Judge attacks nine errors in Al Gore’s ‘alarmist’ climate change film

From dailymail.co.uk
A controversial documentary on climate change which has been sent to thousands of schools has been criticised by a High Court judge for being ‘alarmist’ and ‘exaggerated’.
Mr Justice Burton said former US vice-president Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth, was ‘one-sided’ and would breach education rules unless accompanied by a warning.
Despite winning lavish praise from the environmental lobby and an Oscar from the film industry, Mr Gore’s documentary was found to contain ‘nine scientific errors’ by the judge.
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A High Court judge ruled Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth was ‘alarmist’ and ‘exaggerated’
These inconvenient untruths included the claim that the snows on Mount Kilimanjaro were disapearing and solely due to the global warming and that sea levels will rise up to 20 feet in the near future.

Kent school governor Stewart Dimmock brought the legal action, claiming the film was unfit for schools
Impressed by the film’s slick message on climate change, the Government sent copies of the documentary to all secondary schools in England earlier this year, along with two short films and an animation about the carbon cycle produced by Defra.
Ruling that the film could be shown in schools as part of the climate change resource pack, Mr Justice Burton warned it must be accompanied by new guidance notes to balance Mr Gore’s partisan views.
The High Court action was brought by a father-of-two who accused Labour of ‘brainwashing’ children with propaganda.
Kent school governor Stewart Dimmock claimed the film was unfit for schools as it was politically partisan, containing serious scientific inaccuracies and ‘sentimental mush’.
Lorry driver and member of the political group, the New Party, Mr Dimmock had sought a court order to ban the documentary after the Government decided to distribute the documentary and four short films to 3,500 schools in February.
Yesterday he said he was delighted with the outcome: “The film contains blatant inaccuracies. It’s a political shockumentary, it’s not a scientific documentary.”
Describing the documentary as ‘a powerful, dramatically presented and highly professionally produced film’, Mr Justice Burton said it was built round the ‘charismatic presence’ of the ex vice president ‘whose crusade it now is to persuade the world of the dangers of climate change caused by global warming’.
But he said it might be necessary for the Government to make clear to teaching staff that some of Mr Gore’s views were not supported or promoted by the Government, and there was ‘a view to the contrary’.
Agreeing that Mr Gore’s film was ‘broadly accurate’ on the subject of climate change, he found that errors had arisen in ‘the context of alarmism and exaggeration’.
The judge then set out nine errors in the film which went against current mainstream scientific consensus:

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Not only is ethanol proving to be a dud as a fuel substitute but there is increasing evidence that it is destroying engines in large numbers.

Monsanto was founded in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1901, by John Francis Queeny, a 30-year veteran of the pharmaceutical industry. He funded the start-up with his own money and capital from a soft drink distributor, and gave the company his wife’s maiden name. The company’s first product was the artificial sweetener saccharin, which it sold to the Coca-Cola Company. It also introduced caffeine and vanillin to Coca-Cola, and became one of that company’s main suppliers.[citation needed] In 1919, Monsanto established its presence in Europe by entering into a partnership with Graesser’s Chemical Works at Cefn Mawr in Ruabon, Wales to produce vanillin, salicylic acid, aspirin and later rubber.

In 1985 Monsanto purchased G.D. Searle, the chemical company that held the patent to aspartame, the active ingredient in NutraSweet. Monsanto was apparently untroubled by aspartame’s clouded past, including a 1980 FDA Board of Inquiry, comprised of three independent scientists, which confirmed that it “might induce brain tumors.”

The FDA had actually banned aspartame based on this finding, only to have Searle Chairman Donald Rumsfeld (currently the Secretary of Defense) vow to “call in his markers,” to get it approved.

Picture an animal caught in a trap. You know, the big metal claw kind of trap that bites down on the animal’s leg with the ONLY chance of escape being them chewing that leg off.

Now picture that animal, with it’s leg still in the trap, chewing off it’s other three limbs.

