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A rare display of parent power has forced the Government to change its plans to send environmentalist propaganda to schools across the country after a High Court judge ruled that Al Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Truth” contained nine substantial errors.
A judge was asked to adjudicate between Kent parent Stewart Dimmock and the Department of Children, Schools and Families. Mr. Justice Burton ruled that the film could be sent to schools, but only if it was accompanied by new guidelines to balance the former US vice-president’s “one-sided” views.
Mr Dimmock argued the film was unfit for schools because it was politically partisan and contained serious scientific inaccuracies, as well as "sentimental mush".
His lawyers accused the Government and New Labour "Thought Police" of backing the film as a way of "brainwashing" pupils on global warming.
The judge said some of the errors were made in “the context of alarmism and exaggeration” in order to support Mr Gore’s thesis on global warming.
The judge also queried whether the film might appear to promote partisan views, rather than provide information about climate change, and thus make showing it in schools - without further efforts to counterbalance it - a breach of the Education Act 1996.
Mr Dimmock, a lorry driver from Dover with children aged 11 and 14, said at the outset of the hearing: "I wish my children to have the best education possible, free from bias and political spin, and Mr Gore's film falls far short of the standard required."
The Judge went on to list those errors:
Error one
Al Gore: A sea-level rise of up to 20 feet would be caused by melting of either West Antarctica or Greenland “in the near future”.
The judge’s finding: “This is distinctly alarmist and part of Mr Gore’s ”wake-up call“. It was common ground that if Greenland melted it would release this amount of water - “but only after, and over, millennia.
Error two
Gore: Low-lying inhabited Pacific atolls are already “being inundated because of anthropogenic global warming.”
Judge: There was no evidence of any evacuation having yet happened.
Error three
Gore: The documentary described global warming potentially “shutting down the Ocean Conveyor” - the process by which the Gulf Stream is carried over the North Atlantic to western Europe.
Judge: According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it was “very unlikely” it would be shut down, though it might slow down.
Error four
Gore: He asserted - by ridiculing the opposite view - that two graphs, one plotting a rise in C02 and the other the rise in temperature over a period of 650,000 years, showed “an exact fit”.
Judge: Although there was general scientific agreement that there was a connection, “the two graphs do not establish what Mr Gore asserts”.
Error five
Gore: The disappearance of snow on Mt Kilimanjaro was expressly attributable to global warming.
Judge: This “specifically impressed” David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, but the scientific consensus was that it cannot be established that the recession of snows on Mt Kilimanjaro is mainly attributable to human-induced climate change.
Error six
Gore: The drying up of Lake Chad was used in the film as a prime example of a catastrophic result of global warming, said the judge.
Judge: “It is generally accepted that the evidence remains insufficient to establish such an attribution. It is apparently considered to be far more likely to result from other factors, such as population increase and over-grazing, and regional climate variability.”
Error seven
Gore: Hurricane Katrina and the consequent devastation in New Orleans to global warming.
Judge: There is “insufficient evidence to show that”.
Error eight
Gore: Referred to a new scientific study showing that, for the first time, polar bears were being found that had actually drowned “swimming long distances - up to 60 miles - to find the ice”.
Judge: “The only scientific study that either side before me can find is one which indicates that four polar bears have recently been found drowned because of a storm." That was not to say there might not in future be drowning-related deaths of bears if the trend of regression of pack ice continued - “but it plainly does not support Mr Gore’s description”.
Error nine
Gore: Coral reefs all over the world were bleaching because of global warming and other factors.
Judge: The IPCC had reported that, if temperatures were to rise by 1-3 degrees centigrade, there would be increased coral bleaching and mortality, unless the coral could adapt. But separating the impacts of stresses due to climate change from other stresses, such as over-fishing, and pollution was difficult.
The Real issue
As has been warned about before, the jury is out on the extent of man’s contribution to alleged global warming. The over-emphasis on a fundamentally suspect, if not downright flawed environmental issue is convenient for top down government driven changes, intrusive legislation and the application of “green” taxes. The real environmental crisis is not global warming but the looming issue of peak oil which can either be perceived as a threat to the entire oil-driven industrial-economic consumption based complex or a welcome opportunity to reorganise our society in a bid to live in harmony with the planet. Because it will take some very bold decisions and some imagination as well as resolve to kick the oil-junkie mentality our esteemed government and vested self-interest groups have kept their heads firmly in the sand.
