"An Inconvenient Truth" was director by Davis Guggenheim and narrated by Al Gore.
Released in Dec. 2006 by Paramount Films. It takes about 90 minutes to see it.
This is a Documentary Movie but I feel everyone should see it.
Background:
Global warming seems to be leaning toward a tipping point in the public consciousness.
There has been agreements over the fundamentals of global warming in mainstream scientific circles for some time now.
Despite these efforts by the President Bush administration to shrug it off as a threat and feel that it is better to be dealt with through the "Voluntary Emissions Controls & Technological Innovation" it has not been.
There have been inroads by new scientific reports that point to the rising temperatures around the world & the ice fields in Greenland and Antarctica.
A year ago the National Academy of Sciences joined similar groups from other countries in calling for action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Al Gore Says:
Carbon Dioxide’s Effect on Temperature. The relationship between global temperature and carbon dioxide(CO2), on which the entire scare is founded, is not linear. Every molecule of CO2 added to the atmosphere contributes less to warming than the previous one. The book’s graph on p. 66-67 is seriously misleading. Moreover, even the historical levels of CO2 shown on the graph are disputed. Evidence from plant fossil-remains suggest that there was as much CO2 in the atmosphere about 11, 000 years ago as there is today.
The snows of Kilimanjaro are melting not because of global warming but because of a local climate shift that began 100 years ago. A drastic drop in atmospheric moisture at the end of the 19th century and the ensuing drier climatic conditions are likely forcing glacier retreat on Kilimanjaro.”
Glaciers around the world have been receding at around the same pace for over 100 years. Research published by the National Academy of Sciences last week indicates that the Peruvian glacier on will probably disappeared a few thousand years ago.
Al Gore says that the “hockey stick” graph that shows temperatures remarkably steady for the last 1, 000 years has been validated, and ridicules the concept of a “medieval warm period.” That’s not the case. Last year, a team of leading member said, “When matching existing temperature reconstruction the time displays a reasonably coherent picture of major climatic episodes: ‘Medieval Warm Period, ’ ‘Little Ice Age’ and ‘Recent Warming.’”
They conclude, “So what would it mean, if the reconstructions indicate a larger…or smaller…temperature amplitude? We suggest that the former situation, i.e. enhanced variability during pre-industrial times, would result in a redistribution of weight towards the role of natural factors in forcing temperature changes, thereby relatively devaluing the impact of anthropogenic emissions and affecting future temperature predictions.”
The summer heat wave that struck Europe in 2003 was caused by an atmospheric pressure anomaly; it had nothing to do with global warming. As the United Nations Environment Program reported in September 2003, “This extreme weather was caused by an anti-cyclone firmly anchored over the western European land mass holding back the rain-bearing depressions that usually enter the continent from the Atlantic ocean. This situation was exceptional in the extended length of time(over 20 days) during which it conveyed very hot dry air up from south of the Mediterranean.”
Record temperatures, (both hot and cold), are set every day around the world; that’s the nature of records. Statistically, any given place will see four record high temperatures set every year. There is evidence that daytime high temperatures are staying about the same as for the last few decades, but nighttime lows are gradually rising. Global warming might be more properly called, “Global less cooling.”
There is no overall global trend of hurricane-force storms getting stronger that has anything to do with temperature. A recent study in Geophysical Research Letters found: “The data indicate a large increasing trend in tropical cyclone intensity and longevity for the North Atlantic basin and a considerable decreasing trend for the Northeast Pacific. All other basins showed small trends, and there has been no significant change in global net tropical cyclone activity. There has been a small increase in global
Category 4–5 hurricanes from the period 1986–1995 to the period 1996–2005. Most of this increase is likely due to improved observational technology. These findings indicate that other important factors govern intensity and frequency of tropical cyclones besides SSTs [sea surface temperatures].”
Records for numbers of tornadoes are set because we can now record more of the smaller tornadoes, (for instance Edmonton and Tornado).
European flooding is not new. Similar flooding happened in 2003. If you look at data reaching as far back as 1021(for the Elbe) and 1269(for the Oder). They concluded that there is no upward trend in the incidence of extreme flooding in this region of central Europe.
Scientists are investigating the disappearance of Lake Chad(p.116) found that most of it was due to human overuse of water. “The lake’s decline probably has nothing to do with global warming, report the two scientists, who based their findings on computer models and satellite imagery made available by NASA. They attribute the situation to human actions related to climate variation, compounded by the ever increasing demands of an expanding population). Lake Chad is also a very shallow lake that has shrunk considerably throughout human history.
Polar bears are not becoming endangered. A leading Canadian polar bear biologist wrote recently, “Climate change is having an effect on the west Hudson population of polar bears, but really, there is no need to panic. Of the 13 populations of polar bears in Canada, 11 are stable or increasing in number."
The Gulf Stream, the ocean conveyor belt, is not at risk of shutting off in the North Atlantic The only way to produce an ocean circulation without a Gulf Stream is either to turn off the wind system, or to stop the Earth’s rotation, or both”
Al Gore’s worries about the effect of warming on species ignore evolution. With the new earlier caterpillar season in the Netherlands, an evolutionary advantage is given to birds that can hatch their eggs earlier than the rest.
“Invasive species” naturally extend their range when climate changes. As for the pine beetle given as an example of invasive species.
We Can See It Happening In Canada:
The polar bear is an endangered species because of the warmer temperatures are thinning ice sheets off Arctic coastlines. There are about 22, 000 polar bears now and most of them live in northern Canada.
Brown pelicans have never been seen in Victoria they live in southern California and Mexico. They are on the endangered species list and now they are coming to visit us in Victoria for the first time ever!
When I saw the film I expected information. What I got was a shock.
Nominated for an Oscar, (2007), for best Documentary Film.
Thanks for reading my review.
©LL2007