An Inconvenient Truth - DVD Special Features

[c9]

I received a copy of An Inconvenient Truth on DVD for Christmas from Vinny's Mom, and I'm just getting around to looking at the special features today. There's some really interesting stuff.

The DVD was assembled a full year after the movie was completed, and there's a mini-movie with Al Gore going through the dozens of studies and new pieces evidence that have appeared in late 2005 and early 2006. He references things shown in the movie, and gives more details or provides specific examples of even higher temperatures in the past year.
There are eight sections or so, on things like hurricanes, ocean acidification, soil moisture, the permafrost, and others. It includes extended scenes from his slide show too, which just makes me want to see his full slide show more.

It also makes me want to study climate science. I get very frustrated to see thousands upon thousands of highly-knowledgeable, skilled, experts talking about things they understand, and to then see climate professional change deniers, funded by companies that think they can't adapt, get all the press. What's especially frustrating to me is not knowing all the details about every single topic, so I can't respond effectively to those sorts of debates.

Just need to get Vinny done with school, then it's my turn again.

Comments

[joecdn.livejournal.com]

I got the DVD for Christmas, and while I agree with the notion that Global Warming is a problem that needs to be addressed immediately - I don't find Al Gore's scientific research to be very accurate.

Examples:

1. Gore talks about the mountain pine beetle infestation attacking Spruce trees in Alaska. The pine beetle infestation is attacking BC as well, and it's well known that pine beetles ONLY attack pine trees. It's important to note that I watched this DVD while in Quesnel, surrounded by three of my uncles, all of whom have degrees in agriculture, botany, entomology and forestry - one of whom has his PhD.

2. Gore discusses the use of glaciers for drinking water in Asia. While glacial "retreation" is a problem - isn't it to be expected that if you're drinking the water from a glacier that eventually it will disappear. It's not as if there are little engines inside of a glacier producing more ice, as an ice machine would.

3. The weather data from anything past 50 years ago is speculative - weather records weren't considered accurate until about 1950, so there's no way a correlation can be made that's 100% conclusive to one such event occuring.

I also didn't like how he'd go into personal asides, such as his son getting hit by a car. It seemed irrelevant to the movie and the message - and seemed more like a sob story meant to make us sympathize with him. I'm a big Gore fan - but this movie actually disappointed me more than anything - the lack of factual evidence that was presented.

[c9.livejournal.com]

1. I just re-watched that section of the DVD, and Gore actually says:

"You're heard of the pine beetle problem? Those pine beetles used to be killed by the cold winters. But there are fewer days of frost, and so the pine trees are being devastated. [new slide] This is part of fourteen million acres of spruce trees in Alaska that have been killed by bark beetles. The exact same phenomenon."

So he didn't actually say that pine beetles were attacking spruce trees, but easy to accidentally mix those two up when watching the movie.

2. Nature has been drinking water from glaciers since they first formed. Glaciers create rivers, and provide a huge percentage of all drinking water on the planet. There is a little engine creating more ice: the water cycle. Glaciers are always changing in size, shrinking and growing (and even moving). Learn more here.

3. Weather and Climate are two different fields. Climate is the study of weather patterns averaged out over 30+ years. It involves measuring amounts of oxygen in ice for example, and checking plant records to show different plants in different parts of the world. You're right that talking about the weather in the year 600,000 BCE is almost impossible, but talking about the climate is not. We have significant pieces of evidence of what the global average climate looked like at that time.

[c9.livejournal.com]

I also watched the director's commentary yesterday, and the director actually mentioned those person vignettes and how Gore didn't want them in, he felt that people would react negatively to them just like you did. The Director insisted that they put them in to create more personal connections with Gore, rather than just watching a slide show for 100 minutes. When Gore is in the same room as you, it's easier to connect with him than it is when he's just on a screen, so from a presentation perspective I understand the director's insistence.

[c9.livejournal.com]

Further to #3: can you provide some citations for this? I have seen very credible weather records (in terms of simple observed temperatures at least) going back about 200 years -- can you provide some information about where you got "50 years"? Since we've had thermometers longer than 56 years, I'm curious about this.

[joecdn.livejournal.com]

Just as an aside to my last response though....

I don't really endorse the site in any way, because it looks pretty conservative to me, but it's at least good to consider all points of view - and my uncle sent that out for consideration. It came in a PDF format originally, but I guess it was posted there first. So yeah....

[c9.livejournal.com]

How much you want to bet that all the well-reasoned, clearly written, science-based and actual-fact-filled responses are also getting forwarded around? It's sad.

Good to consider all points of view? Sure. Especially when they have scientific basis. When they're spreading junk science and lies? Maybe less so. :)