You probably know that Al Gore won an oscar for his documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth." I didn't understand why it would have won given that there were so many other far better documentaries in 2006. As fortune would have it, the documentary was running on a premium channel recently, so me and the family watched it.
I have a mix of emotions about this documentary. First, as a critic of film entertainment, I did not like its production. The central theme of the documentary is Al Gore giving a talk about global warming. There is footage of him actually giving this legendary talk, much like you would see in a recorded distance learning lecture. Only, this lecture was not educational, it was political. Second, the claims are confusingly misinformed and motivated politically.
You've likely read my position on global warming as a man-made doomsday scenario. Al Gore apparently believes that global warming is much akin to the ozone hole of the 80's. He even goes as far as referring to the ozone layer "crisis" as an example of man's ability to fix his (man's) problematic influence on the planet. Al Gore has obviously not read any recent studies about the ozone "hole" and its role in the dynamics of our planet's atmosphere. If he had, then he would know that holes in the ozone layer are a common occurence in our planet's history. Ignorance can be forgiven, though. Scientists used to think the Van Allen belts were going to explode, or worst, kill all of our astronauts. Guess what? Yeah, they were wrong, and the Van Allen belts were a blessing for reflecting highly energetic incident cosmic radiation.
What is most alarming in Al Gore's documentary is his blaming carbon dioxide emissions as the sole progenitor of global warming. Even more so, Al Gore positions the US as the largest contributor to his perspective on global warming. I've discussed this topic in another blog entry and determined that the US contribution to global carbon dioxide emissions is miniscule compared to the total volume of our atmosphere.
In fact, CO2 is only one facet in a larger constellation of emissions that plagues our planet. As more and more people (6 billion) exist on our planet, more waste is produced, and more biological decay is occuring. That biodecay produces a nasty greenhouse gas called methane. As we get more and more methane into our atmosphere, it will heat up even more. How are we going to stop that? We won't until we cull a few billion people off the planet. That's not likely going to happen, not even when the polar ice caps all melt and the coastal lands are flooded. That doomsday event will only displace about 250 million people, or about 4% of the world population.
Then Mr. Gore showed a graph of insurance losses caused by flooding as evidence of global warming and its economic impact. Well, really? Every industrialized waterway on this planet is controlled by man in some way or another. We have dammed numerous past floodways in the hope of controlling commerce on these waterways. By damming waterways, we have restricted the escape vector of flooded rivers, thus increasing the likelihood of inland flooding, especially around high population port cities.
Another place where this documentary fails is in its guidance for a course of action. In Al Gore's mind, all we have to do is stop producing CO2 and then it will all be fine. I don't have a problem with reducing the smog-creating emissions of factory plants. We should do it for ourselves, not the planet. What I do have a problem with is the delusion that reducing CO2 emissions will have any affect on stopping the planet's natural course of seasonal change. There is no conclusive science that links CO2 to global glaciations or global warming trends. We only have correlated circumstantial evidence found in ice cores and sediments that shows an increased carbon concentration in the atmosphere along with occasional rises in the average surface temperature of the Earth.
Yes, this planet has gone through multiple glaciations and warming trends. The planet has "seasons" of its own that are more catastropic than the minor seasons that we experience on the surface. There are many factors that contribute to the planetary glaciation cycle, one of which is the eccentric orbit it takes around our Sun. Are we going to try to change that too? How about its own wobbly revolutions that put it on a tilting spin. Our planet is likely to go topsey-turvey at some point and that'll make global warming look like a summer vacation in the Bahamas.
No matter what we do, this planet is going to heat up more and melt its polar ice caps. It has done that before, and it will do it now. All of our efforts should not be to "stop global warming," but rather to solve its fallout. What will we do with 250 million people moving inland? What economic provisions can we make to soften the blow? These are the issues for global warming, not CO2 emissions and finger pointing at countries who don't adopt some short-term political treaty.
On a positive note, though, this planet will recover and go into a global glaciation. As more fresh water hits the oceans, it will evaporate and fill the atmosphere with another greenhouse gas known as water vapor. That vapor, though, when it hits a critical concentration, will start to reflect the Sun's incident energy back into the cosmos more than it lets through. When that happens, the planet will cool down, and poof, we'll be in a global glaciation.
