With this doc, based on the book of the same name by Danish environmentalist Bjørn Lomborg, director Ondi Timoner provides a refreshing sequel of sorts for Davis Guggenheim’s An Inconvenient Truth. While avoiding the scare tactics used in the famed 2006 documentary which served to bring global warming and the Earth’s welfare to the forefront of our collective consciousness, Cool It delves into long-term solutions and some temporary stop-gap measures that would cost much less and do much more good than proposed short-term measures to cut carbon dioxide emissions on this planet.
Problematically, Timoner’s film is a bit disjointed. The first 20 minutes are spent on Lomborg’s personal and professional history before moving on to interviews with professors around the world about global warming and possible solutions. Naturally, it also hits on Lomborg’s proposal for spending $250 million on decreasing global warming and addressing the world’s other problems (like lack of health care, lack of education systems and poverty). Perhaps the 20 minutes spent telling Lomborg’s story is meant to mirror the interspersion of Gore’s personal story in Truth, but here, it's more of a distraction, as if interjecting this man's personal story somehow adds a necessarily element of basic individual humanity.
Ultimately, the bulk of the film addresses the world’s future and the solutions that scientists have been studying for years and are ready to implement. In that, it is fascinating stuff to watch, leaving the viewer hopeful rather than glumly preparing for an imminent apocalypse. One can only hope that policy makers are sitting up and taking notes.
This film review was originally published on two.one.five magazine's website.
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