Zach LarkinsREQUIRED LEARNING
I just got done watching ‘The Day After Tomorrow'. I know, the movie was made in 2004, but I refuse to pay the money Hollywood wants me to spend at a theatre, especially if I can't smoke and relax there, so sometimes I have to wait a bit to see some films. I don't care, I get to see them for free eventually.
Anyway, it struck me after watching this film where Al Gore got the idea to run around like Chicken Little screaming the sky is falling. Or, in his case, the polar ice-caps are melting. He has seen the film too, but he couldn't separate fantasy from fact. Seeing himself in Dennis Quaid's role, he immediately went bonkers and launched his ‘Inconvenient Truth' campaign. Now he did win an Oscar for his work, which goes to prove that Hollywood can't separate fact from fiction either.
Gore is spreading his hysteria daily and he has some people actually listening to him. Case in point is the school boards across Canada that are showing his propaganda film to their students and asking them to take it as fact.
McKenzie (his parents asked their last name not be used), an 18 year old high school student in Northern Ontario, has seen the film four times. "I really don't understand why they keep showing it," he says. "I've spoken to the principal about it, and he said that teachers are instructed to present it as a debate. But every time we've seen it, well, one teacher said this is basically a two- sided debate, but this movie really gives you the best idea of what's going on." Unfortunately for his teachers, McKenzie says he has educated himself enough about both sides of the climate change controversy to know that the Gore movie is too one-sided to be taught as fact. "They don't know there's another side to the argument," he says. McKenzie's mother was outraged to find out that Gore's film was being presented as fact in her son's classroom. "This is just being poured into kids' brains instead of letting them know there's a debate going on," she says. "An educational system falls down when they start taking one side."
Gore's filmed climate change lecture is showing up in classrooms across Canada, frequently unaccompanied by critical analysis or a discussion of competing theories. "One of the teachers at my kid's school showed it and he even said ahead of time, ‘There is some propaganda in this,' " says Tim Patterson, a Carleton University earth sciences professor. "I said to him, ‘You even knew this was a propaganda film, and you still showed it in your classroom?' " The weirdest part? It was the gym teacher.
Last month, Vancouver's Tides Canada Foundation and a local eco-friendly courier firm teamed up to buy DVD copies for every public high school in B.C. Climate Learning, a non-profit Vancouver outfit, is a third of the way to raising the $68,000 it needs to buy copies of the film for every high school in the country. "I think it's important for high schools to have this film," says Will Cole-Hamilton, the group's director. "Our objective is to get them into schools by September." But will they allow debate about it?
Earthcare Canada, an energy-consultant sponsored group, is working with the Ottawa-Carlton school board and one in Belleville, Ont., to raise awareness about energy conservation. The Gore movie is one of the materials it suggests as a teaching resource. "We would definitely recommend it and make them aware that it is there, and then how to use it," says Earthcare's executive director Rose-Marie Batley. "I get e-mail from parents all across the country about this, in Calgary, B.C., Ontario," says Albert Jacobs, the founder of Friends of Science, a Calgary based group that promotes alternative theories to climate change. "They say, my kid has been exposed to this stuff which is totally one-sided and totally wrong and we want them to see the other side." In England, the government has made the movie part of the public curriculum. In Spain, the government is buying copies of the movie for all of its schools. In Australia, private donors are buying copies for schools. Gore must be extremely proud of himself, but he is facing a backlash. No longer are people blindly following him and taking his word for it. And it's about time.
Even scientists who back Gore's message admit they're uncomfortable with liberties the politician takes with "science" in the film and his allies acknowledge glaring inaccuracies in it. About ‘An Inconvenient Truth's' connection of rising hurricane activity to global warming, something refuted by storm experts, James E. Hansen, a NASA scientist and one of Gore's advisors, said, "We need to be more careful in describing the hurricane story than he is." Among other things, since the film's release last year, scientists have rejected Gore's claim that 2005 was the warmest year on record (temperatures have been receding since 1998), that polar bears are heading for extinction (their numbers are growing), that Antarctica is warming (interior temperature readings show cooling) and that sea levels will "rise 18 to 20 feet," swamping coastal cities (the International Panel on Climate Change predicts a few inches).
Vancouver based businessman Michael Chernoff, says his charitable foundation will provide to high schools DVD copies of the new British documentary, ‘The Great Global Warming Swindle', featuring interviews with scientists who dissent from Gore's claims, as soon as the producer is ready to ship the discs. "And if they start sending ‘An Inconvenient Truth' to all Canadian schools, then I'll buy a copy of Swindle for all the schools, too," he said. Bravo!
Gore should be exposed for the charlatan he is. Anyone who swallows his pap hook, line and sinker without proper debate deserves nothing but our scorn. Give back the Oscar you stole, Al, and start telling the people the truth. Though I doubt that becoming an honest man at this late stage of the game will help your run for the White House. Retire while you can still hang on to a bit of dignity.
