A decade ago or so, I read The Sea Around Us (Rachel Carson), a book that prompted me to modify my college degree from physics to environmental science (officially, it’s a BA in physics [go figure], but I took enough course in biology and chemistry that I sometimes consider my degree to be environmental science). I also spent the summer before my junior year at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the fall semester of that year at Williams-Mystic, where I learned quite a bit about the oceans. (I’m F97!)

After graduating, instead of pursuing work in Physics, I made my way to the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University, where I left with a Masters in Environmental Management. From there, I took a job at a large federal agency with the mandate to protect the environment.

All this is a roundabout way of establishing, I hope, my bona fides. I know this stuff. I know what’s happening in the world. I know what we’re doing to it, and the crap we’re leaving for our kids and our grandkids to clean up.

But I didn’t really know. Not in my heart, I didn’t.

An Inconvenient Truth (a companion to the Oscar-winning documentary is sobering, hard-hitting, spectacular, moral, and, ultimately, life-changing. I don’t mean to gush, since this isn’t a book to gush over, but An Inconvenient Truth is required reading. Or should be.

The core of the book is pictures. Lots of gorgeous, high-resolution, sweeping pictures. They’re not as good as the photos in The Earth from the Air (but what is?), but in terms of impact, they’re just as good. Al Gore has put together a stunning slide show (no PowerPoint for him!), and it’s truly gotten people talking.

It definitely got me moving. We’ve given up our car (to be fair, there were plenty of other reasons why we did this). I’ve signed up to be a presenter for The Climate Project, where, if accepted, I would give Mr. Gore’s speech at least 10 times a year. We’ve made an effort to purchase local foods (we’re dependent on Whole Foods, however, which may not be what we think it is). Our next step is to reduce the junk mail we get and trash.

Are we doing enough? Does it even matter? It’s already getting hot sooner and staying hot longer. But if this book had the power to move me and my family, then surely the book (or the DVD) is moving other people to act as well.

Hopefully, it’s enough.