hottest years ever measured in this atmospheric record; they have all occurred in the last 14 years. The hottest of all was 2005.”

Image: Thermometer showing summer heat. Credit: user6309018 Freepix

What really happened: Yep, he was right. And it didn’t stop there. As of 2024, the 10 hottest years on Earth all happened between 2014 and 2024.

Claim: “We have already seen some of the heat waves that are similar to what scientists are saying are going to be a lot more common.”

Yep: Totally true. Heat waves are hitting harder and more often, just like the science said they would.

Humans Are Making Big, Slow Heatwaves More Likely

More than 150 ‘unprecedented’ climate disasters struck world in 2024, says UN

How Climate Change Affects Extreme Weather Around The World

The unprecedented Pacific Northwest heatwave of June 2021

Extreme Heat Is The Deadliest Weather Disaster

Extreme heat has killed 147 people in 5 counties, coroner’s report. The real number is likely much higher

Heat kills more Americans than flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes or lightning

Wildfires across Japan and South Korea fueled by climate change

Claim: “If this [the Antarctic ice sheet] were to go, sea level worldwide would go up 20 feet. Greenland would also raise sea level almost 20 feet if it went.

What really happened: He underestimated it. If all the Greenland ice melts, the ocean could rise 23 feet. And if Antarctica melts too? Sea level would go up nearly 190 feet. That would drown huge coastal cities across the globe.

So here’s the deal: Al Gore didn’t get everything exactly right in “An Inconvenient Truth”, especially the when. But the what? The science is solid. If anything, it turns out things are moving even faster than we thought.

Let’s stop pretending he was all wrong—and start focusing on what we need to do now.

Craving the truth? Let’s dig in and bust those myths wide open!