Portland High School Honors Student Takes on Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth’

Here is a story that should make every parent proud, even those on the left side of the aisle.

A high school student up in Portland, Maine, created a website for extra credit in her Honors Earth Sciences class. Called “Ponder the Maunder,” fifteen-year-old Kristen Byrnes took on the subject of global warming, and was eventually asked to examine the veracity of Al Gore's schlockumentary “An Inconvenient Truth.”

In her piece, Byrnes quickly demonstrated what few in the media, especially Gore sycophants Laurie David, Sheryl Crow, and Leonardo DiCaprio, were able to grasp about this farcical film (emphasis added throughout):

Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth does indeed have some correct facts, but as he even says himself, sometimes you have to over-exaggerate to send the message to people:

Q. There's a lot of debate right now over the best way to communicate about global warming and get people motivated. Do you scare people or give them hope? What's the right mix?

A.  I think the answer to that depends on where your audience's head is. In the United States of America, unfortunately we still live in a bubble of unreality. And the Category 5 denial is an enormous obstacle to any discussion of solutions. Nobody is interested in solutions if they don't think there's a problem. Given that starting point, I believe it is appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presentations on how dangerous it is, as a predicate for opening up the audience to listen to what the solutions are, and how hopeful it is that we are going to solve this crisis.

 http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2006/05/09/roberts/ (Interview with Grist Magazine’s David Roberts and Al Gore about An Inconvenient Truth)

Al Gore said this, so how are we supposed to know fact from fiction in the global warming debate?

Bravo, Kristen. You’ve quickly pinpointed what folks much older than you choose to ignore.

From there, Kristen quickly debunked many of the claims made by Gore in his atrocity that I suggest the reader take some time with. She marvelously incorporated charts, graphs, figures, and supporting evidence with citations to buttress her arguments.

It is well worth the read.

After her lengthy analysis (once again, I can’t be more hopeful that you will read the entire thing), Kristen marvelously concluded:

It’s easy to see why Al gore’s [sic] movie should not be shown in schools. An Inconvenient Truth is a political commercial that misrepresents a whole area of science. He admittedly uses scare tactics to get people to listen then shows them a professional slide show that blames every thing bad on so called man made global warming. 

Al did not make and publicize this movie because he cares; something obvious when you consider his own lifestyle. He did not make this movie to run for president. This movie has grossed over 60 million dollars to date and it hasn’t even made it to cable. Al charges over $100,000 per slide show. But the real money that Al will make is through his new company, Generation Investment Management, a company that seeks to establish the rules and licensing for the new carbon-trading scheme. We have all heard of politicians who lie for money and power; it looks as if Al did not retire after all.

Brava, Kristen! Welcome to the fight.

And, Brava for the name of your website.

For those who didn’t catch it, maunder means to talk in a rambling, foolish, or meaningless way. As such, in this instance Kristen is asking us to ponder Gore’s ramblings.

I couldn’t agree more, and wonder why people in the media with far more education and experience than our dear Kristen refuse to.

Alas, I guess that's what we love about them.