Global Warming; Real Science Strikes Back?

While Hollywood awards Al Gore for advocating the Politically Correct positions about global warming, it seems there are other filmmakers who are more interested in the larger picture, and the opinions of the greater science community.

In Britain, a documentary called "The Great Global Warming Swindle" is scheduled to air March 8th. From UK news:

'Global Warming Is Lies' Claims Documentary

[...] The programme, to be screened on Channel 4 on Thursday March 8, will see a series of respected scientists attack the "propaganda" that they claim is killing the world’s poor.

Even the co-founder of Greenpeace, Patrick Moore, is shown, claiming African countries should be encouraged to burn more CO2.

Nobody in the documentary defends the greenhouse effect theory, as it claims that climate change is natural, has been occurring for years, and ice falling from glaciers is just the spring break-up and as normal as leaves falling in autumn.

A source at Channel 4 said: "It is essentially a polemic and we are expecting it to cause trouble, but this is the controversial programming that Channel 4 is renowned for." [...]

(You can read related commentary and links here.)

The article goes into some detail about the arguments presented in the channel 4 documentary, arguments that refute mankind as being the primary force driving global warming. As interesting as that is, it doesn't stop there. It also has a look at some of the other factors driving the push to limit the "debate" about global warming to only politically correct positions:

[...] "Al Gore might have won an Oscar for ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, but the film is very misleading and he has got the relationship between CO2 and climate change the wrong way round."

One major piece of evidence of CO2 causing global warming are ice core samples from Antarctica, which show that for hundreds of years, global warming has been accompanied by higher levels of CO2 in the atmosphere.

In ‘The Great Global Warming Swindle’ Al Gore is shown claiming this proves the theory, but palaeontologist Professor Ian Clark claims in the documentary that it actually shows the opposite.

[...]

"At the moment, there is almost a McCarthyism movement in science where the greenhouse effect is like a puritanical religion and this is dangerous."

In the programme Nigel Calder says: "The greenhouse effect is seen as a religion and if you don’t agree, you are a heretic.

He added: "However, I think this programme will help further debate and scientists not directly involved in global warming studies may begin to study what is being said, become more open-minded and more questioning, but this will happen slowly."

I think it's perfectly fine to question and study the impact pollution may have on global warming. But in order to eliminate the good science from the bad, we need open debate and discussion, not repression of opposing viewpoints.


In short, we need less holy pronouncements, hysteria and hot air from the Goricle, and more reasoned, balanced scientific discussion and debate. The truth can always hold up to scrutiny, and no one must dictate to us what we are allowed to say and discus in our quest to scrutinize and uncover the truth.

Unfortunately, I don't expect that "The Great Global Warming Swindle" will receive an airing here in the US. But who knows? The tide may yet turn, if enough people demand more information, instead of less.


UPDATE 03/11/07: Here is an on-line link to the documentary:

"The Great Global Warming Swindle"