It usually takes a disaster - something along the lines of the Exxon Valdez - to inspire the sort of sustained, far-flung coverage of an environmental topic that Al Gore's new movie and book on global warming are receiving.

Environment Goes to the Movies ... Again "An Inconvenient Truth" is by no means the first wide-release to inspire environmental news along with activist efforts to galvanize public opinion on a major issue .... The intersection and interplay of movies with environmental politics and news coverage go back at least to the late 1970s. [ More ]

For environmental journalists, the outpouring of media attention to the film and book, both titled "An Inconvenient Truth," raises a question:

Could Gore's announced effort to create an action-oriented national consensus on climate change increase the public's, and media managers', appetite for environmental coverage - at least on the greenhouse issue itself?

Time will tell, but it seems possible that the movie/book release, interacting with other events, could help boost environmental reporting to one of its periodic high points.

For the time being, at least, Gore's return to national media prominence is contributing to the often-noted but sometimes fitful migration of environmental issues into journalistic regions well beyond the environment beat itself.

Several factors seem to have helped the former Vice President reap an impressive harvest of coverage for "An Inconvenient Truth" - in both of its formats, a presentation of his long-running slide show on climate change. Perhaps most importantly, the film and book were unveiled amid broadening media attention to the climate issue, fueled by recent events ranging from last year's cataclysmic hurricanes to a continuing string of worrisome scientific findings (see EW April 2006 article).

At the same time, major media outlets have been tacking away from a traditionalist approach that prominently featured global warming skeptics to one that conveys human-caused climate change as a relatively well-established, if still imperfectly understood, fact (see EW March 2006 article).

Another key reason that Gore's movie and book have garnered so many column inches and so much air time is interest in the possibility that he might make another White House run in 2008. (A cartoonist has shown "An Inconvenient Truth" in the minds of some Democratic Party leaders fearful of that very prospect!)

Gore has said another presidential bid is unlikely, but he has not definitively ruled one out. As a result, speculative reporting and commentary on this political angle have intermingled with the generally highly favorable reviews of the movie.

A multifaceted publicity campaign is being waged to fuel media interest in the movie and book.

Using advance screenings to build public interest, Paramount Pictures has promoted the movie in a phased series of openings around the country. The studio's announced aim was to have it open at theaters in the 100 largest movie markets by June 16.

Rodale, the magazine and book publisher, has been handling publicity for the printed version of "An Inconvenient Truth."

Early Reviews of Book, Movie Voluminous, Highly Favorable

Meanwhile, some environmental reporters have received calls about "An Inconvenient Truth" from Fenton Communications, the national PR firm that has often represented environmental groups on climate and other issues, along with various liberal causes.

Working for the liberal group MoveOn.org, Fenton has helped publicize a number of Gore's speeches on different issues since the Supreme Court declared him the loser of the 2000 presidential election.

A Fenton spokesperson told Environment Writer, however, the firm is not shouldering much of the publicity effort on behalf of "An Inconvenient Truth."

Whatever the catalyst, coverage of the film and book have been voluminous by any standard. A recent Google News search for their joint title turned up 2,820 articles.

All that media attention has taken a variety of forms. A sample:

-- Several national magazines - including New Yorker, The Nation, Wired and Vanity Fair - featured Gore on recent covers. "Climate Crisis!" screamed high-tech-touting Wired's May cover headline. Celebrity-laden Vanity Fair's "green issue" in May had a cover that proclaimed global warming a "threat graver than terrorism."

-- Time and The Wall Street Journal were among news outlets examining the ways that Gore's movie might intersect with his presidential intentions. Time's story led the magazine's National section in the June 5 issue.

-- Various news organizations did interviews with Gore. Examples include a couple that were broadcast on separate NPR programs and another that was published in the features section of the Houston Chronicle.

-- Movie reviews were numerous and overwhelmingly positive in their appraisal of the movie. According to RottenTomatoes.com, a website that compiles reviews from dozens of publications and websites, positive reviews outnumbered negative notices by 62-8.

Impact on Coverage of Climate Change ... More? Better?

So, the question remains: Could the media buzz around Gore and "An Inconvenient Truth" contribute to a lasting increase in coverage of the climate issue?

That's the aim of Laurie David, an environmentalist and producer of the movie.

In a joint interview with Gore on NPR's "All Things Considered" show on May 31, she was asked by host Robert Siegel what she would regard as evidence that "the American public" is embracing their message. She replied:

"My focus is media and how do you permeate popular culture with this issue, so right now I'm seeing morning shows across the country talking about global warming, thousands of articles being written and columns and editorials about global warming."

To keep his climate-coverage juggernaut rolling along, Gore has announced plans for a new organization, called the Alliance for Climate Progress, which features some prominent Republicans among its leaders.

The online environmental magazine Grist's Amanda Griscom Little reported on May 19 that the organization will launch "a massive media and grassroots education campaign trumpeting the urgency of global warming and targeted at all manner of Americans." (See Grist article.)

Bloomberg news service reported that this campaign would reach "across all media."

Meanwhile, the Journal's politically-focused story, published May 8, reported that Gore has hired Kalee Kreider, a veteran activist and publicist who has worked on several environmental campaigns, to handle communication duties in his Nashville, Tenn., office.

Kreider was a senior vice president at Fenton, where her biography said she "managed international and national media campaigns, crisis communications, Hill outreach and branding for clients including the Energy Future Coalition, Environmental Media Services (see EW March 2006 article), MoveOn.org, With Without War and True Majority."

Before joining Fenton, Kreider had worked for Ozone Action, Greenpeace and the National Environment Trust. The Journal, quoting a Gore adviser, reported that her work for him would "focus on global warming, not on maneuvering for 2008."

At least one prominent national magazine editor has signaled a possible receptiveness to story pitches that she might make in her new role.

A Grist dispatch from the New York "launch party" for Vanity Fair's "green issue" reported that editor Graydon Carter is planning to increase its environmental journalism, possibly including an annual green issue.

Impact on Environmental Reporting Generally?

It remains to be seen whether one guest's remark about the party – "It's the green people meet the beautiful people" – is a harbinger of the editorial approach that Vanity Fair might adopt.

Of greater importance to most environmental journalists is another open question:

Even if "An Inconvenient Truth" helps engender more coverage on the climate issue, per se, could global warming become so dominant that it might displace coverage of other environmental subjects?

Beyond that, there are indications that while Gore courts more climate-related coverage, he also may be engaged at the same time in a seemingly contradictory practice.

An April article in The American Prospect, a liberal magazine, reported that Gore in part appears to be involved in "disintermediation" – basically, excluding "the middleman" (in this case, the mainstream media), from his message.

"In Gore's case, (disintermediation) describes a public figure distributing his words directly to the public rather than working through established media outlets," writer Ezra Klein explained.

He quoted a longtime Gore friend, former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt: "Gore wants to make change, not be part of the distortive, stifling process of the mainstream media."

Could that wish be the inspiration for the "massive media and grassroots education campaign" that his new organization will reportedly undertake?

That too remains to be seen.