‘Inconvenient Truth’ warms up visual communication course

By Joshua Wolonowski | gargoyle@flagler.edu

Most documentaries are told as one-sided arguments.

After watching “An Inconvenient Truth” in my visual communications class, I learned this first hand.

As informative as Al Gore seems to be, he is selling a product that is grossing large amounts of money and entertaining the beliefs of countless individuals all over the world.

“An Inconvenient Truth” is a documentary about what is known in the scientific world as temperature change. After listening to Harvard professor Roger Revelle give a speech on climate change, Gore became intrigued with the topic, soon after he coined the term “Global Warming.”

As a self proclaimed environmental champion, Gore has won the Nobel Peace prize and an Academy Award for involvement in “An Inconvenient Truth.”

The problem is, what credibility does Gore have in making such bold accusations?

About 10 years ago, the former vice president was proclaiming he invented the Internet. Now he has created manic hysteria by telling individuals they are the reason for global warming.

If the public doesn’t fix the problem, we could expect major hurricanes, tornados, floods, and droughts.

The key term in all of this is “if.”

The panel Gore relies on for his information is known as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This panel consists of about 2,500 scientists who decide what is pertinent to the issue.

On the other hand, there is an Oregon petition signed by more than 19,000 scientists who believe there is “no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.”

There are nine major fallacies that scientists dispute with the documentary, the major one concerning the cause and effect of the temperature change versus CO2 level changes.

Gore believes the CO2 level causes the temperature to rise when in fact scientists have found that the temperature change causes the CO2 level to rise.

I don’t totally discredit Gore for bringing light to an issue, but if I am going to listen to a credible source talk about issues concerning temperature change, then it is going to be from a scientist that has done the research and not just a politician who has read a book.