A Tardy Canadian Tackles An Inconvenient Truth

authordefault
on

Moreย Gore-Bashing

The neo-con Frontier Centre for Public Policy, long a promoter of oil-sponsored deniers of climate change, has produced a new โ€œbackground paperโ€ that challenges the showing of An Inconvenient Truth in Canadian schools on the basis of a 15-month-old UK Court decision.

The report, written by high school social studies teacher and Steinbach, Manitoba city councillor Michael Zwaagstra, declares that โ€œthere is no demonstrable causal relationship between the CO2 record and the temperature record at any point in earthโ€™s history,โ€ and goes on to complain that Goreโ€™s movie (which presents this information rather more accurately) should therefore only be allowed into Canadian schools with a stern warning toย students.

Just for the record, the UK Judge who heard the case of Stuart Dimmock vs The Secretary of State for Education and Skills concluded that Al Goreโ€™s Academy Award-winning movie was โ€œsubstantially founded upon scientific research and fact.โ€ In fact, he accepted unreservedly this characterization of theย movie:

โ€œThe Film advances four main scientific hypotheses, each of which is very well supported by research published in respected, peer-reviewed journals and accords with the latest conclusions of the IPCC:

(1) global average temperatures have been rising significantly over the past half century and are likely to continue to rise (โ€œclimateย changeโ€);

(2) climate change is mainly attributable to man-made emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide (โ€œgreenhouseย gasesโ€);

(3) climate change will, if unchecked, have significant adverse effects on the world and its populations;ย and

(4) there are measures which individuals and governments can take which will help to reduce climate change or mitigate its effects.โ€

These points, said Mr. Justice Burton, โ€œare supported by a vast quantity of research published in peer-reviewed journals worldwide and by the great majority of the worldโ€™s climateย scientists.โ€

The judge dismissed Stuart Dimmockโ€™s motion to have AIT thrown out of UK schools and he derided Dimmockโ€™s request to have it accompanied by a denier documentary as tantamount to demanding that the school system always present minority views on science – such as, per the judgeโ€™s own example, that the moon was โ€œmade out of greenย cheese.โ€

Itโ€™s not clear what caused teacher Zwaagstra to wake up in the apparently sleepy metropolis of Steinbach (pop. 13,000), but his objection seems both slow off the mark and (given its sponsorship) predictably wrong-headed. But bear in mind that the FCPP has a history of sponsoring disinformation in the school system.

Bottomย line:

Should students be advised of possible political bias or (arguable) overstatement in a movie like Goreโ€™s?ย Absolutely.

Would I trust Michael Zwaagstra (or anyone from the FCPP) to give that advice evenhandedly? Not a statistically significant chance inย hell.


This month weโ€™re giving away FREE copies Nobel Laureate Dr. Andrew Weaverโ€™s new book Keeping Our Cool: Canada in a Warmingย World.

Go here to find out more details about DeSmogBlogโ€™s monthly bookย give-away.

Related Posts

on

Campaigners say the European Commission has โ€œcompletely embarrassed itselfโ€ by offering โ€œflimsy excusesโ€ for taking oil and gas lobbyists to the flagship summit.

Campaigners say the European Commission has โ€œcompletely embarrassed itselfโ€ by offering โ€œflimsy excusesโ€ for taking oil and gas lobbyists to the flagship summit.
on

The new leader of the opposition has regularly criticised the UKโ€™s green ambitions.

The new leader of the opposition has regularly criticised the UKโ€™s green ambitions.
on

Lucy von Sturmer and Duncan Meisel are building communities of creatives dedicated to preventing the advertising and public relations industry from casting polluters as climate saviours.

Lucy von Sturmer and Duncan Meisel are building communities of creatives dedicated to preventing the advertising and public relations industry from casting polluters as climate saviours.
Opinion
on

It's time to come together to collectively work through the anxiety, grief and overwhelm so many of us are experiencing.

It's time to come together to collectively work through the anxiety, grief and overwhelm so many of us are experiencing.