Fending off the blind
I recently saw the documentary An Inconvenient Truth, the Al Gore/global warming film. The film is quite powerful, and arms the viewer with fact ammo to fend off the blind. In addition to the stunning images, the scientific evidence presented is overwhelming, though Gore was obviously preaching to the converted with me.
What I do not understand is why anyone could possibly refute the fact of global warming. And in scientific terms, it is pretty much a fact -- it has moved beyond theory, and there is NO DEBATE in the scientific community about the truth of global warming. An important statitistic from the film revealed that out of 900 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles about global warming, zero even suggested skepticism or doubt about the truth. On the other hand, in mainstream media articles, 53% of them suggested that there was some doubt about the issue. Doubt has been created by people who do not want it to be true.
I urge everyone to see the movie. Don't worry, Al Gore is donating his take, so you won't have to put money is his pocket.
The right-wing has done an excellent job of painting this as a liberal vs. conservative issue, but it is beyond politics, as evidenced by the growing number of evangelicals who are grabbing on to this issue as an important "God's stewards" issue.
Recently a colleague and I were discussing the issue of global warming and why people are so adamantly in denial, and the comparison was made between global warming and evolution. While I see the similarities, I believe that the denial of global warming is much worse. People who do not believe in evolution do so out of faith -- misguided, in my opinion, but faith nonetheless. People who do not believe in global warming do so purely because of capitalism -- it is bad for business, after all.
offered up to the world by CoachDub @ 7:20 PM
18 comments
18 Comments:
So... how do we stop global warming?
i saw this a month ago in hanover while i was visiting dartmouth. i actually went with my dad and it helped me convince him to use better light bulbs and insulate our garage. i'm serious about that, but in a kinda joking way.
anyway, it is a very good documentary and has some pretty astonishing facts. i echo, go see it.
How do we stop global warming? Simple. We beat it up.
This just in: Bush declares War on Global Warming.
But seriously. I do really want to see that film.
Besides how the news about global warming is obviously bad for business, I think another reason people are doubting it is because it is so misunderstood. We have an exceptionally warm summer, even a drought, and people say, "Well, that's global warming for you." In fact, that's just as much a lie as that global warming is a big left-wing myth. I haven't seen Gore's film, but I'm hoping that it will help clear up exactly what global warming is - for both sides.
I wrote an interesting piece on this on Ms. Stanek's class blog, but I can't seem to find it.
John-
I agree with everything but distinguishing between religion and capitalism, and which form of ignorance is worse. They are both equally dumb.
Um, capitalism is pretty great.
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Constant_K-
I didn't say capitalism is bad. I just said it really isn't so different than a form of religion.
Both can be good, and both can be bad. But if you ignore scientific fact in favor of ideology (capitalism/religion)... that is just dumb.
Both capitalism and religion can be resolved to work well with the understanding that global warming is a serious threat.
And Carson, though you didn't describe capitalism as "bad" per se, you did call it "dumb" and a "form of ignorance," and I fail to understand the significant differences in the two terms in this context.
Houley-
Please read more carefully.
I never called religion or capitalism "dumb" or a "form of ignorance". I said that if you ignore the facts surrounding global warming based on only ideology of a religious or capitalistic nature... that is "dumb".
I also said that there is no point in distinguishing between religious scientific ignorance and capitalistic scientific ignorance.
I read portions of the book and after doing so, I am once again amazed at the ignorance at so much of the country.
How can they refuse to believe that global warming does exist? Its incredible that they can cover their eyes to such an obvious truth.
Carson -
So then you would also agree that religion and capitalism can be equally awesome.
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Pelk-
Yes, I would agree with that statement.
Also, sorry for all the deleted comments I keep leaving. I should just never try and post while watching rerun episodes of Project Runway.
TELL me about it.
As the son of a global-warming denyer (I don't believe that is a word), I can tell you that while there are no actual scientists who doubt global-warming, pseudo-scientists who do are a dime a dozen, and it can be quite difficult to distinguish between the two, particularly when they use all kinds if tricks, like questioning the validity of peer-review and accusing it of being an elitist or biased system when questioned about their own lack of peer-reviewed research. One-way media outlets such as Rush Limbaugh's show are also scarily effective at making near-anything seem convincingly true.
While driving across the country, I once heard Rush Limbaugh go on a long rant about Joe Lieberman and Hilary Clinton that ended with him making the declaration, "testicle lockbox."
Carson-
In retrospect, you apparently used "denial of evolution" and "denial of global warming" as the antecedents when speaking of a "form of ignorance..." As I (and apparently, constant_k) read it, "religion" and "capitalism" appear to be your antecedents. No offense meant.
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