Regardless of the success of An Inconvenient Truth as a film, Al Gore's pet project has failed as a publicity venture. The purpose of such a documentary ought to be to disseminate the news and proof of global warming far and wide. Surely all the publicity the movie has earned has reached far more folks than the film itself. Not to mention, those who pony up the ten dollars to see the film are probably already convinced of the threat of global warming.

But the publicity swirling around An Inconvenient Truth is almost entirely about the warming of Al Gore, not the planet. Two themes prevail: "Will he run for president?" and "Oh my good gosh, look how lovable he is now?" Neither has anything to do with the man's slideshow on climate change or the body of evidence therein.

This isn't all Gore's fault. Although, he doesn't seem to have protested his many photo shoots or profile interviews, he is obviously trying to work within the system in place, to bring an awareness and a concern about global warming in from the cold, into the mainstream. It just so happens, the mainstream media are not particularly well set up to disseminate lots of wonky meteorological information. The system is much better at covering, say, the continuing adventures of Brangelina. Or the revitalization of a once maligned politician.

There is also some purity lost when something, a movement or a teevee show, goes mainstream. The small, unknown band that was so lovable becomes a famous, annoying publicity machine with fans that could ruin the best music. In the case of environmentalism, the move to get to the political center seems to have killed the idea of conservation.

Gore wants to bring the fight against climate crisis into the economic mainstream, as well as the media center. His enthusiasm for using capitalism to thwart the problem does have some exciting potential. New technologies will hold a lot of the answers as we sort out the puzzle of living a sustainable life. There surely is a great deal of money to be made by those who figure out how to green our economy and culture. A key discovery in renewable energy would be valuable indeed as oil climbs out of our price range. But the impulse to solve our problems with a heady dose of capitalism also whitewashes away the continued problem of over-consumption.

Gore and his mission of fighting climate crisis with capitalism were at the center of last month's survey in Wired magazine of the so-called neo-greens, those environmentalists who have come in from the political fringes to support the capitalist solution. Amidst Wired's coverage were scattered the innocuous graphics and charts that mar print magazines today as they try, bizarrely, to be the Internet. One of them illustrated various ways in which the country's new environmentalists might live their capitalism, sustainable lives. Wired suggested they could buy an iPod cover made from plant matter. Conservation is out. Buying useless shit, so long as its organic/recycled/biodegradable, is in. The idea that we could take a bite out of some of our problems by buying less will never have the same appeal as a guilt free, shiny new iPod cover.

Guilt, indeed, is not a part of the new operating model for environmentalism. It's not feel good enough. It doesn't test in focus groups. And, thankfully, it can now be purchased away. In his various interviews and profiles Gore points out that he and his wife balance all the air travel they do to promote An Inconvenient Truth by buying carbon credits. The film also suggests a website viewers can use to calculate their own carbon emissions and how many credits they ought to buy back. Like Catholicism before the Reformation, Environmentalism will now allow you to pay away your sins. The need for reducing our carbon footprint is gone. There's a way to buy it away. Even if that's not how the carbon credit program started, that is how it will end. Buying carbon credits doesn't take your carbon emissions out of the air. The entire credit model is built around accepting a status quo. Anyone who happens to beat that status quo gets a little bonus -- they can sell some of their credits -- but those credits are still on the market, now ready to be bought up by someone who wants to drive three blocks to the store with the AC on.

Perhaps this is for the best. Over-consumption might not be a force we can stop. At this point, Americans' appetites may be so firmly in the On position that getting them to Off simply isn't possible. Or, there's a quicker, dirtier solution in simply making everything they consume sustainable or renewable. Going mainstream and turning to capitalism and skin-deep publicity may be the answer. Getting the most attention, even if it's not meaningful, and trying to bend consumerism to better itself may ultimately turn the tide on global warming. But as Gore well knows, you can win the popularity battle and still lose the war.

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