It's a real privilege to be at the cusp of this global change. Enjoy the show.
I have a mix of emotions about this documentary. First, as a critic of film entertainment, I did not like its production. The central theme of the documentary is Al Gore giving a talk about global warming. There is footage of him actually giving this legendary talk, much like you would see in a recorded distance learning lecture. Only, this lecture was not educational, it was political. Second, the claims are confusingly misinformed and motivated politically.
You've likely read my position on global warming as a man-made doomsday scenario. Al Gore apparently believes that global warming is much akin to the ozone hole of the 80's. He even goes as far as referring to the ozone layer "crisis" as an example of man's ability to fix his (man's) problematic influence on the planet. Al Gore has obviously not read any recent studies about the ozone "hole" and its role in the dynamics of our planet's atmosphere. If he had, then he would know that holes in the ozone layer are a common occurence in our planet's history. Ignorance can be forgiven, though. Scientists used to think the Van Allen belts were going to explode, or worst, kill all of our astronauts. Guess what? Yeah, they were wrong, and the Van Allen belts were a blessing for reflecting highly energetic incident cosmic radiation.
What is most alarming in Al Gore's documentary is his blaming carbon dioxide emissions as the sole progenitor of global warming. Even more so, Al Gore positions the US as the largest contributor to his perspective on global warming. I've discussed this topic in another blog entry and determined that the US contribution to global carbon dioxide emissions is miniscule compared to the total volume of our atmosphere.
In fact, CO2 is only one facet in a larger constellation of emissions that plagues our planet. As more and more people (6 billion) exist on our planet, more waste is produced, and more biological decay is occuring. That biodecay produces a nasty greenhouse gas called methane. As we get more and more methane into our atmosphere, it will heat up even more. How are we going to stop that? We won't until we cull a few billion people off the planet. That's not likely going to happen, not even when the polar ice caps all melt and the coastal lands are flooded. That doomsday event will only displace about 250 million people, or about 4% of the world population.
Then Mr. Gore showed a graph of insurance losses caused by flooding as evidence of global warming and its economic impact. Well, really? Every industrialized waterway on this planet is controlled by man in some way or another. We have dammed numerous past floodways in the hope of controlling commerce on these waterways. By damming waterways, we have restricted the escape vector of flooded rivers, thus increasing the likelihood of inland flooding, especially around high population port cities.
Another place where this documentary fails is in its guidance for a course of action. In Al Gore's mind, all we have to do is stop producing CO2 and then it will all be fine. I don't have a problem with reducing the smog-creating emissions of factory plants. We should do it for ourselves, not the planet. What I do have a problem with is the delusion that reducing CO2 emissions will have any affect on stopping the planet's natural course of seasonal change. There is no conclusive science that links CO2 to global glaciations or global warming trends. We only have correlated circumstantial evidence found in ice cores and sediments that shows an increased carbon concentration in the atmosphere along with occasional rises in the average surface temperature of the Earth.
Yes, this planet has gone through multiple glaciations and warming trends. The planet has "seasons" of its own that are more catastropic than the minor seasons that we experience on the surface. There are many factors that contribute to the planetary glaciation cycle, one of which is the eccentric orbit it takes around our Sun. Are we going to try to change that too? How about its own wobbly revolutions that put it on a tilting spin. Our planet is likely to go topsey-turvey at some point and that'll make global warming look like a summer vacation in the Bahamas.
No matter what we do, this planet is going to heat up more and melt its polar ice caps. It has done that before, and it will do it now. All of our efforts should not be to "stop global warming," but rather to solve its fallout. What will we do with 250 million people moving inland? What economic provisions can we make to soften the blow? These are the issues for global warming, not CO2 emissions and finger pointing at countries who don't adopt some short-term political treaty.
On a positive note, though, this planet will recover and go into a global glaciation. As more fresh water hits the oceans, it will evaporate and fill the atmosphere with another greenhouse gas known as water vapor. That vapor, though, when it hits a critical concentration, will start to reflect the Sun's incident energy back into the cosmos more than it lets through. When that happens, the planet will cool down, and poof, we'll be in a global glaciation.
It's a real privilege to be at the cusp of this global change. Enjoy the show.