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The Legacy of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” 20 Years Later

An Inconvenient Truth turns twenty next month. In the coming weeks, I am sure that there will be many retrospectives seeking to relitigate the scientific claims in the film. But the far more important anniversary story is not about the accuracy of any of Gore’s individual claims, but rather what the film helped to unleash in the scientific community: a decisive turn to bringing partisan politics into the institutions of science.

By Roger Pielke Jr. |  April 6, 2026