Scientists OK Gore's movie for accuracy
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer
I'm sure many of you may have seen, Al Gore was on the Daily Show last night. When Jon Stewart asked him if he plans to run for President again, Gore said, “No way, this time I'm running a campaign for a cause.” Right on Al!
Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth, is opening in theaters across Iowa this Saturday, July 1st. Progressive Action for the Common Good is organizing a group showing of the movie at the Great Escape 14 in Moline, located at 4100 38th St (just off John Deere Rd). We will be attending the 5:05pm showing (last matinee) but will be gathering in front of the theater at 4:45pm. If you live in the QC, please join us! Wear a blue shirt for solidarity and easy indentification; I will be holding a Progressive Action sign. After the movie, we will be gathering at Panera Bread for coffee and conversation.
Hope to see many of you there!
Caroline Vernon
Scientists OK Gore's movie for accuracy
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON – The nation's top climate scientists are giving “An
Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore's documentary on global warming, five
stars for accuracy.
The former vice president's movie — replete with the prospect of a
flooded New York City, an inundated Florida, more and nastier
hurricanes, worsening droughts, retreating glaciers and disappearing
ice sheets — mostly got the science right, said all 19 climate
scientists who had seen the movie or read the book and answered
questions from The Associated Press.
The AP contacted more than 100 top climate researchers by e-mail and
phone for their opinion. Among those contacted were vocal skeptics
of climate change theory. Most scientists had not seen the movie,
which is in limited release, or read the book.
But those who have seen it had the same general impression: Gore
conveyed the science correctly; the world is getting hotter and it
is a manmade catastrophe-in-the-making caused by the burning of
fossil fuels.
“Excellent,” said William Schlesinger, dean of the Nicholas School
of Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University. “He got all
the important material and got it right.”
Robert Corell, chairman of the worldwide Arctic Climate Impact
Assessment group of scientists, read the book and saw Gore give the
slideshow presentation that is woven throughout the documentary.
“I sat there and I'm amazed at how thorough and accurate,” Corell
said. “After the presentation I said, `Al, I'm absolutely blown
away. There's a lot of details you could get wrong.' … I could
find no error.”
Gore, in an interview with the AP, said he wasn't surprised “because
I took a lot of care to try to make sure the science was right.”
The tiny errors scientists found weren't a big deal, “far, far fewer
and less significant than the shortcoming in speeches by the typical
politician explaining an issue,” said Michael MacCracken, who used
to be in charge of the nation's global warming effects program and
is now chief scientist at the Climate Institute in Washington.
One concern was about the connection between hurricanes and global
warming. That is a subject of a heated debate in the science
community. Gore cited five recent scientific studies to support his
view.
“I thought the use of imagery from Hurricane Katrina was
inappropriate and unnecessary in this regard, as there are plenty of
disturbing impacts associated with global warming for which there is
much greater scientific consensus,” said Brian Soden, a University
of Miami professor of meteorology and oceanography.
Some scientists said Gore confused his ice sheets when he said the
effect of the Clean Air Act is noticeable in the Antarctic ice core;
it is the Greenland ice core. Others thought Gore oversimplified the
causal-link between the key greenhouse gas carbon dioxide and rising
temperatures.
While some nonscientists could be depressed by the dire disaster-
laden warmer world scenario that Gore laid out, one top researcher
thought it was too optimistic. Tom Wigley, senior scientist at the
National Center for Atmospheric Research, thought the former vice
president sugarcoated the problem by saying that with already-
available technologies and changes in habit — such as changing light
bulbs — the world could help slow or stop global warming.
While more than 1 million people have seen the movie since it opened
in May, that does not include Washington's top science decision
makers. President Bush said he won't see it. The heads of the
Environmental Protection Agency and NASA haven't seen it, and the
president's science adviser said the movie is on his to-see list.
“They are quite literally afraid to know the truth,” Gore
said. “Because if you accept the truth of what the scientific
community is saying, it gives you a moral imperative to start to
rein in the 70 million tons of global warming pollution that human
civilization is putting into the atmosphere every day.”
As far as the movie's entertainment value, Scripps Institution
geosciences professor Jeff Severinghaus summed it up: “My wife fell
asleep. Of course, I was on the edge of my chair.”
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On the Net: http://www.climatecrisis.net
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