Criticisms of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”
Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth became a big part of the British secondary educational landscape when it was made part of the official curriculum. This was big victory for those who feel the world is in imminent danger because of anthropogenic global warming. However, the High Court of London recently said “not so fast.” Steward Dimmock sued under Section 406(1)(b) of the Education Act 1996, claiming that the movie is a form or political indoctrination. That law says that school governing bodies and head teachers “shall forbid… the promotion of partisan political views in the teaching of any subject in the school”.
The court ruled that 1.) in order to show this movie to the children teachers must make clear that the film is a political work and promotes only one side of the argument. 2.) If teachers present the film without making this plain they may be in breach of section 406 of the Education Act 1996 and guilty of political indoctrination. 3.) Nine inaccuracies have to be specifically drawn to the attention of school children.
I will use these nine cited inaccuracies as a jumping off point for my criticisms of An Inconvenient Truth, both the book and film. These nine inaccuracies are:
- The film claims that melting snows on Mount Kilimanjaro evidence global warming. The Government’s expert was forced to concede that this is not correct. more…
- The film suggests that evidence from ice cores proves that rising CO2 causes temperature increases over 650,000 years. The Court found that the film was misleading: over that period the rises in CO2 lagged behind the temperature rises by 800-2000 years. more…
- The film uses emotive images of Hurricane Katrina and suggests that this has been caused by global warming. The Government’s expert had to accept that it was “not possible” to attribute one-off events to global warming. more…
- The film shows the drying up of Lake Chad and claims that this was caused by global warming. The Government’s expert had to accept that this was not the case. more…
- The film claims that a study showed that polar bears had drowned due to disappearing arctic ice. It turned out that Mr Gore had misread the study: in fact four polar bears drowned and this was because of a particularly violent storm. more…
- The film threatens that global warming could stop the Gulf Stream throwing Europe into an ice age: the Claimant’s evidence was that this was a scientific impossibility. more…
- The film blames global warming for species losses including coral reef bleaching. The Government could not find any evidence to support this claim.
- The film suggests that sea levels could rise by 7m causing the displacement of millions of people. In fact the evidence is that sea levels are expected to rise by about 40cm over the next hundred years and that there is no such threat of massive migration.
- The film claims that rising sea levels has caused the evacuation of certain Pacific islands to New Zealand. The Government are unable to substantiate this and the Court observed that this appears to be a false claim.
RSS
found it very useful
Tom. Why are people so polarized about this issue. We should be working together, on both sides of the aisles, from all POVs, no?
Danny
Polar City site to list 6.6 billion Earthlings in global roll call
PRESS RELEASE
for immediate release anytime
contact: Danny Bloom
Virtual ‘global warming’ museum to list names of all 6.6 billion current
inhabitants of Earth, country by country, as commorative time capsule
Names will be printed on website of ‘polar city’ images created by
Taiwanese artist Deng Cheng-hong, according to site curator
NEW YORK / TAIPEI — When Taiwanese artist Deng Cheng-hong came up with a
series of computer-generated “blueprints” for what a future polar city
might look like for survivors of global warming in the year 2500 or
so, he had no idea that his images would find a home on the James E.
Lovelock Virtual Museum of Polar City Images, curated by American
climate blogger Danny Bloom. Although the online virtual museum has no
official connection with Dr James Lovelock on Britain, it was named in
honor of the British scientist because of his important work on
climate change and global warming, according to the museum. And Dr
Lovelock has seen the images that Deng created and said in an email to
the musem: “Thank you for showing me these images. It may very well
happen and soon.”
Now the online museum, which currently displays a series of 10
illustrations by Deng and has been the subject of news articles at the
New York Times and the Kansas City Star, in addition to Gizmodo, is
taking another step in emphasizing the gravity of the situation
humankind finds itself in in regards to climate change and global
warming.
Bloom said that he has embarked on an ambitious and quixotic quest to
obtain and list the names of all 6.6 billion inhabitants of the Earth as
a kind of commemorative time capsule of people who are live today. He
said that by compiling the massive list of names of all Earthlings
alive today, he hopes to emphasize the seriousness of climate change
and global warming and the possible problems they might pose for
future generations of humankind if steps are not taken now to grapple
with the issues involved.
“We need to give people a positive vision of the future of polar
cities for survivors of global warming in the year 2500 or so, if
worst comes to worst, a positive vision that’s worth fighting for, ”
Bloom said in a statement released on the Internet in April. “We will
be looking at sustainable human population retreats, so-called polar
cities, where there will be a lot of social interaction, where we will
love being with each other, despite a difficult climate, despite a
difficult world in the far distant future. I think that is a really
important thing.”
By compiling the list of all 6.6 billion inhabitants of Earth, Bloom
said he hopes “to highlight the fact that the issues of global warming
do not involve rich nations competing against poor nations, or
rightwing pundits against environmental activists, but rather the fact
that we are all involved in the future we are creating together, in
this day and age.”
