Hi folks,
The usual disagreements with an "Inconvenient Truth" have been pretty lame. Instead of arguing facts and data, obscure nut case "scientists" are cited or we get a big dose of anti-environmental nonsense. These are so easy to spot that I automatically move on. But recently there was a court case in England challenging an "Inconvenient Truth" and this is the first time I've seen criticism that has some merit.
There were
nine specific findings and though some of them are silly, "Snows of Kilimanjaro" was an example of glacier mass loss world wide, others have more merit. Yet curiously, nothing has been brought here for discussion. So the nine finding were:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
We are hindered because we don't have the transcript. So we don't know if the defenders sent a low-level, civil servant, a Mr. Bean character, or a serious advocate. Regardless, the film will be distributed to the classrooms with some updated teacher guides, which I agree with.
Bob Wilson