Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth

Franklin Foer, the editor of The New Republic, was genuinely moved by Al Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth:

I hope this doesn't sound too Arianna-like. But last night, I went to a screening of the Al Gore movie. And I found myself walking out in a strange mood. I had just seen a movie featuring a politician ... and there wasn't a trace of snark or cynicism coursing through my body. The film has genuine rhetorical power. It builds an incredibly frightening case without hints of fear-mongering or over-wrought moments. Because Gore is truly self-deprecating, the movie doesn't ever feel like an ego-trip--although it does occasionally look like a giant product placement for Apple. At any rate, I walked out of the movie and decided to sell my car and begin otherwise preparing for our planet's impending doom. I know this praise isn't so unexpected coming from TNR. But I think the movie has the potential to become a seminal political document--a cinematic Silent Spring. It will certainly change elite opinion.

And Ben Fritz, my friend and former Spinsanity co-editor, reports that everyone he knows who has seen it has said it is excellent.

Here's the film's website, which includes a list of cities where it will be playing. Go see it!

Comments

[Seth Kramer]

And here comes the counter-spin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq_Bj-av3g0

...lovin' the spin that I'm in, under that old black magic called oil.

[DBL]

You really need to see the South Park episode starring Algore. In it, Algore tells the children that manbearpig, a creature half-man, half-bear, and half-pig, is lurking out there, waiting to kill everyone. You must believe me, he cries, "I'm cereal about this, super cereal." Someday, he will defeat manbearpig and save the world. "Excelsior!"

To correct the previous poster, I actually, I think manbearpig is half man, half bear-pig.

[Grant]

Don't get scared children. The world is not going to end because of greedy American capitalists. About Antarctica, University of Virginia climate scientist Patrick J. Michaels is direct: “What has happened is that Antarctica has been gaining ice.” He explains that there has been a cooling trend over most of Antarctica for decades. At the same time, one tiny portion of the continent — the Antarctic Peninsula — has been warming, and its ice has been melting. The peninsula constitutes only about 2 percent of Antarctica’s total area, but almost every study of melting Antarctic ice you’ve heard of focuses on it.
So what about the rest of the continent? In 2002, Nature published a study by Peter Doran that looked at Antarctic temperature trends from 1966 to 2000. What it found was that about two-thirds of Antarctica got colder over that period. At the same time, Antarctica has gotten snowier, and as the snow has accumulated the ice sheet has grown.

[Seth]

My interest was piqued by the articles you mentioned Grant. While your tone was a bit patronizing, I did find some interesting information I thought I might share with the rest of the children to use your parlance.

It's probably also worth mentioning that Patrick J. Michaels is also a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think-tank (agenda anyone?).

Dr. Doran's study covered extensively in this NPR segment from 2002 (Special Bonus for NPR geeks like me, it's from back in the Bob Edwards days *attempts to contain excitement*) though it isn't as rosy as your statements would seem:

http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2002/jan/antarctica/020118.antarctica.html

The jist? the meltwater feeds the ecosystem, so it freezing isn't really a good thing.

[Paul]

Good to see you are still peddling your corporate-sponsored misinformation Grant... However unfortunate it may be that you made it to Brendan's blog.

Everyone, Grant has been a fixture on global warming chats for a very long time. I am convinced that he is a corporate shill who is paid to troll the web in search of every thread related to the environment and spread lies and deceptions in an effort to confuse arguments related to global warming, ANWR drilling, or the environment at large. His arguments can all be traced back to conservative think tanks, corporate sponsored studies, and pro-industry web sites.

Before you believe anything he says, do a little research to find out where the spin is originating. Then go see An Inconvenient Truth and make up your own mind.

[Gra]

Paul, I can't tell whether you are being sarcastic or not. I have never been a "fixture on global warming chats." This is the first time in my life that I have submitted a comment relating to global warming. Thanks for making stuff up Paul. You discredit your position by fabricating information about someone you disagree with. That is not a winning (or convincing) strategy.

[Andrew]

To DBL: That episode bothered me because the South Park guys (whose satire is usually grounded in reality or at least some understanding of the issues) obviously have no understanding of the science around global warming. Yet "ManBearPig" is an easy, rhetorically cheap way to discredit Al Gore now.

[Seth]

It would seem Mr. Doran felt the need to clarify that particular article in Nature in a NYTimes Op-Ed piece.

Found here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/27/opinion/27doran.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin