Yesterday, I took the Chattering boys (ages nine-and-a-half and 12) to see “An Inconvenient Truth,” the documentary about Al Gore’s lecture on global warming. Midway through, the nine-year-old began to sniff, wipe away tears, and then sob in great heaves as aerial views of various cities, including New York, were shown flooding one day in the future if the polar ice caps completely melt. I hugged my son, and began to plan a hasty exit. How insensitive of me, I thought. I never should have brought him. But what to do now? Leave the older in his seat while I waited in the theater lobby with son numer two? Hussle everyone out?

Then the visuals shifted, and Al Gore took a new tact, as if the filmmakers knew just when to lighten up. My son calmed down, but we held hands for the rest of the film.

As the credits rolled at the end to the tune of Melissa Etheridge singing “I Need to Wake Up,” my son turned to me and said, “I think everybody should see that movie.”

So he made it, and we’re incredibly glad we went. Has anyone taken a child younger than nine? How did your older kids react? The “Truth” is a lot to handle. And it is the truth. Journalist Gregg Easterbrook has recanted.