Bill's Notes

The Nobel committee apparently is as politicized as Hollywood. A British Court recently found 11 inaccuracies in An Inconvenient Truth, and said showing the movie to school children counts as political indoctrination. These 11 inaccuracies are not side issues or quibbling over irrelevant details (see below post), but are important ones:

The 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.

* 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 are unable to substantiate this and the Court observed that this appears to be a false claim.

Though we have made great progress since I was a boy, we still have ongoing and serious environmental issues to face. Our farming practices in the Midwest are depleting water reserves, and the Great Lakes could be at risk. We do have to continue to work to protect against deforestation, to protect drinking water supplies, to continue to reduce air pollution. I am completely on board with trying to replace fossil fuels — a trip to Manila would convince anyone of that. And what the heck is happening to the bees? And other species, especially birds?

I agree, also, that man should limit his "ecological footprint." I'm concerned about suburban sprawl. And I want to see a world where animals can roam free and man hasn't subdivided every last lot on the world. (And I do believe that time is coming — within 100 years within the U.S.) And

But global warming alarmism isn't going to help any of these serious issues. It politicizes issues that should concern us all. And it may blind us to the real issues we face.