To send in your own invidual name or a longer list of family members
and friends to the online virtual museum for inclusion in what Bloom
is calling a “global roll call”, Internet users are invited to send an
email to reporter.bloom@gmail.com
Bloom calls his effort, along with Deng’s striking illustrations of
what a polar city might look like in the future, a wake-up call for
those who are still sleepwalking toward the future. He has no
particular agenda, he says, other than to help sound the climate
change alarm in a provocative yet positive way, and says his campaign
is just one among many around the world where local citizens are using
the Internet to raise awareness about the issues of global warming
that confront humanity today.
–
POLAR CITIES BLUEPRINTS:
http://pcillu101.blogspot.com
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Well said!
http://www.jonesview.wordpress.com
Thank you for giving us the truth as I know it was inconvenient that you even need to. I hate the word green.
This blog’s author clearly indicates that he believes global warming is a partisan political issue, when in fact it is as much of a scientific consensus as men having walked on the moon. You will find those who say no but they destroy their own credibility by ignoring reality and imagining vast conspiracies. Not that conspiracies never exist mind you, just not in cases so easily disprovable.
The cosmic ray data are very interesting and there does seem to be some weak influence of cosmic rays upon cloud clover in a large amount of noise. The noisy data in fact indicate that there have to be other factors besides cosmic rays having huge effects on cloud cover. But somehow the author of this blog wants to draw the opposite conclusion and say there’s no human-caused global warming because it can all be explained by cosmic rays.
Weather and climate involve complex systems with many inputs driving them; logic and reason would certainly suggest that there are many factors interacting to produce the observed global warming. There are long term trends in solar output over millions of years and we may be in an upward or downward trend but it isn’t going to be appreciable over a few years or even centuries. We do know there have been ice ages and that the climate is not necessarily constant but we also know that historical changes have been very slow. But we also know the Industrial Age began a period of dumping CO2 into the air that is unprecedented, millions of tons every year and still going on. We know the CO2 content of the atmosphere has changed significantly and we know that the CO2 content of the atmosphere is an important factor in weather and climate. Whether you’re talking about direct effects upon the atmosphere’s thermodynamics or CO2 indirectly increasing plant growth and affecting solar absorption, you can debate the relative proportions of influence and continue to research further to learn more about the complex web of interactions in our atmosphere that our very breath ultimately depends upon. But what you cannot do in any rational state is to pretend that there’s no human contribution to global warming or if there is it’s so small it doesn’t matter, just because you hold a belief system that makes you think in reverse to justify the opinions you want to hold, regardless of any objective reality. Science works opposite from that, taking the evidence available to form as accurate an understanding of reality as possible. Scientists don’t claim to have ultimate answers to every question, just some answers to some questions painstakingly pried from nature so far. Science is a work in upward progress in knowledge from many roots and not a frozen-solid top-down belief system like most churches exhibit. Clearly science is superior to dogma and superstition, there never once in history ever being a case where the religious view was found to be true when in conflict with science, the classic example being Galileo espousing the Copernican view of the solar system. It just never happens that religion is correct, and any rational person should be able to see that. Just as any rational person ought to be able to understand that we humans have been drastically altering our own atmosphere a lot lately, and if we don’t stop there can only be catastrophic consequences for some generation of our children’s children. We can quibble over details but it isn’t going to change the basic fact that we are seriously crapping up the planet. What kind of person would be so eager to crap up the planet for their own offspring? A: a person who is not rational.
DWFascists, a couple things;
1) Paragraphs breaks are your friend. Use ‘em.
2) This does not appear to be an anti Christian blog, a pro fascist blog, or a forum to wander through the nether regions of banality.
As your prose tends to favor volume over substance, may I suggest you acquire a calligraphy set, rewrite the butchered block of black ink above, and mail it to yourself.
Just think of the hours spent marvelling at your own musings, presented in fanciful calligraphy ~ why, you could upgrade your moniker to reflect the art you would inject into the void you live in.
You could become “Fanciful Dances With Fascists”, and write yourself often.
Your peers would be overwhelmed!
This site is crap
no it is not, someone else is…..
Dear sfsfdf,
Thank you for your thoughtful and convincing comment.
ClimateSanity
Ok, its impossible to have a major global issue be purely scientific with no political involvement at all.
Also, why don’t you cite sources for your last four bullet points?
Dear Annoyed,
Please, avoid whining in these comments.
Best regards,
Climatesanity
[...] Climate Sanity « Reply to John Mashey The Thermohaline Circulation Only Stops for Extreme, Unrealistic Models June 4, 2009 Return to Criticisms of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” [...]
“This blog’s author clearly indicates that he believes global warming is a partisan political issue, when in fact it is as much of a scientific consensus as men having walked on the moon.”
What a howler! One of the primary rhetorical tools used in an attempt to stifle debate and discussion is the “consensus” statement. Even a cursory review of the literature and the issues would be sufficient for most individuals to realize that there is a significant debate about many issues relating to global warming and that the mythical “consensus” is just that — a myth.
The analogy to those who believe in a moon hoax is invalid, because we are talking about completely different percentages of individuals here, as well as the fact that the moon hoax refers to a small number of specific historical events, whereas global warming represents a mishmash of numerous theories, models, projections, conjectures, assumptions and the like about potential future events.
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