Posted by
JTB on Friday, October 12, 2007 11:35:53 AM
I have just recently discovered the Gates of Vienna Blog. I may have more comments later; but this was a great piec... Read the whole post
here.
Here are the nine inconvenient facts the judge listed in contradicting Mr. Gore’s film:
- - - - - - - - -
Error one
Al
Gore: A sea-level rise of up to 20 feet would be caused by melting of
either West Antarctica or Greenland “in the near future”.
The
judge’s finding: “This is distinctly alarmist and part of Mr. Gore’s
“wake-up call”. It was common ground that if Greenland melted it would
release this amount of water — “but only after, and over, millennia.”
Error two
Gore: Low-lying inhabited Pacific atolls are already “being inundated because of anthropogenic global warming.”
Judge: There was no evidence of any evacuation having yet happened.
Error three
Gore:
The documentary described global warming potentially “shutting down the
Ocean Conveyor” — the process by which the Gulf Stream is carried over
the North Atlantic to western Europe.
Judge: According to the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it was “very
unlikely” it would be shut down, though it might slow down.
Error four
Gore: He asserted — by ridiculing the opposite view — that two graphs, one plotting a rise in CO2 and the other the rise in temperature over a period of 650,000 years, showed “an exact fit”.
Judge:
Although there was general scientific agreement that there was a
connection, “the two graphs do not establish what Mr Gore asserts”.
Error five
Gore: The disappearance of snow on Mt Kilimanjaro was expressly attributable to global warming.
Judge:
This “specifically impressed” David Miliband, the Environment
Secretary, but the scientific consensus was that it cannot be
established that the recession of snows on Mt Kilimanjaro is mainly
attributable to human-induced climate change.
Error six
Gore:
The drying up of Lake Chad was used in the film as a prime example of a
catastrophic result of global warming, said the judge.
Judge:
“It is generally accepted that the evidence remains insufficient to
establish such an attribution. It is apparently considered to be far
more likely to result from other factors, such as population increase
and over-grazing, and regional climate variability.”
Error seven
Gore: Hurricane Katrina and the consequent devastation in New Orleans to global warming.
Judge: There is “insufficient evidence to show that”.
Error eight
Gore:
Referred to a new scientific study showing that, for the first time,
polar bears were being found that had actually drowned “swimming long
distances — up to 60 miles — to find the ice”.
Judge: “The only
scientific study that either side before me can find is one which
indicates that four polar bears have recently been found drowned
because of a storm.” That was not to say there might not in future be
drowning-related deaths of bears if the trend of regression of pack ice
continued — “but it plainly does not support Mr Gore’s description”.
Error nine
Gore: Coral reefs all over the world were bleaching because of global warming and other factors.
Judge:
The IPCC had reported that, if temperatures were to rise by 1-3 degrees
centigrade, there would be increased coral bleaching and mortality,
unless the coral could adapt. But separating the impacts of stresses
due to climate change from other stresses, such as over-fishing, and
pollution was difficult.
Our thanks to the judge for
making these substantial cracks in the foundations of AlGore’s
questionable hypothesis. It is comforting to know that at least Britain
has some kind of check in place to prevent a nationwide brainwashing of
school children.