Sources: Kevin Libin Inconvenient Truth Required Classroom Viewing National Post
Anyway, it struck me after watching this film where Al Gore got the idea to run around like Chicken Little screaming the sky is falling. Or, in his case, the polar ice-caps are melting. He has seen the film too, but he couldn't separate fantasy from fact. Seeing himself in Dennis Quaid's role, he immediately went bonkers and launched his ‘Inconvenient Truth' campaign. Now he did win an Oscar for his work, which goes to prove that Hollywood can't separate fact from fiction either.
Gore is spreading his hysteria daily and he has some people actually listening to him. Case in point is the school boards across Canada that are showing his propaganda film to their students and asking them to take it as fact.
McKenzie (his parents asked their last name not be used), an 18 year old high school student in Northern Ontario, has seen the film four times. "I really don't understand why they keep showing it," he says. "I've spoken to the principal about it, and he said that teachers are instructed to present it as a debate. But every time we've seen it, well, one teacher said this is basically a two- sided debate, but this movie really gives you the best idea of what's going on." Unfortunately for his teachers, McKenzie says he has educated himself enough about both sides of the climate change controversy to know that the Gore movie is too one-sided to be taught as fact. "They don't know there's another side to the argument," he says. McKenzie's mother was outraged to find out that Gore's film was being presented as fact in her son's classroom. "This is just being poured into kids' brains instead of letting them know there's a debate going on," she says. "An educational system falls down when they start taking one side."
Gore's filmed climate change lecture is showing up in classrooms across Canada, frequently unaccompanied by critical analysis or a discussion of competing theories. "One of the teachers at my kid's school showed it and he even said ahead of time, ‘There is some propaganda in this,' " says Tim Patterson, a Carleton University earth sciences professor. "I said to him, ‘You even knew this was a propaganda film, and you still showed it in your classroom?' " The weirdest part? It was the gym teacher.
Last month, Vancouver's Tides Canada Foundation and a local eco-friendly courier firm teamed up to buy DVD copies for every public high school in B.C. Climate Learning, a non-profit Vancouver outfit, is a third of the way to raising the $68,000 it needs to buy copies of the film for every high school in the country. "I think it's important for high schools to have this film," says Will Cole-Hamilton, the group's director. "Our objective is to get them into schools by September." But will they allow debate about it?
Earthcare Canada, an energy-consultant sponsored group, is working with the Ottawa-Carlton school board and one in Belleville, Ont., to raise awareness about energy conservation. The Gore movie is one of the materials it suggests as a teaching resource. "We would definitely recommend it and make them aware that it is there, and then how to use it," says Earthcare's executive director Rose-Marie Batley. "I get e-mail from parents all across the country about this, in Calgary, B.C., Ontario," says Albert Jacobs, the founder of Friends of Science, a Calgary based group that promotes alternative theories to climate change. "They say, my kid has been exposed to this stuff which is totally one-sided and totally wrong and we want them to see the other side." In England, the government has made the movie part of the public curriculum. In Spain, the government is buying copies of the movie for all of its schools. In Australia, private donors are buying copies for schools. Gore must be extremely proud of himself, but he is facing a backlash. No longer are people blindly following him and taking his word for it. And it's about time.
Even scientists who back Gore's message admit they're uncomfortable with liberties the politician takes with "science" in the film and his allies acknowledge glaring inaccuracies in it. About ‘An Inconvenient Truth's' connection of rising hurricane activity to global warming, something refuted by storm experts, James E. Hansen, a NASA scientist and one of Gore's advisors, said, "We need to be more careful in describing the hurricane story than he is." Among other things, since the film's release last year, scientists have rejected Gore's claim that 2005 was the warmest year on record (temperatures have been receding since 1998), that polar bears are heading for extinction (their numbers are growing), that Antarctica is warming (interior temperature readings show cooling) and that sea levels will "rise 18 to 20 feet," swamping coastal cities (the International Panel on Climate Change predicts a few inches).
Vancouver based businessman Michael Chernoff, says his charitable foundation will provide to high schools DVD copies of the new British documentary, ‘The Great Global Warming Swindle', featuring interviews with scientists who dissent from Gore's claims, as soon as the producer is ready to ship the discs. "And if they start sending ‘An Inconvenient Truth' to all Canadian schools, then I'll buy a copy of Swindle for all the schools, too," he said. Bravo!
Gore should be exposed for the charlatan he is. Anyone who swallows his pap hook, line and sinker without proper debate deserves nothing but our scorn. Give back the Oscar you stole, Al, and start telling the people the truth. Though I doubt that becoming an honest man at this late stage of the game will help your run for the White House. Retire while you can still hang on to a bit of dignity.
Sources: Kevin Libin Inconvenient Truth Required Classroom Viewing National Post
great blog....that nutcase is gonna cause global panic if he doesn;t stop his crazy shit...
Would be nice if the schoold showed both sides of the arguement though...give the kids something to actually "think" about besides clothes and the latest CD...
Take care,
Nick
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