Gore's New Movie Highlights Alternative Energy In Deep-Red Texas

"'An Inconvenient Sequel' takes viewers to Georgetown, Texas, which will soon draw all of its electricity from wind and solar. Could stories like this one point toward a possible shift in conservatives' energy policy?"

"In his 2006 film "An Inconvenient Truth," former vice president Al Gore warned that humanity had 10 years to avoid reaching an environmental "point of no return."

In response, conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh started a doomsday countdown clock. When it hit zero last January, National Review writer David French proclaimed it "time to laugh" at climate activists.

Regardless of whether or not we’ve hit a “point of no return,” scientists are more convinced than ever that humans are driving climate change and a wide range of negative effects. Meanwhile, however, some US conservatives have grown more skeptical. In 2001, the gap between Republicans and Democrats on whether they believe climate change is real, and caused by humans, was 17 percent. By 2016, that gap had grown to 41 points, as The Christian Science Monitor reported last October.

Mr. Gore may think he can change their minds. His follow-up documentary "An Inconvenient Sequel," which premiered Thursday at the Sundance Film Festival, spotlights the conservative town of Georgetown, Texas. In 2015, Georgetown announced plans to generate all of its electricity from wind and solar. In the film, Gore jokingly warned the mayor that observers might mistake him for a liberal, as The Washington Post notes."

Patrick Reilly reports for the Christian Science Monitor January 20, 2017.