Data vs. Drama—the 20-Year Legacy of Al Gore’s Climate Warnings

Two decades ago, Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth" thrust climate change into the global spotlight. With dramatic imagery and dire warnings, it transformed a niche concern into a front-page crisis, influencing rich country leaders and elite jet-setters, and inspiring a generation of activists.

Twenty years affords distance to reflect not just on the film’s impact, but also its accuracy. Many of Gore’s most alarming predictions have failed to materialize, while the policy response it helped inspire has proven extraordinarily flawed.

Two decades on, "An Inconvenient Truth" reminds us that panic is a terrible policy advisor. Focusing on cost-effective solutions—innovation, adaptation, development—will save trillions and do much more to help both people and the climate.