An Inconvenient Truth... (movie)

[Terry Wallace]

How many of you have watched this movie...and aside from the political overtones... how many of you find this movie to be very logical and telling the truth about the evidence of global warming....?

I'd like to reserve comment until I hear thoughts you all have.....

[Terry Wallace]

bump....
Anybody?

[Mellifluous]

sorry

[CarolU]

I haven't seen it.

I do believe there is LOTS of evidence for global warming, but not nearly as much evidence about what is causing it. We could indeed be experiencing a normal cycle in the earth's warming and cooling.

What exists as REAL evidence of the impact the human overpopulation has on this earth though is that less then 1/4 the fresh water on the planet is now potable, the rest is polluted. We will have eaten all the food fish in the ocean in another 50 years, the Mediteraian, Red Sea, Gulf of Japan, Yangtzee river etc, are already almost devoid of marine life. We are playing with catastrophy, like nuclear winter, if we don't stop killing off the rainforest, it is the source of most of our oxygen. The list goes on.

I'm just glad I won't be alive long enough to see it when it finally crashes.

[Bonnie M]

Not sure if this was just a rumor, but my farrier told me that Gore had redwoods cut down to build a huge dining room table, and he drives a gas guzzling suv. He does this while preaching to everyone else.

I haven't seen it yet.

[Terry Wallace]

I think my post is too "early" not enough people have seen it yet.

CarolU...LOTS of evidence in this film...

Pretty scary stuff....

Its worth the watching. ;-)

[greyhorsewoman]

From interview at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,427522,00.html

SPIEGEL: Mr. Gore, what kind of car do you drive?

Gore: About a year ago we bought a hybrid, but I don't drive very much. We've changed our entire lifestyle. We made the decision to be carbon-neutral and eliminate any net CO2 contribution to the environment. Even "An Inconvenient Truth" was produced in part using carbon-neutral, alternative energies. Paramount also made the decision to ensure that the tour and the promotional activities would be done in a carbon-neutral way.

and this http://lomaprieta.sierraclub.org/ForestProtection/FeatureArticles/Fire%20Scientists_SJWC_Press_Release.htm

about opposing a logging plan of redwoods ...

I doubt either 'rumor' mentioned above is any truer than the one about him 'inventing the internet'

[nmcreel]

and found it very compelling. Currently I am reading "The Weather Makers" by Tim Flannery. It's very well backed up and the author refers to the original work on every topic he discusses. Since reading the book and seeing the movie our family is working hard at becoming "Carbon Neutral". There are quite glamourous and unglamorous ways to do this. Right now we can afford the less glamourous things, but are considering adding solar to our south facing roof in a grid tie system. My husband is a professor here at Montana State and will be recommending this book for a Freshman seminar next year.

Nancy

[Terry Wallace]

For me...it is not about Al Gore's political views...

It is about what is happening to this planet and very compelling evidence presented...

[ASB.Immortality]

I haven't watched this but something that was on the Discovery channel that was done an a documentary. It is all very interesting. I believe the global warming theory to an extent but there is also scientific evidence that shows the earth goes through warm and cold stages. One evens out the other.

Either way, it is both very interesting.

[cowboy ed]

i think it is just weather cycles mostly. people scream global warming, then we have record low temperatures in many regions, ice storms, snow storms, etc.

havent seen this movie yet.

[Terry Wallace]

Ed... I think this movie will change your mind about that... they have the weather patterns tracked for thousands of years..... see it when you can! ;-)

[CarolU]

Well Ed, I think some of it, you may be right. But it isn't changing weather cycles that is melting the polor ice caps and the tundra, both in Russia and the U.S./Canada. And it isn't cyclic weather changes that is changing the ocean's temperatures. Even the Bush Adminsitration finally saw that it was happening, with the shrinking of the habitat for the Polar Bears. We will probably see their extinction in our life time. :cry:

With the melting of the ice caps, the earth will heat even faster then it has been. The ocean levels are rising - which really makes it crazy to even consder rebuilding New Orleans where it is. They need to move it inland and to higher ground.

The world is changing, whether we're ready for it or not.

[Terry Wallace]

Florida will be in for LOTS of water as the icecaps continue to melt as well as part of the ice shelf of Greenland.
No more "snows of Kilamanjaro"... glaciers in Glacier Nat. Park...going, going....
The huge lake in (I think it was) Niger.. almost gone.
So many big changes taking place now.... so much evidence to support what is happening. Interesting technology as to how the weather conditions have been tracked for thousands of years showing the progressing of the warming.

Yep..the poor Polar bears... already dieing for lack of ice....

I rented the DVD from Blockbuster... ;-) I see now it is on Direct TV pay-view.

[Abejita]

Mom has the book .Shows aerial photos (one being the lake Terry mentions) some taken decades ago and then today Shows the lack of ice..lack of water or more water in certain areas..I have not gotten a chance to look at it really well.
As far as this weird weather pattern ..they can be tracked and yes they have happened in the past (We just broke a record for hitting 67 degrees a few weeks ago..the old record was 66 ..set in 1890..) and now science has explained them (el nino..la nina etc etc) but I dont think THAT is global warming BUT the changes happening (ice caps melting) can very easily cause more of these extreme patterns..

[Brigitte]

I've seen it...very interesting and scary

[CarolU]

On NBC news last night the scientists studying the heating of the Antartic said we are going to have a "catastrophic" loss of life there with the melting of the ice shelf. They said they weren't using the word lightly.

Scary

[motorgypsy]

We haven't seen the movie but have no doubts that we're in for catstrophic changes. Whether humans can slow it or moderate it is a good question.

But if I had a giant crack in an earthen dam on my property that was going to cause loss of life and lot of other problems if it continued enlarging and I'd been mining the area neaby I really think I'd start filling in that mine on the off chance that it might help stop the failure of the dam. I'd also try to divert some of the water and so just about anything else I could think of to stop the problem.

Of course we can say it's just a cycle and it's just a cycle that is going to cause humans to become extinct and that's fine. Or we can try to reduce the things we do that add to the problem. It's our choice. Ignore it or do something to slow it down at least until we can get to Mars.

[Terry Wallace]

On NBC news last night the scientists studying the heating of the Antartic said we are going to have a "catastrophic" loss of life there with the melting of the ice shelf.

Yep CarolU I saw that on the NBC news too and they also said the ocean is already rising because of it and will continue to rise.

My uncle who lives in Florida, and is an archaeologist for the state of Florida...said his property is only five feet above sea level and he does believe he won't be able to live there "much longer"...which I think he said was maybe ten years...before the water would rise too much.

[motorgypsy]

It wouldn't surprise me if he were correct. Supposedly the Maldives (Islands) have lost quite a bit. Downtown Norfolk VA is only about 1 foot above sea level. When we lived there it was quite frequent that the downtown would flood. Waterworld here we come :roll: :roll: :roll:

[cowboy ed]

terry, does your uncle who lives in florida know what the sea level elevation was on that property 100 years ago?

[Candice Burger]

Saw the movie, had some problems with statistics presented, not all but some were purposefully truncated to show only what Gore wanted you to see. I also had some problems when he spoke of "green" energy with power plants. He didn't discuss the wastesteams/pollution of power plants period. And then there were problems with some of his proposals about bio-fuels.

Science doesn't know what's going on because science hasn't documented a "cycle" long enough or weather patterns or pollution for that matter.

No one has argued that the earth is in a warming trend--NO ONE. What science is debating is the why. For Gore to suggest he's won a majority victory by counting the number of articles that say the earth is warming is bunk. Try to find one that doesn't. Oh, and before everyone jumps on my wagon about my comment about Gore. I vote democrat. But bunk is bunk and that has no boundaries. He biased the science for his benefit which turns what good science he used into bunk.

[CarolU]

I disagree Candice. As a biologist, married to a biologist and surrounded by biologists, I have to agree that there is a preponderance of evidence that the earth is warming. All articles go through peer review. It is not perfect, but it is the best we have.

As I said in my first post, I kind of agree with you that there isn't nearly as much evidence to say that global warming is the fault of man...but I firmly believe there is plenty to say it IS HAPPENING. Looking at the history of the earth, with volcanos erupting and meteor clouds, I would agree with many who say that our air pollution is not nearly as bad as many previous periods in the earth's history. But, those periods also were accompanied by species die-offs and ice ages.

What can not be denied are the right NOW problems of deforestation, water pollution, over fishing, and habitat encrouchment. ALL of these have one common source - over population of the human species. Everyone is so afraid of this subject, but if man doesn't take the initative to FIX the problem, nature will. And it most likely will be a catastrophic event that takes a lot of other species with it.

I hate to think what will happen to this planet at our current rate of growth. There soon will be no other species but man and harvested food speices. If you don't care for the industrial pig and chicken farms, they are our future. And horses, well there will be no horses, no room for them and no blade of grass to spare for anything that doesn't feed a human.

[motorgypsy]

I've read something like 1mm per year or per ten years - can't remember which. The thing about ice though is once you're above freezing it's gonna melt so the rate would skyrocket if there were a very small change in temp once the equilibrium point is reached.