RealClimate provides an analysis of NYT journalist William Broad’s attack piece on Al Gore.
The first rule when criticizing popular science presentations for inaccuracies should be to double check any ‘facts’ you use. It is rather ironic then that William Broad’s latest piece on Al Gore plays just as loose with them as he accuses Gore of doing…….
You’ll find their review continued here.
The Australian continues what Tim Lambert calls its “War on Science”. Devoting copious column inches to the naysayers, here’s an extract.
March 17, 2007
IT says a lot about the complexity of climate science that we can put a man on the moon but we still can’t predict the weather beyond the next few days. The warming of the planet, and man’s contribution to this phenomenon, has become the top scientific issue of this generation.
Science by its very nature is an argument. But apparently not this one any more. Yet a minority of scientists are still lining up to challenge the accepted wisdom with their claim that global warming is being principally driven by the sun, not by human activity.The mainstream view is that an accumulation of greenhouse gases, mostly due to human activity, is trapping too much of the sun’s heat within our atmosphere. But the rebels against this dominant view suggest massive variations in the sun’s heat radiation are far more influential in warming than accumulating greenhouse gases.
….continued here.
Thinkprogress.org has the video of the announcement. Be sure to check out Gore’s “big announcement” in the clip further down on the same page.
A red-letter day.
I get the feeling we’re in the middle of a momentous time in the history of human civilisation. Perhaps one day our generation will tell people about how all of these great changes unfolded. How we went from burning up the planet to learning to live within its capacities.
When the history is written down, one man will stand out as a global leader who came back out from the shadows and worked tirelessly to wake us up and bring about perhaps a quiet revolution. That man is Al Gore.
Al Gore and some partners announced today a series of global concerts under the banner “SOS: live earth” – the SOS standing for save our selves. Styled on the “live8” concerts, they announced the cities and some 25 confirmed artists from the music world who will participate.
Partnerships have been formed with MSN, NBC/Universal, BBC and other media companies around the world.
This could be big. Very big. Take a look at the official site and the MSN site.
From the RACGP web site:
Global warming and the medical profession meeting: 13 March, Carlton VIC
Doctors for the Environment Australia in association with The Climate Project are pleased to invite Victorian doctors to attend a presentation and discussion on global warming and the medical profession on 13 March from 6.30 – 9.00 pm at The Green Building, 60L Leicester Street, Carlton VIC 3053. A brief tour of the Green Building will be commencing at 6.30 pm followed by presentations at 7.30 pm. Speakers include Dr Grant Blashki (presenting an adapted version of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth presentation), Dr Colin Butler (on increases in sea levels, food insecurity and refugees) and more. Email RSVPs to greenclinic@acfonline.org.au by COB on 6 March 2007 as places are limited.
The SMH covers Australia’s newly cool environmentalists.
Worldchanging gives an insider’s view of what its like to be one of Al Gore’s disciples as a Climate Project volunteer.
Environment pin-up boy Leonardo DiCaprio asks Yahoo users for solutions to Global Warming. Answer him here.
I notice that an inconvenient truth (the entire movie) has been posted to google video (Canadian sub-page).
You want me to link to it. Ummm……no I think not.
I’d much rather you buy the DVD which is out in the US and should be out here soon. It could be the most important Christmas gift you wrap for someone this season.
Via the Washington Post, it seems that oil company Exxon Mobil is funding the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) in the US. The NTSA knocked back an offer of 50,000 free copies of an an inconvenient truth from the movie’s producers (for use in schools) citing political bias concerns, as well as:
“unnecessary risk upon the [NSTA] capital campaign, especially certain targeted supporters.”
The company has apparently given $6 million dollars to the teacher’s association since 1996 and has a member on the NTSA’s corporate advisory board.
Why don’t I find this surprising?
Read more from the article here.
While we’re talking all things Al Gore, there’s an outstanding MP3 of his interview with Andrew Denton on the ABC web site from a couple of months ago.
Just click here.
More news on the climate project. An interesting mix of people by the sounds of SMH‘s write up on the Al Gore training program happening this weekend in Sydney. Some familiar names and no doubt many dedicated, anonymous environmental champions too.
Good luck and well done.
ABC environment news
Verdurous 
Use soft words and hard arguments