El Gore's Inconvenient Errors

Al Gore’s inconvenient errors

A British High Court Judge decided that former US Vice-President Al Gore’s documentary film An Inconvenient Truth on the dangers of climate change/global warming was littered with no less than eleven inconvenient scientific errors. The controversial film is based on public lecture that Al Gore has given many times in the US and elsewhere. So far the film has earned $49 million.

Lawsuit

Stewart Dimmock, a father of two children, asked the court to ban the film from secondary schools on the grounds that it contained ‘serious scientific inaccuracies, political propaganda, and was brainwashing children. This was a reaction of the plans of the British, Welsh and Scottish Government. They wanted to have the film shown in every secondary school in England, Wales and Scotland.
The judge decided to give Mr Dimmock back two-thirds of his money spent to the lawsuit. This was more than £200,000.
Academy Award and Nobel Peace Prize
Despite the many scientific errors, the film was awarded the 2006 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. A ‘think tank’ wrote to the President of the Academy Awards, asking if the award could be taken back in response to the British High Court findings. Mrs. Newman, director of the New Zealand Centre for Political Research, said, ‘Good documentaries should be factually correct. Clearly this documentary is not’. You can compare it with sport stars winning the gold medal and than be tested positive on using drugs.
In 2007 Al Gore was called out to be a co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his global warming campaign, a decision that has been criticized by skeptics of mankind’s contribution to global warming. Controversy is nothing new to the Nobel Foundation

Ruling of the Court

The judge decided that An Inconvenient Truth could be shown, on condition that it was accompanied by guidance notes to balance Gore’s ‘one-sided’ views. Teachers must make clear that:
The film is a political work and promotes only one side of the argument.
If teachers present the film without making this plain they may be in breach of section 406 of the Education Act 1996 and guilty of political indoctrination.
Eleven inaccuracies have to be specifically drawn to the attention of school children.
The scientific errors

I’m going to finish my presentation by calling the three most remarkable errors.
1. The film suggests that global warming could stop the Gulf Stream, throwing Europe into an ice age. This was a scientific impossibility.
2. The film suggests that the Antarctic ice covering is melting. The evidence is that it is in fact increasing.
3. The film suggests that sea levels could rise by seven meters. In fact, the evidence is that sea levels are expected to rise by about 40 centimeters over the next hundred years.