"An Inconvenient Truth" is a hybrid vehicle, but instead of running on gas and electricity it serves as:

	Al Gore in "An Inconvenient Truth" Click photo for larger image. 'An Inconvenient Truth' Rating: PG for mild thematic elements. Director: Davis Guggenheim. Web site: www.climatecrisis.net

An elaborate, engaging science lecture by a man who deadpans, "I used to be the next president of the United States of America."

A look at why the 10 warmest years on record have come since 1990, why glaciers are melting, seas rising and storms, floods, droughts and wildfires are increasing in ferocity and putting life as we know it in jeopardy.

A slap at the George W. Bush administration over the outcome of the contested 2000 election and what it has done, or failed to do, about global warming.

A campaign video for a man who still might be the next president of the United States, although he is tamping down that talk. (Just like in that last campaign, there's nary a mention of former President Clinton anywhere.)

A call to arms to weatherize your home, recycle, carpool, walk, bicycle, plant trees, buy energy-efficient appliances, use compact fluorescent light bulbs, lower your thermostat by 2 degrees in the winter and bump it up in the summer. Also to vote, pray and not despair, for starters.

A scary movie far more disturbing than "The Omen."

I'm not sure what is more unlikely: a mainstream documentary about global warming or one featuring former Vice President Al Gore, especially one in which he is anything but stiff or wooden.

But "An Inconvenient Truth" has arrived, and if the filmmaking is flawed, it lays out the issue in surprisingly easy to understand terms, even for someone who hated the Science and Nature category in the original Trivial Pursuit.

Part of that is due to Gore, who embraces his inner science wonk, and part is due to the visual aids he uses, such as pictures from the deep recesses of space, then-and-now photos, bar and line graphs, and computer animation.

"An Inconvenient Truth," directed by Davis Guggenheim, is about the mission and the man. After a snapshot of the 2000 election, including footage in which the news anchors called Florida for Gore and then pulled back, Gore calls the outcome a hard blow. "What do you do? You make the best of it."

Gore has delivered his global-warming lecture more than 1,000 times, and the atmosphere sometimes resembles one of those PBS infomercials where the audience is learning to live longer. Still, he appears to travel without handlers, carrying his own bag, slipping off his jacket just like everyone else at the airport security checkpoint and never betraying the fact that this might be lecture No. 1,027.

Some critics charge that Gore has flubbed some of the science, but it's hard to argue with what Hurricane Katrina has wrought, how many families are two- or three-SUV households, and how it seems, anecdotally, that the winters are getting milder.

Guggenheim is a bit too star-struck, failing to address how the Clinton-Gore administration tackled global warming and fawning over the episodes in Gore's life that changed him. Some of the personal material, such as the death of his older sister from lung cancer and the nearly fatal 1989 car accident involving his young son, is well-trod territory, but it leavens the dry science.

The director, unfortunately, leaves the "news you can use" part until the very end, popping up practical suggestions as the credits roll and referring moviegoers to www.climatecrisis.net. If you see the movie at the Manor in Squirrel Hill, you cannot miss the enormous cardboard stand-up in the lobby, with a pocket holding fliers on 10 ways to cut down on carbon dioxide.

Whether you love or hate the messenger or fall somewhere in between, his message is one that deserves to be heard ... or seen.