Conveniently, the American media is largely ignoring a significant statement from a UK High Court judge who said Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” promotes “partisan political views” and the schools should treat it as such.
As a result the British government was forced to rewrite their website and their “guidance” and will need to issue a warning before showing the film.
As NewsBusters reported, truck driver, part-time school official and father of two Stewart Dimmock brought a High Court action to ban the film from UK schools, claiming it is “unfit for schools” because it contains scientific inaccuracies, “sentimental mush” and is politically biased.
The movie was distributed to more than 3500 schools for children aged 11 to 14-year-olds in “Climate Change Packs.”
Even though the wire services AP and UPI covered this story, it has largely gone unreported in America, unlike in England. UK’s Daily Mail covered the story in this October 3 article (bold mine throughout):
Schools will have to issue a warning before they show pupils Al Gore's controversial film about global warming, a judge indicated yesterday.
Mr Justice Burton is due to deliver a ruling on the case next week, but yesterday he said he would be saying that Gore's Oscar-winning film does promote 'partisan political views'.
This means that teachers will have to warn pupils that there are other opinions on global warming and they should not necessarily accept the views of the film.
The article actually addressed the lack of facts backing up "An Inconvenient Truth":
But during the three-day hearing the court heard that the critically-acclaimed film contains a number of inaccuracies, exaggerations and statements about global warming for which there is currently insufficient scientific evidence.”
This is rather amazing news, considering how the movie is thought of as environmental scripture. While it was a win for science, it wasn’t a total success. Hearing about “An Inconvenient Truth’s” scientific inaccuracies won’t stop the British government from continuing to teach it to kids:
Children's Minister Kevin Brennan said last night: 'The judge's decision is clear that schools can continue to use An Inconvenient Truth as part of their teaching on climate change in accordance with the amended guidance, which will be available online today.
'We have updated the accompanying guidance, as requested by the judge to make it clearer for teachers as to the stated Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change position on a number of scientific points raised in the film.'
So, to avoid being accused of using scientifically inaccurate material by the courts, instead of stating that many of Gore’s “facts” were debunked by scientists, the government simply directed teachers to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which happened to be a primary source for Gore’s movie.
That’s a slick dodge.
The lack of US media attention isn't surprising. The media don’t have a good record reporting the movie’s fallacies, why would they report a judge calling it partisan?
(ht The Monkey Tennis Center)
Lynn is a contributor to NewsBusters. Contact her at tvisgoodforyou2 AT yahoo DOT com
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}}---> An inconvenient lie so big
Thu, 10/04/2007 - 07:26 ET by Cool ArrowAn inconvenient lie so big you could drive a MACK lorry through it.
~LYDSEXICS UNTIE!~
Question. The photo. Should
Thu, 10/04/2007 - 07:39 ET by danboQuestion. The photo. Should we have a photo of Al Gore getting on a private jet. With a hurricane coming out of the engines? Or Al's mouth?
"There is a clear attempt to establish truth not by scientific methods but by perpetual repetition."
- Richard S. Lindzen, Ph.D. Professor of Meteorology, MIT
}}---> The photo
Thu, 10/04/2007 - 07:47 ET by Cool ArrowAlso need a fog of flatulence emanating from Al's arse killing off the Everglades.
~LYDSEXICS UNTIE!~
Isn't what comes out of
Thu, 10/04/2007 - 08:10 ET by danboIsn't what comes out of Al's mouth flatulence?
News. We've heard about the sea ice up north ad nausium. The Southern Hemisphere just set a new record for sea ice. A new maximum. Will we hear about it?
AGW is falling apart.
"There is a clear attempt to establish truth not by scientific methods but by perpetual repetition."
- Richard S. Lindzen, Ph.D. Professor of Meteorology, MIT
Cool, I think this might be
Thu, 10/04/2007 - 09:28 ET by MikeBCool, I think this might be what you were thinking of. I think Al is the one on the right ... which, if you think about it is a strange place for Al to be. On the other hand, from the perspective of the others in the clip, he is on their left, which makes perfect sense.
"A communist is someone who reads Marx. An anti-communist is someone who understands Marx." Ronald Reagan
Thanks, MikeB
Thu, 10/04/2007 - 09:30 ET by Cool ArrowProof that Al Gore killed off the dinosaurs.
~LYDSEXICS UNTIE!~
Do they show it in schools here?
Thu, 10/04/2007 - 07:49 ET by Dee BunkIf they do, someone here should sue. The best thing about this story, if I remember correctly, is that he doesn't dismiss global warming himself. He's a principled man who wants people to think for themselves with proper evidence. Too bad more people couldn't be like Stuart Dimmock.
Closed doors
Thu, 10/04/2007 - 10:21 ET by JDWThis non-biases news media garbage is just that. I found this story on only two sites, TimesOnline and FOX. Too insignificant to go to the wired reports?
JDW
Sen Clinton: Founder of Media Matters
'I have seen this film and
Mon, 09/29/2008 - 14:51 ET by caballosweb'I have seen this film and it is excellent. It is certainly opinionated but it is not "biased", it is a scientific presentation of the facts available at the time. All new science can only be opinion, unless proven beyond all reasonable doubt, so there is nothing unusual in this.'
Science is not 'opinion until it is proven'!
The process goes: Man sees effect. Man comes up with theory about what might be causing the effect. Man devises experiments whose results will prove or disprove theory. Man records outcome of experiments and infers result.
As far as global warming goes, we're still on step two. The problem is that it's simply too big an environment to propose an exhaustive, conclusive experiment (plus we need it to live in!), so we might never get past step two.
Al Gore's movie IS an opinion (or more accurately a political device), and there's very little 'scientific evidence' in it.
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