While a lot has changed, the fundamental understanding of climate change, dating back to the 19th century recognition that carbon dioxide warms the planet, has held strong, he says. In a controversial paper in March in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, researchers argued that the effects of climate change could be even more severe and sudden than current predictions.

A few of the most dire warnings need revising, says Thompson, at Ohio State University in Columbus. Some of the bold forecasts of the 2006 movie are holding, and others are on an accelerated track. More observations, faster climate-simulating computers and an improved understanding of the planet’s inner workings now provide a clearer window on how Earth’s climate will change. In the 10 years since the movie sparked increased public discussion, climate scientists have made major advances. Last December, Gore was on hand in Paris as 195 nations committed to the most ambitious pledge yet to fight back against climate change and curb carbon emissions ( SN: 1/9/16, p. But the film did what he and other researchers had been unable to do: “It got climate change on the radar,” Thompson says. Thompson missed the premiere of the documentary because he was gearing up to return to South America’s vanishing ice. Six years after his unsuccessful presidential campaign, Al Gore reentered the national spotlight to release An Inconvenient Truth, which heavily featured Thompson’s mountaintop research. Despite the gravity and urgency of their findings, the scientists’ warnings fell mostly on deaf ears for years. The delicate balance of Earth’s climate was upset.Īs research mounted, scientists around the world from fields as diverse as chemistry and astronomy were coming to grips with a newfound truth: Carbon dioxide spewed by fossil fuel burning and other greenhouse gases were warming the world at an alarming rate, potentially threatening the health and livelihoods of millions of people. Mammoth glaciers were disappearing at unprecedented rates and withering to the smallest sizes in millennia. Rising temperatures were melting ancient titans of ice and snow.

It was 1978, and high in the rugged Andes, Thompson and fellow scientists were witnessing the first glimpses of a pending worldwide disaster. More than 25 years before the star-studded Los Angeles premiere of An Inconvenient Truth, glaciologist Lonnie Thompson was about as far away from the red carpet as possible.

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