Well, this is convenient: Philip McAleer, whose independent film purporting to explain “the true cost of global warming hysteria,” Not Evil, Just Wrong, releases this Friday, got to ask Al Gore about the inaccuracies of 2006’s An Inconvenient Truth at the Soceity of Environmental Journalists’ annual meeting in Madison, Wis. Would you have “killed the mic” on McAleer, too? Or perhaps you’d like to hear Gore answer more questions about his science? [via Columbia Journalism Review]
Science is annoying!
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While I don’t agree with the central message of Philip McAleer’s Documentary (from what I have seen in the trailer), nor do I agree with his website’s rhetoric and sensationalized demonization of “Hollywood” “elites”, and “mainstream media”, McAleer shouldn’t have been silenced in that manner. I welcome an open forum to talk about these issues, and would expect Al Gore to be able to answer, defend, and refute questions he is asked, to the best of his ability. To turn off the guy’s mic because his questions were prickly also turns off the conversation.
Q&A sessions are a completely inappropriate place for debates, regardless of whether the questions need to be asked or answered. Those mics are for everyone to ask Gore questions, not just one person with an axe to grind.
Acting like a martyr ’cause they cut the mic off is like throwing a tantrum when they cut you off at three free samples at Costco, yet you’re still hungry.
It seems to me that the mics were cut (not by Former Vice President Al Gore) because Mr. McAleer was no longer asking a question and was repeating a statement again and again with the hope of getting Mr. Gore upset. The rise of polar bear populations does not exclude the population from being endangered as a species. What is more important, and often over looked, are the effects of changing population dynamics have on non-charismatic organisms like fish, plankton and bacteria that are living in the polar regions. These all will be affected if CO2 levels continue to increase. More importantly for humans, global water rise will lead to certain areas being highly effected and cities will need to build levees, etc to protect their citizens. These factors will not change due to the sucess of documentaries by Mr. McAleer or Mr. Gore.
Lol, considering most of these people don’t believe in evolution either (and have little respect for science, period), I have a hard time taking their arguments all that seriously.
I mean, come on, you really think we could pour millions of tons of toxic pollutants into the air every year and it WOULDN’T affect the atmosphere?? Our Earth may be huge, but the atmosphere itself sure isn’t.
wow, are you serious? This guy is an environmental journalist, he knows his facts, he does it for a living… maybe you should read the current statistics and facts regarding “global warming.” The earth’s core temperature has not increased since 1998, in fact it has gone down consistently since 2007, this is with Carbon Dioxide levels RISING… this tells us that the amount of carbon dioxide does not in fact coincide with the earth’s temperature.
Also, there are an alarming number of environmental scientists who now say that “global warming” (caused exclusively by humans) is preposterous. So yes I do believe that these “toxic” pollutants have little affect on our atmosphere…
and by the way I do believe in evolution (nice generalization)
“Alarming number”? According to who? From everything I’ve read and heard, the vast vast VAST majority of scientists do accept global warming. Somehow, I’d rather take their findings and expertise over the relative handful of naysayers out there.
Or do you really think they’re all being payed off or this is some huge conspiracy?
Not to mention that those other thousands of scientists almost certainly DID weigh and consider those other factors the naysayers bring up. The idea that they wouldn’t consider something as obvious as the core temperature or sunspots is ridiculous.
It’s not global warming it’s climate change. Some temps will will rise, some will fall. But we are talking about weather. What does the Earth’s core temp. have to do with climate change? NOTHING.
its not about toxicpollutants it’s about carbon dioxide my friend
Science is annoying? I’ll tell you what’s annoying. Having some snot-nosed idiot show up to a speaking event and attempt to embarrass you while promoting his crappy documentary. This is a non-story. He was rightly silenced. Showing up was a conflict of interest. That guy is a first class douche.
The question could have been asked better to avoid Gore’s easy reply of polar bears being endangered. The dude should have specified the 9 inconsistencies so Gore could reply to each. That said, he deserved to have his mike cut for a poor question and just trying to argue with Gore. Climate change is real regardless if Gore flubbed a few of the facts.
The guy seemed to be talking in circles anyway with the polar bear thing. Not very productive, and not appropriate for the forum. If this is how he goes about his job it’s hard to fault Gore for denying him an interview. 0n a less serious note, I would love to see him and Michael Moore in a steel cage match. Two may enter, only one may leave!
Don’t ask, don’t tell……….the truth!
Al Gore is a businessman first and foremost, and is in the business of selling “carbon credits.” Stuff like this happens all the time for him — his people are just protecting the boss.
It wasn’t ‘his people’ that cut the mic, it was the organizers of the event.
I think his mic got cut b/c at the end he wasn’t giving Gore time to respond to his question. he turned it into a debate, and to avoid a shouting match, they cut him off. He wasn’t following the rules set up for the event.
Mr. Gore and others that have bought into ‘man-made global warming’ or ‘climate change’ or whatever the next catch phrase for this movement will be, need to take a paleoclimatology class. The earth’s climate is constantly changing and believe it or not, science, real science not hollywood science, indicate that global temperatures over earth’s 4.8 billion year history have been much hotter at many different times than present. Why? Most likely due to that big ball of fire in the sky but we are not certain. What we are certain of is that man had nothing to do with it because he wasn’t here!
Shawn is right. It’s quite naive to assume that we are capable of changing the climate of a planet over a period of say 150 years (of industrialisation). And yet it’s in our nature to think we are better than we actually are and have more of an effect than we actually do… This is merely a case of post-hoc, ergo hoc fallacy at work.
Al Gore has made millions from his “vision” for a “new-world” and he will continue to do so. As long as people think “CO2″ is evil and bad and needs to be “controlled”, they will buy his carbon credits.
People who think that there is a consensus on the issue need to visit internet sites and read journal articles that aren’t affiliated with ANY political party, or government body (including the UN) to see just exactly where the truth is, and that is, quite frankly:
WE DON’T KNOW
This journalist isn’t claiming to know the answers, he is just annoyed that the environmentalist movement has been hijacked by those with political agendas. He is a “truth” seeker – a skeptic. How is that a bad thing?
Cheers.