What's your opinion about Al Gore's documentary; "An Inconvenient Truth"?

Question

- Pro?

- Con?

and Why?

and What should we inform ourselves and children about the global warming?

Answer 1

Same as my opinion of Al Gore: very very convincing, but rather boring (though the movie was more interesting than I expected).

Answer 2

This is something that will be in debate for many years to come.   Al Gore did a find job putting all the facts together but how true are the facts?  It depends on the expert you want to believe, if you get a chance watch "Glenn Beck  'Exposed the climate of Fear'" on CNN Headline News and it will show the other side of the issue, but again how true are the facts?  One thing I know for sure is that facts never stay consistent for example:

Take a look at this headline for the "New York Times" in 1959 claiming "A Warmer Earth Evident at the Polls". But just two years later, in the same newspaper, we find this: "Scientists Agree World is Colder."

Even in the mid-`90s, the "Times" was talking about a frozen earth, except it wasn`t the 1990s. It was 1895.

One thing I know is that we can save money by buying the new CFL or Smart Light bulbs (in the long term, their $2.00 each at first purchase) but what about when we go to dispose them, these bulbs are made with Mercury, something we quite making thermometers with because they poisoned the Earth's soil and our drinking water.

I believe we should just try to live a little smarter, make sure we recycle what we can, especially plastics, remember plastic is an oil base product, the same oil that is refined for our automobile.

And yes we need to look for other sources of energy, and I am talking nuclear, it is a scary word but very efficient, clean and safe and we can create a lot of power.

Remember the biggest cause of methane gas come from from cow manure.

Answer 3

I found "An Inconvenient Truth" to be an eye opener.

And for any "Doubting Thomas" out there, even if environmental pollution isn't creating global warming, it does create the smog surrounding big cities and I'd prefer not to be subjected to it.

Answer 4

If Al Gore actually believed anything he says about global warming his carbon footprint wouldn't be more than 100 times as large as mine. I don't believe we really know enough to say exactly what is going on and obviously Al doesn't either. But he sure likes people to watch him talk.

Answer 5

It's decent, but a little over the top.  Scientists have criticized some details, but agree he has the basics right.  Global warming is real, mostly caused by us, and a serious danger.

But compared to the other things recommended here, it's pure gold.

The swindle movie.  Which was not a BBC deal (they'd never air something so poorly documented).  It was on Channel 4, England's equivalent of Fox.  It is simply a political statement which distorts science.  The director has a history of putting out misleading stuff.  In 1997 he made a series for Channel 4 called “Against Nature”, which compared environmentalists with n***s. Channel 4 had to apologise for the misleading stuff in that one.  The present movie is also a distortion of the science. More here:

"A Channel 4 documentary claimed that climate change was a conspiratorial lie. But an analysis of the evidence it used shows the film was riddled with distortions and errors."

http://news.independent.co.uk/environmen...

"The science might be bunkum, the research discredited. But all that counts for Channel 4 is generating controversy."  

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climat...

"Pure Propaganda"

http://www.medialens.org/alerts/07/0313p...

Explanations of why the science is wrong.

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/arc...

History of the director.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Durk...

Gore's movie may be a little over dramatic, but it has the basic science right.  This movie does not.

Channel 4 itself undercuts the movie in a funny way.  If you go to their website on the movie you find links to real global warming information.  They also have a way to "Ask the Expert" about global warming.  The questions go to a respected mainstream scientist who supports (mostly) human responsibility for global warming.

And Glenn Beck is a right wing comedian, sort of a light hearted Rush Limbaugh.

Good website for solid information about all this, loaded with peer reviewed data:

http://profend.com/global-warming/

By the way, using compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) actually reduces mercury pollution.

Fossil fuels contain mercury.  Using incandescent bulbs causes more mercury to be emitted from power plants.  More than is in a CFL.

It's better if you dispose of old CFLs properly so that even the tiny amount of mercury is not released.  But, no matter how they're disposed of, CFLs reduce mercury pollution.

http://www.cityofberkeley.info/sustainab...

Answer 6

Al Gore has stimulated conversation, awareness and focused on the urgency of the problem that evry country must face.

Neither the powerful US or China can ignore the truth.  To do nothing is to contribute to the problem..

Answer 7

He does provide some real facts but he spends more time on himself and his life than the planet and environment just to feed his need to be the center of attention.

Answer 8

Very misleading. Pay close attention to his words; there are a lot of if's in it. Try this one countering it from the BBC

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=...

Answer 9

Personally, I think he's saying the sky is falling because of the human race s******g up the planet.  There are many more factors contributing to global warming than his movie "An Inconvenient Truth" talks about.  But, he's got the ear of Hollywood types and they seem to think he's the expert in the field and have everyone up in arms about the issue.

The sad thing about his documentary is that he contradicts everything he said by his actions at home.  His home's energy bills are 20-30 times higher than the typical home in the U.S. He says we should conserve energy, yet he shows no sign of cutting back.

Answer 10

It has been great for educating people.

So far everything in his movie has been disproved.

I have so many friends who have watched his so called documentary, and they have come away questioning all of the propaganda put out on the subject of man caused climate change. Our little groups has been doing allot of research on the Internet and also we have been in contact with a number of scientists who work in the field of climate change and also pollution control. It is astounding at how false the claims of Mankind caused climate change really are.

My favorite bit of information is about CO2 being a greenhouse gas and causing global warming.

1.) CO2 is not lite enough to reach the upper atmosphere very quickly if at all.

2.) CO2 reflects more heat from the sun than it lets through so if it does reach the upper atmosphere, it would actually cause cooling.

3.) If CO2 did  go to the upper atmosphere, plants would not have any of it to perform Photosynthesis.

Answer 11

I think that it was fairly accurate, although somewhat misleading in parts. Overall Mr. Gore did an excellent job in helping educate people about anthropogenic climate change.