[Devil's Advocate] The Great Global Warming Swindle

Before I get into the documentary, let me just say that I'm kicking off the blog cycle with what is probably the opposite of what everyone else will be posting over the next two weeks. I tried finding "Not Evil Just Wrong" (made by the same people making "FrackNation"), but couldn't so I stuck with the documentary "The Great Global Warming Swindle". Right, on to the graded part of the blog post! The rest of the post is after the page break since I kind of wrote an essay. Sorry, my bad.




Summary (Who really has the time to watch a 73:33 video other than me?):
The documentary was made as a response to "An Inconvenient Truth" by Al Gore. It tries to show that global warming is not man made, and the entire movement is a political one. I took notes as I watched the video and here are the different points brought up in the video:

•  The Earth has been in a cycle of warming and cooling for its entire existence. In the 14th century, Europe experienced a "Little Ice Age." The Medieval Warm Period was a time of great wealth in Europe despite being much hotter than it is currently, showing that global warming wouldn't be a negative thing.
• Since the mid 19th century, the Earth's climate has only rose about 0.5 degrees Celsius. Most of this increase was before the 1940s, when the amount of CO2 from industry was insignificant. During the "Post-War Economic Boom" when industry and CO2 emissions really rose, the Earth actually experienced a drop in temperature.
• The amount of CO2 present in the atmosphere is really small compared to other things in the atmosphere. And even with its small amount, natural sources like volcanoes produce a lot more CO2 than we do.
• Water vapor is a more prominent greenhouse gas, and has a larger impact than CO2 at temperature changes.
• This point everyone should get, and Mrs. DeLuca helped prove its validity. Al Gore showed a graph that shows correlation between CO2 emissions and temperature changes, claiming this proves CO2 causes global warming. This is actually reverse, and global warming causes CO2 rise. This is because when the Earth heats up, so does the oceans. We learned that heating water has effects on the things dissolved in it. According to the documentary when the oceans are heated, they release CO2, causing the rise in CO2 levels. In Al Gore's graph, the CO2 level actually rose after the temperature.
• The sun is the biggest factor in global warming, not humans. The documentary shows that sun spots actually affect the temperature, and goes into a scientific explanation on exactly how so.
• Some scientists that are listed as Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) supporters are actually against the idea of man-made global warming, but the IPCC refused to remove the names from their lists.

These are the basic arguments the film makes. It does make more arguments than this and expands more one each point, but this is all that is needed for the blog's purpose. In addition to trying to disprove man-made global warming, it also starts to say that global warming is political and the movement is causing problems.

• Anyone that disagrees with the idea of man-made global warming is treated by everyone as a "heretic" and the global warming movement is almost like a religion. Any scientists that show proof against global warming is shunned by the public, and risk getting funding cut or credibility loss.
• The global warming movement is preventing third world nations like Africa from developing. This is because people are trying to stop Africans from using their fossil fuel resources, and instead use alternate energy. James Shikwati, an African economists, says that renewable energy is "luxurious experimentation" that Africans cannot afford to try. He also says that "[he doesn't] see how a solar panel is going to power a steel industry- rather a transistor radio." An example is given of a health clinic where the solar panels they are told to use cannot provide enough power for lights and a refrigerator to run simultaneously.
• Research funding (we discussed the difficulty of getting this at the beginning of the semester) is more easily provided for global warming research, which cripples other more important developments (AIDS research perhaps?).
• The global warming movement is sometimes supported because it supports being against capitalism (the movement stops the freedom to run business as one desires), economic development (no fuel burning is bad for industry), globalization (see the bullet point on African development), and industrialization (see the bullet point on African development).
• Politicians support the global warming movement to further their political agendas.

I know I wrote a lot, but it's better than having to sit through a 74 minute documentary with a British narrator. Best way to spend my day ever.

Opinion:
I find that while the documentary does have science and statistics in it, along with interviews with professionals and experts to support statements, it is extremely biased. It takes a firm anti-man made global warming stance from the very beginning. This doesn't matter that much since "An Inconvenient Truth" also takes a biased stance. I found that the documentary came off as a little strong, and it takes just as passionate a standpoint as what they claim is the religious side. I do think that the global warming movement is a little ridiculous and almost like a religion. What most religions do is alter things as science proves them wrong (What's the book of Genesis? Oh we disregard that part now.). An example of this now is the idea of "global climate change" vs "global warming." Before when the Earth seemed to be warming, it was fine to say global warming. Then skeptics started pointing out things like snow in October, so the environmentalists changed their working to "climate change" saying that greenhouse gases don't warm the Earth after all, but cause drastic weather changes. I also found it interesting that the documentary says that the global warming movement causes a lot of problems with the world (Africa staying poor, political extremists, etc). Also on another note, I don't support either side, I just like to argue the other side so that there is someone to argue with. I like to be neutral in things.

Thoughtful Questions:

1. Which side of the argument is correct?
2. Is the documentary cursed by the same problems that it says "An Inconvenient Truth" and the global warming movement has?
3. IF YOU BELIEVE IN MAN-MADE GLOBAL WARMING: What could we do to prevent further global warming?
4. IF YOU ARE SKEPTICAL: Why do they teach us something that is wrong in school and would it affect Environmental Science if we skipped over it?
5. Hey I just met you and this is crazy, but here's my number. So call me maybe?