A new Irish film claims that climate change guru Al Gore is an alarmist and that those who think they are saving the planet are only hurting the poor. IF THE ADVANCE publicity is anything to go by, Not Evil Just Wrong will do for Al Gore what Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 did for George W Bush. “This is the film Al Gore and Hollywood don’t want you to see,” declares the website for the latest work by film-makers Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer. (Read more from irishtimes.com)
of course there isnt consensus on climate change, and of course the evidence isnt incontravertable, it would be impossible to show such a thing, but the existence of a paltry few sketical climate scientists is hardly a convincing argument against it.
if you had a child, and you took him to 10 doctors, and 9 of them said he had cancer and needed chemo, and one said there was nothing wrong, who would you believe? what would you do? of course, majorities arent always right, but in this case, few of us have the ability to fully understand all the science on the topic, and it hardly seems plausible that all the scientists convinced of the reality of climate change are simply media pawns or whatever… many voiced concerns over it before it was fashionable, and at times at the risk of their own career.
all that said, accepting the premise of human induced climate change doesnt necessitate agreement on what, if anything, can/should be done about it. it would be so nice to see someone question the means by which people are trying to control climate change, without relying on denying the premise of climate change itself.
the filmakers here point out a serious problem about efforts to curb co2 emissions hurting less developed countries. its pretty fucked up for more developed countries to try clamp down on LDCs when they are really just playing catchup in the development game we started. we should concenrate on developing new technologies and working on our own comsumption patterns before dictating what china and india, etc should do, esp considering the proportions of resources/emissions we account for here. but, if alarmism had any benefits, its that it can (and has) gotten individuals to do something about their own patterns of consumption. and its the LDCs which stand to lose the most from climate change especially in terms of epidemic diseases and agricultural issues.
Thanks for the comment.