The "Great Global Warming Swindle" Swindle

I find the debates between so-called "scientists" about whether or not the climate change we're clearly experiencing is primarily man-made or not fascinating. The most interesting debate I've seen so far was a discussion on Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) TV about the "documentary" The Great Global Warming Swindle, which was first shown on UK television in March, 2007.

ABC showed a revised version of that film on Australian TV in July, 2007, and followed up with a very interesting panel session/debate moderated by acclaimed Lateline reporter Tony Jones. Jones, as you'll see, is a terrific interviewer and moderator. He's cool and calm, but "doesn't play," as my friend Connie likes to say about people who won't back off from what they believe is true. I encourage everyone to watch all nine segments of this debate, which are available on YouTube:

• Part 2


• Part 3


• Part 4


• Part 5


• Part 6


• Part 7


• Part 8


• Part 9

Jones' very pointed and unrelenting questioning of UK filmmaker Martin Durkin on Parts 2, 3 and 4 is a modern classic. Clearly, Durkin chose to only show data or include quotations or references in his film that would support his contrarian -- and dangerously off-base and misleading -- view of the whole climate-change issue. The more Jones probed Durkin's deliberate failure to show the key climate data from the last 20 years, the clearer it became that Durkin is simply someone trying to profit from a very controversial topic -- he could care less whether his movie is accurate or positively contributes to the important dialogue about climate change.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of climate change naysayers (such as Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe) who will contend that Durkin's film substantiates their view that the whole global warming issue is just something trumped up by politicians like Al Gore. These individuals will likely not choose to see Tony Jones' probing questions and especially Durkin's inartful dodges, because people who already have their minds made up often don't want to be "confused by the facts." Durkin's clear effort to play to these neanderthals is the real swindle in "The Global Warming Swindle."

Jerry

Addendum: A few weeks back I sent a note to Dr. James Hansen, who heads the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and is a world renown climate change scientist, inviting him to read my earlier blog piece on the topic (An Inconvenient Truth -- 36 Years Ago). His response:

Jerry,

Thanks. I get the most threatening e-mails from Texas, but also some of the most thoughtful.. Must be an adventure to live there.

Jim

My response:

Jim,

That was an interesting observation. I've been here (Texas) for 24 years, via San Jose, CA (grew up just south of Chicago, went to U. of IL in engineering).

It turns out that there's the Austin area (I live in a little
southern suburb), and then there's pretty much the rest of Texas. Austin is generally pretty open minded and progressive (the local slogan is "Keep Austin Weird"), and of course it's a big university town and the state Capitol. My guess is that many of the most thoughtful comments you receive come from the Austin area. I don't mean to color everyone with the same brush, but indeed there are a lot of Texans in other, more isolated cities whose attitudes are driven by their philosophy rather than reality.