Call the animal a human.

THE AMAZON

So tell me, do you think we’ve gotten any closer in the battle to save the rainforests? Even one little tiny baby step closer? Nosireebob, there is no hope in sight. In fact, it’s twice as bad as you thought and guess what? It’s all because of your friendly neighborhood polar bears.

And when the number of starving humans on this planet DOUBLES, we can blame that on the polar bears too.

Ok, you’re right. I place no blame on the polar bears. They’re just living their lives. They don’t have politicians and corporations…

Let’s start at the beginning:

We drive cars that use too much gas. Fine. Does anyone remember in the 70’s during the gas crunch when we had to buy gas on even or odd days and everyone had locks on their tanks so nobody could siphon off your god-awful expensive buck a gallon gas? The Japanese carmakers were coming out with cars that got 50 miles per gallon. What happened to that technology? Helloooooo???? Over thirty years of how many millions of miles driven? How many millions of gallons of gas wasted? How many miles to the gallon does YOUR car get? Why doesn’t every car now get 50 mpg?

Peak oil.

Let’s just PRETEND we’re running out of oil. Btw, that’s what we thought in the 70’s. Yeah, 30 years ago. But for the sake of arguement, let’s say there is not one drop of oil left on this planet.

So we need a plan to be able to run our cars, or cars of some sort, on something besides oil. Oh, and don’t forget… this can’t harm the polar bears. You know, cuz they’re so damn cute.

Heyyyyy I know! Let’s run cars on… FOOD!

Well it *does* work. You can take corn and… wait, did I say corn? I’m not even going to GO there… (Montsano and the corn growers lobby) So anyway, we can take corn and make fuel that a car will run on. Well hot damn that’s just fucking brilliant.

Problem 1 – It takes twice as much ethanol as gas to run a car.

Problem 2 – Ethanol does not break down as quickly once it’s in the atmosphere as gas does. (Oh, the irony)

Problem 3 – You need land to grow corn (duh!) Are you going to just pull that land out of your ass? No. As appealing as that seems, you either have to use land that is already used for growing crops that humans can EAT or you MAKE more usable land.

WORLD HUNGER

It had been predicted that by 2025, the number of hungry in the world would drop to 625 million. That has been readjusted for the effects of biofuel to now be at a cool 1.2 billion. That’s DOUBLE!

DOUBLE TROUBLE or the soon to be savannah…

That’s not the only thing doubling. Deforestation in Brazil is going to DOUBLE this year.

We thought it was bad in the 90’s when it was the trendy thing to get upset about. All that diverse plant and animal life, up in smoke. And it’s doubling in just one year.

The freaking fires are changing the climate there and the rainforest is soon going to be referred to as the savannah.

And we think we’re the intelligent species…

So here we are, the human race, living in a world that’s changing before our very eyes; in a world that’s warming. That’s the trap – that metal claw one I described. And here we are, panicking, chewing off the wrong limbs. We’re destroying land and animals and potential disease-curing plants, and things we don’t even understand yet, in some lame attempt to use ANY other fuel, even a less efficient one as oil. We’re depleting our food sources in the same lame attempt, creating more hunger in the world. We keep chewing and chewing and we won’t have any limbs left.

And the trap remains.

Be sure to read Time magazine’s COVER article “The Clean Energy Scam“

Bush, and I later found out Rove, came to Bellevue to speak at a GOP fundraiser for Congressman Dave Reichert, who’s up for re-election next year. Reichert is on the Homeland Security Committee, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Science and Technology Committee. He is also a ranking member of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment. Suddenly King County seems less safe than it did before I read that.

Anyway, I only found out about Bush’s visit last week. The turnout of protesters wasn’t overwhelming. Depending on who you talked to, it was either depressingly disappointing or a really good turnout. Personally I think it was a bit of both. It was a nice turnout but it really could have and should have been much much bigger.

The media said there were 400 or so protesters. I’ll take their word for it because I suck at estimating people. I do know that all 4 street corners of the intersection of Bellevue Way and NE 8th were full of people with signs and banners and balloons and bullhorns, etc. The fundraiser was held at the Bellevue Hyatt, which is kitty corner from Bellevue Square, the city’s big mall. For those not from around here, Bellevue is a rich (read that: snobby) city. It has a mean household income of $94,756 (compared to the national mean $62,556), and the median home price is $405,000. Bellevue is home to several billionaires, including Bill Gates and Craig McCaw, both of whom have hosted the royalty (the Prez or VP) in their respective homes.

While chants of impeachment and “Bush out now!” filled the street corners, it was business as usual inside the mall and surrounding (19 in a 2 block area, to be exact) restaurants. Well, except for Joey’s which was behind the barricades. I heard that people choosing to dine there during the President’s visit had to stay inside the restaurant for the entire duration until Bush left.

There were lots of different groups protesting, but all except for a few Reichert or Bush fans, wanted the same thing: Bush Out Now. I discovered an interesting thing. I thought that people who had enough brains to realize what’s going on with our Government, and enough balls to stand up and tell the world about it, would not be sheep. I was wrong.

The street corners were full of protesters, but I knew Bush wouldn’t be coming through that intersection. I knew Bush wouldn’t be coming through the front door. I figured they would escort him in through the employee entrance which is obviously on the backside of the building.

I mentioned this to several people and everyone agreed with me. They also said if others went down the side (where no protesters were), that they would also go. What the hell? Are we all supposed to wait for some non-existent protest leader to do the thinking and lead the way?? Fuck that. I grabbed the friend that I had met up with there (his first protest also) and we headed down Bellevue Way. The street was blocked off as well as the sidewalk on the Hyatt side, but the opposite sidewalk was free and clear, and I do mean clear.

The way to the employee entrance had a concrete barrier across it, so it was pretty obvious he wouldn’t be coming in through that way. We stood and looked around for a bit. The big white elephant, that oddly enough I hadn’t even noticed till now, was this big semi-truck parked on the street next to the Hyatt. We asked one of the State Patrols what was in it, and he said they didn’t even know. They had wondered the same thing and were only told that whatever was in there was needed and that it was a good thing to have it there. He stepped back to his post, and we contemplated what could be in there. Surveilance equipment? Riot equipment of some sort? Hell, maybe it’s empty and that’s what they’ll load up people into when things get ugly and they need to cart them all off to the FEMA facility for holding. I’m pretty sure it was surveilance equipment and they probably zoomed in on every face in that crowd and checked them against their database. I tried to steer clear of obvious cameras but just being on that street corner gets you filmed. There are quite a few traffic cameras alone. Quite a few times, one of the officers would whip out a video camera and start scanning the frontlines of the crowd, filming.

From where we were standing, the street behind the Hyatt, NE 10th, looked like it was totally blocked off but I wanted to see what was going on back there, so off we went to the Bellevue Way/NE 10th intersection.

As I thought, the street was blocked off, as well as the Hyatt side sidewalk, but the opposite sidewalk, again, was free and clear. Well hell! We’re going down there and check it out!

There were more vehicles back here, a Seattle squad car and “paddy wagon”, some SUVs with govt. plates, let’s see… what’s that behind the bushes (pun unintended)? Ohhhh…. that’s where the Storm Troopers are. You know, the officers with the riot gear on. They were keeping them out of sight until they were needed. Of course I knew they would be present, but that first view of them is just wee bit intimidating. *gulp*

The whole length as far as the eye could see of NE 10th had orange cones down the middle. My friend and I agreed. THIS is where he’s going to come in. So, instigators that we are (at least that’s what I was called later, while retelling the story), we headed back to the crowds to tell them to come around the back. A couple others had the same idea and were notifying others, too. By the time we got back to NE 10th, the sidewalk was FULL. Woohoo!!

As we staked out a spot, I heard someone yell “where is mein fuhrer?” We stayed at the fringes of the crowd. My rule, that I quickly adopted the moment I had gotten to the protest, was to always have an “out”. I kept very aware of what was behind me, and made sure I was at no risk of getting blocked in by protestors or police.

The police quickly moved more officers over in front of where the crowd had moved to. I’m sure they had been going along thinking they had it made since nobody was back there and they were all out front. Then **cue the Imperial March music from Star Wars** along came the storm troopers and positioned themselves in front of the crowd at the intersection where Bush et al would be passing through.

We waited… and waited. My friend said it was the most exciting time he had ever had being bored. Nobody knew exactly what time Bush would be arriving for security reasons. Then everybody paused and looked at each other saying things like “there he is”. The loud chopping of a Homeland Security helicopter beat through the air commanding attention. It circled the Hyatt 3 times to scope out the crowds, and let me tell you, that thing was loud, and I’m sure they have the muffler off on purpose in situations like that. Then it flew off.

Sure enough, shortly after that, along came the motorcade, with 50 motorcycle cops, a few ambulances, a bunch of press vans and the usual black SUVs, etc. People yelled and chanted and booed as they all rushed past.

Then it was over. People dispersed, leaving very few on the sidewalk. My friend and I looked at each other. Now what? That’s *IT*? How… anti-climactic. We felt like we should stay but there seemed nothing to stay (in that location at least) for, so, like the others, we headed back to the front.

Phew! People had gone back to the front and stayed. Granted, it was obvious that quite a few people had left, but many stayed. For awhile it was a more relaxed atmosphere. The “big event” of Bush’s arrival and passed. Not all were satisfied with letting things fizzle out. I contemplated leaving, myself. It seemed more to me like networking time for everyone remaining.

We were talking to the leader of one of the impeachment groups when people started running off around the corner (up NE 8th) like something bad was going on. The leader headed that direction and my friend said we should be safe with the leader because all her friends were lawyers and politicians, so we headed that way close behind her. I looked up ahead and I saw a sea of people with the leaders of the group arm in arm coming our way.

I stopped in my tracks and turned on a dime. Nuh-uh not me, I’m not getting caught in the middle of that. I found a curb to stand on, with nobody behind me, to get a little height, and started filming. The group turned the corner and went right up to the barrier and started yelling. I believe one guy yelled something about requesting that the cops step aside so he could make a citizen’s arrest. Naturally, they did not.

**cue the Imperial March music again** In came the Storm Troopers. Twelve of them. They apparantly travel only in dozens, kind of like eggs. In they marched, wearing head to toe black riot gear except for the eye-catching bundle of white zipties hanging by their knee, slapping against their leg like some kind of perverted jingle bell that can’t help but catch your eye. And in that moment you can’t help but imagine that things have gone horribly wrong and they’re zipping one of those puppies onto your wrists. Yes, they may wear them there for convenience sake, but make no mistake, they are nearly as intimidating as the big sticks they wield.

Things got noisy for awhile and in came another dozen Storm Troopers. It was a little surreal, 24 officers in full riot gear lined up on a street corner in wealthy upscale Bellevue. I did feel safer here than I would have had it been downtown Seattle. Bellevue has a little more open space, it’s not blocks made of solid street-to-street buildings with no escape routes, and you also don’t have the sort of normal unpredictable street atmosphere.

It had been hours and I needed to find the little girl’s room, so we crossed the street and found one, and got some iced drinks at Starbuck’s while we were there. When we got back to the corner, it was nearly desserted compared to when we left it not 10 minutes ago. Apparantly everyone had gone around to the side where the loading dock is, and what was Bush’s entrance/exit. The sidewalk up NE 8th on the Hyatt side was open but barricades were between the sidewalk and the road. The “Troopers” were still at the corner, and my friend started heading towards it. I stopped him.

“No, no, no, no, no. That breaks my rule. There’s no “out” going that way. The only out is into the street. We’ll go across the street and head down that way.” When we got down there, a lot of people were leaving. Bush had left already. There were “Troopers” however, on the protester side of the barricade, but these guys were holding their big sticks (and I do mean big sticks as in baseball bat kind of sticks, not little billy club kind of sticks) in one hand and the other hand cradling it… you know, like how you hold a stick and sort of hit it into your other hand over and over. Yeah like that but they weren’t hitting it, just holding it.

That honestly made me pretty nervous. There was no separation between “them” and “us”, and the “us” people were young and some were calling them pigs. It was not a situation though and it was dispersing even as we got there, so really, nothing to see, thank God.

This group came out in dark suits and ties and someone wondered if they were Secret Service, but then we saw how young they were. Young Republicans? That was our guess. They were kind of creepy and I saw a couple of them in a picture in the newspaper and they were right next to Bush practically drooling at being so close to him.

So that was the end. My phone/camera didn’t die till the very end. Did I mention I love my phone? I’m still converting and editing the video that I took down there and will post it when I finish.

Finally, I will give some awards here…

Best Prop – The flag-draped “coffin” (representing the thousands of US Soldiers being brought home in flag-draped coffins that the press is forbidden from showing us) that was being carried around, crossing the street, etc. by “pall-bearer” protesters.

Best Costume – The girls in the evening gowns wearing a sash that reads “I MISS AMERICA”

Best Sign – “George Bush is a Lying Sack of Shit”.

I AM NOT.

However… this planet may be warming up, but guess what? So are all the other planets (and Sun!) in this Solar System of ours. There are some major changes going on and I don’t think there are any cars or corporations on Mars messing up their atmosphere.

So, while I believe we as a human race, need to stop and take care of this rock we call home, I think we also need to be aware that we are (and always will be) going through cycles. This one is longer than our lifetimes, obviously. There have been “global warmings” before, when there wasn’t one single car or factory in existence. And those warmings were followed shortly by an Ice Age.

Are our egos that big that we think we can stop an Ice Age??? We definitely can improve the conditions we’re living in and not accellerate our demise by clearcutting rainforests, rich in so many medicinal plants that we haven’t even touched the surface of finding. And we should.

Now that we have my views out of the way, let’s get to some startling facts:

The producers of An Inconvenient Truth offered the NSTA (National Science Teachers Association) 50,000 FREE DVDs.

Do you know what the organization said?

“Thanks, but no thanks.”

Why might they do such a thing, you might ask. Well, in an email to the producers, the NSTA expressed concern that other special interest groups would want their material distributed too.

Hmmm, sounds reasonable…. I suppose.

They also didn’t want to offer “political” endorsement of the film.

Political? Huh? Last I checked pollution was a science issue, not a political one.

But here’s the kicker. They wrote that by accepting the DVDs, it would place “unnecessary risk upon the (NSTA) capital campaign, especially certain targeted supporters.”

Targeted supporters? Guess who is a major sponsor of your children’s science teachers?

That’s right boys and girls, its the Exxon Mobile Corporation.

The teachers are given free material, free posters, free lesson plans. etc. etc.

So, the children of this country are being spoon-fed propoganda from not just the media, but in the sacred grounds of their education. And yet they cannot be allowed to view a video of what is happening to this planet.

Exxon Mobile aren’t the only ones either. Weyerhaeuser gives funding so they can give free materials on forestry, but conveniently leaving out the problems of clear-cutting. Montsano (don’t get me started on this company… well maybe I’ll blog another day on them and corn) gives funding so that they can espouse the benefits of genetic engineering.

And so it goes. Your children’s school may or may not have lunch available from Pizza Hut. They may or may not be sponsored by Coca-Cola or Pepsi. These are just the visual reminders of how and where the money flows in this country. What we really need to be worried about are the NON-visual reminders.

Who is really teaching our kids?