Court concludes Gore's film untrue.
Gore film hit for 'alarmist untruths'
Lewis Smith and Matthew Warren | October 12, 2007
Al Gore's award-winning climate-change documentary has been exposed by Britain's top court as alarmist, one-sided and littered with nine convenient untruths.
An Inconvenient Truth won plaudits from the environmental lobby and an Oscar from the film industry but was found wanting when it was scrutinised in the High Court in London.
Judge Michael Burton identified nine significant errors in the former presidential candidate's documentary as he assessed whether it should be shown to school children. He agreed that Mr Gore's film was "broadly accurate" in its presentation of the causes and likely effects of climate change, but said that some of the claims were wrong and had arisen in "the context of alarmism and exaggeration".
In what is a rare judicial ruling on what children can see in the classroom, Justice Burton was at pains to point out that the "apocalyptic vision" presented in the film was politically partisan and not an impartial analysis of the science of climate change.
"It is plainly, as witnessed by the fact that it received an Oscar this year for best documentary film, a powerful, dramatically presented and highly professionally produced film," he said.
"It is now common ground that it is not simply a science film - although it is clear that it is based substantially on scientific research and opinion - but that it is a political film."
The analysis by the judge will have a bearing on whether the British Government can continue to have the film shown in every secondary school. He agreed it could be shown but on the condition that it was accompanied by new guidance notes for teachers to balance Mr Gore's "one-sided" views.
The Government's decision to show the film in secondary schools had come under attack from Stewart Dimmock, a school governor in Kent and a member of political group the New Party, who accused the Government of brainwashing children.
A spokesman for the NSW Education Department said yesterday the decision on whether the film should be screened in schools would remain at their discretion based on departmental guidelines.
The first mistake made by Mr Gore, said Justice Burton in his written judgment, was in talking about the potential devastation that would be wrought by a rise in sea levels caused by the melting of ice caps. The claim that sea levels could rise by 7m "in the near future" was dismissed as "distinctly alarmist". Such a rise would take place "only after, and over, millennia".
A claim that atolls in the Pacific had already been evacuated was supported by "no evidence", while to suggest that two graphs showing carbon dioxide levels and temperatures over the past 650,000 years were an "exact fit" overstated the case.
Mr Gore's suggestion that the Atlantic Ocean's Gulf Stream would shut down was contradicted by the UN's International Panel on Climate Change's assessment that it was "very unlikely" to happen.
The drying of Lake Chad, the loss of Mount Kilimanjaro's snows and Hurricane Katrina were all blamed by Mr Gore on climate change but the judge said the scientific community had been unable to find evidence to prove a direct link.
The judge also said there was no proof to support a claim that polar bears were drowning while searching for icy habitats melted by global warming. The only drowned polar bears the court was aware of were four that died following a storm.
National Climate Centre Manager Michael Coughlan said each of the inaccuracies raised could be argued either way, but that such disagreement was counter-productive to the overall debate.
"All we end up doing is throwing rocks at each other," he told The Australian. "I'm not saying that one should put falsehoods in there but you need to grab their attention ... The fact that they were going to give it to school kids to view is good because it makes them think about it and be critical."
Former CSIRO climate scientist Dr Graeme Pearman said he had some specific issues on the film's use of graphs and data, but said he worked with Mr Gore on his recent visits and said his understanding of the climate science was "very sound".
The Times
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