Last Tuesday, students filed into the PMAC and Getz Auditorium, wearing pajamas and sweatshirts, thanks to weekend-dress permission from Mr. John Ford, for a special program: an all-school viewing of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” (2006). The movie has been extremely popular since its debut and won two Oscars in 2007.
The movie’s main goal is to raise awareness of the world’s critical problem of global warming. Former Vice President Al Gore has driven the campaign for awareness ever since his controversial defeat in the presidential election of 2000. The movie has an enormous amount of data and graphs, which can almost feel overwhelming. However, the documentary seems to take that approach because the makers wanted to highlight the vast amount of data that no one pays attention to. It’s hard to take a negative stance on the issue because of the amount of data presented in the documentary.
Mr. Ford proposed the movie because he felt “it would kick off to the year right”—he wanted to start the ’07-’08 school year off with a strong theme. Ford mentioned several ways in which Choate began to confront environmental challenges last year, and wants to continue in the direction of a “green” campus. He also said that the movie would be beneficial for the campus because of the clarity of the information. He did note, “The film also carries controversy with it and we encourage conversation and debate around the campus.”
Before the movie began, student counsel president Jin Ha ’08 told the school to “watch the film with a critical eye”. He stressed the idea of separating the truth about global warming from the speculation, and mentioned the new sustainability committee here at Choate.
The Choate Sustainability Committee, according to Ford, is a group dedicated to assessing and minimizing the school’s impact on the environment. The group meets weekly to look at all aspects of the way the school runs. Topics have included the way food is served in the dining hall and the efficiency of utility use on campus. This group of hard working faculty, students and members of Choate Facilities Services study a certain situation on campus and then, according to Ford, “make recommendations about what they think we should be doing.”
Students and faculty members responded to the movie in a wide variety of ways. Brian McDermott ’08 felt that “the movie had too much information for the common folk to understand.” Rebecca Marber ’09, co-president of Choate’s Environmental Action Coalition (EAC), felt the presentation “was exactly what we needed here at Choate.” Marber stressed that “the problem of global warming is not fixed and the problem will not begin to get better until we are aware of the situation.” The EAC has many plans this year to further the theme of the film. They will participate in trash pick-ups and apple picking up at Paddock Farm. Marber said, “This year, the club hopes to educate the campus about certain environmental topics.” The specifics of this campus education are still under fierce debate. Other students around campus seemed apathetic about the film. One of the faculty members in charge of the freshman viewing room, Getz Auditorium, felt as if the movie “was filled with too much information and left the kids uninterested and restless.”
As the year unfolds, the works of the Sustainability Committee will hopefully make a significant impact on the Choate campus. With the theme of an environmentally safe school out there, it will be interesting to see how different groups on campus react to the changes.
