Inconvenient Falsehoods

Here are some excerpts from recent Times Online articles concerning An Inconvenient Truth (See link at bottom of page for actual article):

‘Al Gore told there are nine inconvienient truths in his film. Not everything Al Gore says in his documentary is a proven fact. A High Court judge today ruled that An Inconvenient Truth can be distributed to every school in the country but only if it comes with a note explaining nine scientific errors in Al Gore’s Oscar-winning film.

The Government had pledged to send thousands of copies of the film to schools across the country, but a Kent father challenged that policy saying it would “brainwash” children.

A judge was asked to adjudicate between Stewart Dimmock and the Department of Children, Schools and Families. Mr Justice Burton ruled that the film could be sent to schools, but only if it was accompanied by new guidlines to balance the former US vice-president’s “one-sided” views

The judge said some of the errors were made in “the context of alarmism and exaggeration” in order to support Mr Gore’s thesis on global warming.’

As a result, the film is now only viewable in public schools along with its attached disclaimer, which lists the controversy surrounding its publication and the erroneous science upon which its arguments are based. The untruths are as follows:

* 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 the Greenland ice covering could melt causing sea levels to rise dangerously. The evidence is that Greenland will not melt for millennia. * The film suggests that the Antarctic ice covering is melting, the evidence was that it is in fact increasing. * 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 is unable to substantiate this and the Court observed that this appears to be a false claim.


Distributing the film and screening it in English schools is irrational, illogical, irresponsible, unfathomable and a host of other negatively-prefixed adjectives, and these are still understatements. The only positive aspect of this story is the high court’s adjudication and labeling of the film as unilaterally biased, relying on “alarmism and exaggeration” to prove its silly point. Alarmism? Exaggeration? How about adding “gross fabrication” to the list of despicable flaws in this supposed DOCUMENTARY. If the peace prize were usually reserved for ghoulish charlatans, I would have no qualms with its being bestowed upon the likes of Gore. But here is a man who is being celebrated for inducing mass delusion and hysteria. This I cannot tolerate.
In response to Global Warming’s recent popularity, there has been a surge in public service messages that also preach sermons of false doomsday. Even my fourteen-year-old brother saw the lunacy in a recent NBC public service message depicting people camping in a forest fire, washing their car in a flood, and walking a baby stroller through a hurricane. The narration was simply: “ignoring global warming won’t make it go away.” Well, neither will putting up a clothesline or installing those ridiculous curly lightbulbs. And if you choose to walk your infant during a major hurricane, you have bigger problems to deal with than the inconvenient fallacies delineated in Mr. Gore’s film.

Here are some other points to consider: The health of our environment has always been a human concern. The negative effects of pollution, littering, toxic waste dumping, and other irresponsible industrial practices were at the forefront of the American civic conscience during the 1970’s. The long-term environmental prognosis of the time, however, was that the earth was spiraling rapidly into a second ice age.

The post 9/11 terrorism scare was punctuated by several acts of violent terrorism in places like Spain and England. But terrorism is not our primary fear at this time. Even though these things actually happened, the American public is no longer compelled into fright by the ever-orange threat level. These events are merely distant figments of a lost history, obliterated by whatever threat the media deems most popular (and lucrative) in the here and now. It seems we as Americans are plagued by periodic bouts of collective amnesia, forgetting past fears and replacing them with countless others in an endless parade of terrorizing ideas, each having its turn in the spotlight of our fearmongering vogue.

The August 2006 issue of National Geographic’s cover shows a satellite photo of Katrina, and reads “No End in Sight – Killer Hurricanes." One year later, we have seen a remarkably inactive hurricane season with remarkably feeble storms dissipating in the Atlantic.

A recent TIME Magazine cover depicted a cute polar bear standing on a shrinking iceberg about to drown in a warming ocean, and read “Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.” The subtext: “You’re Next!”

Since this post was so long, it should count as two blogs!