English 1A

Holper

 

Some of Al Gore’s Evidence in

An Inconvenient Truth

 

(Note: this is not a complete list of Gore’s arguments.  You’ll find more that I didn’t mention in the links below.  If you want to go back over the film’s evidence, I would suggest watching the film again or looking at what critics—both pro and con—have written about his film.  I’ve only given you the briefest sort of critical response in the two articles below.)

 

1)   Gore points out how CO2 levels, which have been recorded since 1958 at Mauna Loa, have been steadily rising.  There is a clear correspondence between rising CO2 levels, Gore argues, and record-breaking temperatures during the 1990s and year 2000 and beyond.

 

2)   Gore argues that the number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years.  He also points out that until recently there had never been a hurricane in South America.

 

3)   Gore describes how malaria has spread to higher altitudes in places like the Colombian Andes, 7,000 feet above sea level.  He also points out, as temperatures have risen, how diseases have spread, such as West Nile Virus throughout the United States, which has not been an affected area until recently.

 

4)   Gore maintains that the flow of ice from glaciers in Greenland has more than doubled over the past decade.  He argues that if the glaciers melt in the Himalayas, a significant number of people will be without drinking water, because of their reliance on glacial melt water.

 

5)   Gore posits that at least 279 species of plants and animals are already responding to global warming, moving closer to the poles.  He also points out how extinction rates are well beyond the normal ranges, and he attributes this to the stresses on animals because of global warming.

 

6)   Gore illustrates that there is a consensus among scientists in peer-review journals, Gore argues, as demonstrated by the study in which out of approximately 1000 articles, there was not even one scientists who disagreed with the contention that global warming is manmade (anthropogenic).  Gore then points out how in the popular media, nearly 50 percent of articles raise the premise that the science of global warming is disputed among scientists.

 

7)   Gore argues that the snows of Mt. Kilimanjaro are disappearing because of global warming.  He also maintains that glaciers worldwide are retreating because of such melting.

 

8)   Gore uses the ice shelf collapses (such as Larsen B) in the Antarctic Peninsula as evidence that sea ice in Antarctica is at risk.  He also uses the Moulin argument for Larsen B and parallels it to the situation in Greenland.  Gore claims that if either Antarctica or Greenland were to melt, the seas would rise 20 feet.  He shows scenarios in such places as Florida, New York City, Malaysia, etc., to show what areas and populations would be displaced.

 

9)   Gore describes how the thermohaline cycle acts as the earth’s cooling apparatus; however, he points out that if more of the polar caps were to melt, it would release huge amounts of fresh water, which might affect the cooling cycle, i.e., cold, salty water sinks, and warm, fresher water rising.  These two effects, coupled with winds, produce the currents that pull warmer waters away from the equator toward the poles where they cool.

 

10)                      Gore points out that Darfur’s main body of water has almost completely disappeared within the last 20 years, and he attributes this to global warming.  He also maintains that some areas are now receiving a great deal more rain than normal, while some areas are receiving much less rainfall.

 

Gore gets it right: http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=299

 

Gore gets it wrong:   http://www.reason.com/news/show/116471.html

(And I couldn’t resist this news item of a judge in England who just attached “guidelines” for the showing of Gore’s film in British public schools for nine pieces of problematic evidence: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7037671.stm