8/9/2019 TV Review: Al Gore - An Inconvenient Truth

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Review - An Inconvenient Truth9.20 pm Saturday - Channel 4

Al Gore: An Inconvenient Truth (film documentary)

DKav 2009 zebras54 website (www.zebras54.co.uk)update July 2010

This is a documentary from 2006 thatgenerated a lot of discussions. US politician Al Gore hasthe right stamina, enthusiasm, connections and beliefs to

make a documentary like this. In fact, this is a film byDavis Guggenheim and produced by Laurie David andLawrence Bender showing him give a power-point lecture- slide show. The visuals are by Duarte Designs. The mainmessage that we as human beings influence the climateand the fate of our planet for the worse and for the bestis powerfully rendered. I liked his comment that science is

neutral and that a regime which tells scientists to agreetheir way commits scientific fraud. What I learnt from thedocumentary is that scientists agree that global warmingexists and the controversy about it is at media level withsome groups that dispute it and lobby accordingly. In2006,The USA and Australia were the two countries thathad not ratified the 1992 UN Kyoto Protocol on reducingcarbon emissions. (the countries that did not express any

opinions on the protocol are: Afghanistan, Andorra,Brunei, Chad, Iraq, Palestinian Authority, Sahrawi ArabRepublic, San Marino, Somalia, Taiwan, Vatican-City andZimbabwe because the USA is responsible for a largepercentage of emissions, one can understand why theurge to make such a presentation in that country.

It has to be said that a UK court ruled that

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there are nine errors in the documentary: . For example -

Mr Gore's assertion that a sea-level rise of up to 20 feet

would be caused by melting of ice in either WestAntarctica or Greenland "in the near future". The judgesaid this was "distinctly alarmist" and it was commonground that if Greenland's ice melted it would releasethis amount of water - "but only after, and over,millennia".# Mr Gore's assertion that the disappearance of snow on

Mount Kilimanjaro in East Africa was expresslyattributable to global warming - the court heard thescientific consensus was that it cannot be established thesnow recession is mainly attributable to human-inducedclimate change.# Mr Gore's reference to a new scientific study showingthat, for the first time, polar bears had actually drowned

"swimming long distances - up to 60 miles - to find theice". The judge said: "The only scientific study that eitherside before me can find is one which indicates that fourpolar bears have recently been found drowned becauseof a storm."

Mr Justice Burton said he had no complaintabout Gore's central thesis that climate change was

happening and was being driven by emissions fromhumans. However, the judge said these nine statementsin the film were not supported by mainstream scientificconsensus. In his final verdict, the judge said the filmcould be shown as long as updated guidelines werefollowed. The case was brought by a school governorwho wanted the government to stop sending the film to

schools. Gore responds that scientists may disagree with

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him on some details, "but we do agree on thefundamentals." Personally, I am not concerned about theerrors because no lecture is 100% accurate and it is rare

that mainstream scientists agree on everything, hence theruling was wise and this documentary needs to make itbetter is to edit out the points of the presentations thatare wrong, some of the errors are from the examples heuses and one of them is a big clunker (the estimate of therising sea-levels) and Mr Gore will still be left with animportant message. It is also very easy to go through the

book and highlight the errors (by downloading a copy ofthe judgement) and juxtaposing them with what issupposed to be correct.

Al Gore wanted to generate discussion aboutour relationship with our planet, talk to individuals,families, groups - and he has done so with extensive

lectures. This is a mamooth task just like reducingpollution and waste on our planet. An academically-flawed but compelling document and an excellent,intelligent presenter who engages with his audience .Respect. For his wide-reaching efforts to draw the worldsattention to the dangers of global warming including AnInconvenient Truth, Al Gore, along with theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has

won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

The film won many awards for BestDocumentary including the Oscars 2007 for bestdocumentary.

Further information on the documentary :

www.climatecrisis.net/