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Judge says Al Gore film has serious scientific inaccuracies

A British judge has refused to ban former US Vice-President's Oscar-winning film An Inconvenient Truth from classrooms, but has said the film contains serious scientific inaccuracies. Mr Justice Burton ruled that the film could be screened at schools as long as it carried a note explaining nine inaccuracies contained in it.
Posted : Thu, 11 Oct 2007 12:05:10 GMT
By : Emma Price
Category : Environment
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A British judge has refused to ban former US Vice-President's Oscar-winning film "An Inconvenient Truth" from classrooms, but has said the film contains serious scientific inaccuracies. Mr Justice Burton ruled that the film could be screened at schools as long as it carried a note explaining nine inaccuracies contained in it.

The case against the film was brought by Stewart Dimmock, the father of two children who said the film could “brainwash” children.

"I conclude that the claimant substantially won this case by virtue of my finding that, but for the new guidance note, the film would have been distributed in breach of sections 406 and 407 of the 1996 Education Act", the judge said. The judge also awarded Dimmock over two-thirds of his legal costs expected to be £200,000.

The nine inaccuracies in the film, according to Mr Justice Barton include:
* Film: Melting of Greenland or West Antarctica could cause a sea-level rise of sea-level rise of up to 20 feet.

The judge called this distinctly alarmist and said that if Greenland melted the amount of water could rise “but only after, and over, millennia.”

* The Judge found no evidence to indicate the film's claim that low-lying Pacific atolls are “being inundated because of anthropogenic global warming.”

* The Judge also dismissed the film's premise that global warming would result in "shutting down the Ocean Conveyor."

* Gore's film said that melting of snow on Mt Kilimanjaro was human induced effect of global warming, but the Judge said scientific evidence pointed to the contrary.

* On the drying up of Lake Chad, the judge said, “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.”

* The Judge also said there was no evidence Hurricane Katrina resulted from global warming.

* The judge frowned on the film's assertion that polar bears were drowning for want of ice

* The film attributed bleaching of coral reefs to global warming, but the judge said the IPCC report had already touched on this aspect.

Mr Dimmock was elated by the ruling. "If it was not for the case brought by myself, our young people would still be being indoctrinated with this political spin," he observed. "I am elated with today's result, but still disappointed that the film is able to be shown in schools."

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9 inacurracies?
By: Peter Karig , Thu, 11 Oct 2007 23:27:47 GMT

Who is this judge anyway, and has he ever looked at the evidence? Sea level rise would certianly speed up the destruction/drowning of pacific atols. Most scientific opinion is that GW is causing an increace in large hurricanes. This guy is making money by pretending GW and it'd effects are not real. It will cost the shareholders profits to spend on reducing emmisions and overall energy usage. Literally evil. That's what he is, by definition. PJ


global warming
By: janet , Thu, 11 Oct 2007 20:07:23 GMT

Wow.
while your at it, why don't you oppose the teaching of a round earth in our schools. After all , there's an entire group, and web site devoted to discrediting the "lie' about the earth being round. It's called the Flat Earth Society.
Gimme a break.


Judge says Al Gore film has serious scientific inaccuracies
By: Larry , Thu, 11 Oct 2007 18:43:00 GMT

I disagree with the judge. Scientists around the world agree with this movie on the results of global warming. Is this judge a climate scientist? Mr. Dimmock might prefer that the Bush/Cheny/Rumsfeld rhetoric leading up to the Iraq war would be better school learning for his children. I searched cause of polar bear drownings. Results were overwhelmingly blaming loss of ice due to global warming. Documentaries on National Geographic has shown and interviewed people from atolls that have had to leave their home because of sea rise. Kilamanjaro would not be melting if the temperatures were not increasing, nor would the Arctic or Greenland.


9 inconvenient truths.
By: Detached , Thu, 11 Oct 2007 14:56:55 GMT

Expert witnesses are a dime a dozen. Experts on global warming are even cheaper. This judge has no business making a ruling like this based on testimony that was purchased. What a joke.


Gore's film errors
By: Bill , Thu, 11 Oct 2007 14:35:05 GMT

A news search got this for the nine errors in Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" film: #1 Polar Cap melting > will not raise sea levels soon; #2 Pacific Atoll evacuations > not occurring now; #3 Atlantic Gulf Stream shutdown > not certain to happen; #4 Lake Chad drying > Not known why; #5 Kilimanjaro snow melt > not known why; #6 Hurricane Katrina > not related to climate change; #7 Polar Bears drowning > not related; #8 Coral Reef bleaching > not certainly connected; #9 Carbon Dioxide and Temperature correlation an "exact fit" > overstated



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