A judge was asked to adjudicate between Kent parent Stewart Dimmock and the Department of Children, Schools and Families. Mr. Justice Burton ruled that the film could be sent to schools, but only if it was accompanied by new guidelines to balance the former US vice-president’s “one-sided” views.
Mr Dimmock argued the film was unfit for schools because it was politically partisan and contained serious scientific inaccuracies, as well as "sentimental mush".
His lawyers accused the Government and New Labour "Thought Police" of backing the film as a way of "brainwashing" pupils on global warming.
The judge said some of the errors were made in “the context of alarmism and exaggeration” in order to support Mr Gore’s thesis on global warming.
The judge also queried whether the film might appear to promote partisan views, rather than provide information about climate change, and thus make showing it in schools - without further efforts to counterbalance it - a breach of the Education Act 1996.
Mr Dimmock, a lorry driver from Dover with children aged 11 and 14, said at the outset of the hearing: "I wish my children to have the best education possible, free from bias and political spin, and Mr Gore's film falls far short of the standard required."
The Judge went on to list those errors:
Error one
Al Gore: A sea-level rise of up to 20 feet would be caused by melting of either West Antarctica or Greenland “in the near future”.
The judge’s finding: “This is distinctly alarmist and part of Mr Gore’s ”wake-up call“. It was common ground that if Greenland melted it would release this amount of water - “but only after, and over, millennia.
Error two
Gore: Low-lying inhabited Pacific atolls are already “being inundated because of anthropogenic global warming.”
Judge: There was no evidence of any evacuation having yet happened.
Error three
Gore: The documentary described global warming potentially “shutting down the Ocean Conveyor” - the process by which the Gulf Stream is carried over the North Atlantic to western Europe.
Judge: According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it was “very unlikely” it would be shut down, though it might slow down.
Error four
Gore: He asserted - by ridiculing the opposite view - that two graphs, one plotting a rise in C02 and the other the rise in temperature over a period of 650,000 years, showed “an exact fit”.
Judge: Although there was general scientific agreement that there was a connection, “the two graphs do not establish what Mr Gore asserts”.
Error five
Gore: The disappearance of snow on Mt Kilimanjaro was expressly attributable to global warming.
Judge: This “specifically impressed” David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, but the scientific consensus was that it cannot be established that the recession of snows on Mt Kilimanjaro is mainly attributable to human-induced climate change.
Error six
Gore: The drying up of Lake Chad was used in the film as a prime example of a catastrophic result of global warming, said the judge.
Judge: “It is generally accepted that the evidence remains insufficient to establish such an attribution. It is apparently considered to be far more likely to result from other factors, such as population increase and over-grazing, and regional climate variability.”
Error seven
Gore: Hurricane Katrina and the consequent devastation in New Orleans to global warming.
Judge: There is “insufficient evidence to show that”.
Error eight
Gore: Referred to a new scientific study showing that, for the first time, polar bears were being found that had actually drowned “swimming long distances - up to 60 miles - to find the ice”.
Judge: “The only scientific study that either side before me can find is one which indicates that four polar bears have recently been found drowned because of a storm." That was not to say there might not in future be drowning-related deaths of bears if the trend of regression of pack ice continued - “but it plainly does not support Mr Gore’s description”.
Error nine
Gore: Coral reefs all over the world were bleaching because of global warming and other factors.
Judge: The IPCC had reported that, if temperatures were to rise by 1-3 degrees centigrade, there would be increased coral bleaching and mortality, unless the coral could adapt. But separating the impacts of stresses due to climate change from other stresses, such as over-fishing, and pollution was difficult.
The Real issue
As has been warned about before, the jury is out on the extent of man’s contribution to alleged global warming. The over-emphasis on a fundamentally suspect, if not downright flawed environmental issue is convenient for top down government driven changes, intrusive legislation and the application of “green” taxes. The real environmental crisis is not global warming but the looming issue of peak oil which can either be perceived as a threat to the entire oil-driven industrial-economic consumption based complex or a welcome opportunity to reorganise our society in a bid to live in harmony with the planet. Because it will take some very bold decisions and some imagination as well as resolve to kick the oil-junkie mentality our esteemed government and vested self-interest groups have kept their heads firmly in the sand.
