Went to see Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth, recently. I thought it was quite a good movie that presented a lot of detailed scientific information in a form that lay people can understand. Unfortunately, lay people that don't WANT to understand it will not see the movie. And the usual suspects of nay-sayers have already come out condemning the movie without being able to condemn the science presented in it. Criticisms follow the usual character assassinations of Gore, offer contradictory pseudoscience, and generally play on the public's ostrich-like behavior. (There is a great quote from Upton Sinclair in the movie: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his NOT understanding it.")
I recently engaged in an argument with a friend who thought that there was no consensus in the scientific community. Of course there is consensus among scientists who actually study this issue, and the movie illustrated one of the reasons the public is so misinformed about this: although 100% of peer-reviewed scientific studies conclude human action is affecting global warming, around 45% of the news stories published claim there is NO consensus. Small wonder that the public may not have a clear picture of the problem. The Daily Show has it's usual humorous take on the 'controversy' presented by the film. Those damn hippie scientists!
Anyway, go see this movie. Don't be afraid to face a little reality.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment