Tuesday, March 13, 2007

NYT: is 'Inconvenient Truth' Alarmist?

Well, duh. A movie made by a politician and designed to build his base by conferring heretic status on anyone who disagrees with him just might be a bit...overstated.

The New York Times writes:
But part of his scientific audience is uneasy. In talks, articles and blog entries that have appeared since his film and accompanying book came out last year, these scientists argue that some of Mr. Gore’s central points are exaggerated and erroneous. They are alarmed, some say, at what they call his alarmism.

“I don’t want to pick on Al Gore,” Don J. Easterbrook, an emeritus professor of geology at Western Washington University, told hundreds of experts at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America. “But there are a lot of inaccuracies in the statements we are seeing, and we have to temper that with real data.”
Real data? We don't need no steenkin' real data!

Gore explained that he wanted to get his divine revelations important message out in "lay language" that he understands.

And, of course, as Mr. Gore and the mainstream media have been telling us, the debate is over:
“Nowhere does Mr. Gore tell his audience that all of the phenomena that he describes fall within the natural range of environmental change on our planet,” Robert M. Carter, a marine geologist at James Cook University in Australia, said in a September blog. “Nor does he present any evidence that climate during the 20th century departed discernibly from its historical pattern of constant change.
"An Inconvenient Truth" - coming to your kid's school soon.