What proof do I have to support my statement that “Global warming is a bunch of hogwash?” None, of course! Because if I actually tried to provide a shred of evidence, my whole argument would fall apart. That doesn't seem to stop many so-called “journalists” at a growing number of partisan publications. Aren't journalists suppose to promise to uphold a code of ethics? The Society of Professional Journalists puts out this Preamble:
“... Journalists believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues.”
“Public enlightenment,” “fair and comprehensive account of events and issues” - those are noble ideas. When was the last time you read a fair and comprehensive account on anything? Instead of seeking truth, they are giving their views as fact; instead of fair and comprehensive, it's more like one-sided and brief; and instead of enlightening their audience, often times their intentions are to manipulate and spin. There are many exceptions to my statements, of course, but people like Anderson Cooper seem to be a dying breed. Instead, we seem to be bombarded by more and more so-called journalists who are in fact prostitutes. They tend to be on the right or on the left and whichever side they fall, there is no amount of data or facts that could change their minds. It's a shame that we call these people journalists.
Yesterday, I saw the movie An Inconvenient Truth, a documentary, which is mostly based on a presentation on Global Warming that former VP Al Gore has been giving around the world for years. The movie is definitely interesting, causes you to think about all sorts of information and even more importantly, all sorts of mis-information. One of the lines in the movie that had stuck with me was the question of whether or not global warming was being caused or, at the very least accelerated, by human actions. If you were to ask me this question prior to seeing the movie, I would have responded “yes, global warming is probably partically caused by human actions” but I would have quickly followed it with “but who knows, the earth could be on some sort of warming cycle that we happen to be in the middle of.” As it turns out, the scientific community, people who spend their whole lives studying this issue, would not have a “but who knows” response. Out of 928 peer-reviewed scientific studies that were examined, the number of dissenting views as to the cause of global warming is a big whopping - are you ready for this - ZERO!
That totally blew my mind. I had figured there would have to be at least 5 or 10% of the scientific community that would disagree with the assessment that humans are causing global warming. Wouldn't you think? It seems like scientists can hardly agree on anything, doesn't it? Well, as it turns out, the reason we all think there are disagreements among scientists is because of journalists. When was the last time you actually spoke to a scientist? In The Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore goes on to say that out of several hundred articles regarding global warming in various non-scientific publications, a staggering 53% left the reader with the impression that we don't know the cause. Where do journalists get their data? Have they done a comprehensive study of the findings that scientists have published? How could there be such a huge discrepancy between what scientists are publishing in peer-reviewed journals and what journalists are publishing? What's going on here?
It just so happened that within an hour of leaving the theater, I headed for a salon to get my hair cut. While waiting my turn I sat down and grabbed a magazine from the stack of magazines on the table. Bam! There it was, a cover story on global warming in a magazine I had never heard of until this point: NewsMax. I got excited. I saw Al Gore's picture on the cover. I saw the words Global Warming and thought to myself that maybe Al Gore was wrong; maybe the news and media are going to start covering global warming in the same light that scientists see it. Within seconds, the disappointment was already setting in. The full title of the article read “Al Gore Spins Global Warming.” Hmm...This should be interesting I thought. Maybe this article will show some of the contradictory scientific data that The Inconvenient Truth hid from its viewers. On to page 16 to read the full article.
In the first few lines of the article, the authors, Ponte and Morano (how fitting of a name), quickly refer to The Inconvenient Truth as a “science-fiction disaster movie”. Shortly after, they ask the question “but is the message of Gore's movie accurate?” and they go on to answer their question, as any journalist turned scientific expert on global warming would, “in a word, no.” OK, so far, they disagree. I got that. I'm actually excited to read an article with a different view, especially since it's just an hour after I saw the movie. I couldn't wait to read all the scientific data that totally discredited Al Gore's movie. Lets face it, Al Gore is not the most likeable guy. Since his comments about how he “invented the Internet” I've had it out for that guy. In the 2000 election, I was one of the idiots who thought he actually lost. And then here he was trying to tell us about global warming - what a bunch of political BS. At this point, I was rooting for the NewsMax article. Come on Moron! Doh! I mean Morano. Give me the scientific data so that I can live with the comfort of knowing that my actions are not causing global warming. I can't handle the guilt. I'm ready to blame mother nature or completely deny that it's happening. Just show me anything, anything that appeals to reason.
Reason, my friends, was too much to ask from Ponte and Morano. Not a shred of scientific evidence was provided in the article to support the view that global warming is not happening or that it's not being accelerated by human activities. Instead, they chose to do a smear job on Gore. First, they got hung up on one or two specific points of contention in the movie and concluded that if he's wrong about these 2 points, he must be wrong about everything including global warming. Another mini article in the same issue by Jim Meyers explores that Gore's movie must be the prelude to another Al Gore campaign for the Whitehouse. Yes, yes. Al Gore has been giving his global warming speech for the past 6 years to people all over the world, in India, China, South Korea and other developing nations, so that he could run for President in 2008. You have to admit, that's a brilliant strategy. If he could only get 5% of the vote of China's population alone, that would be enough to seal the victory for US presidency. But there is that pesky electoral college thing.
I'm actually quite happy to have read the NewsMax article. A little bit of research showed that NewsMax founder, Christopher Ruddy, does not believe in the journalistic code of ethics. Far from it. The entire organization has a conservative, right-wing view, and apparently, global warming is only a left-wing problem.
So the NewsMax article got me thinking...the issue of global warming needs more awareness. More awareness from the right, the left, the center and everywhere in between. It doesn't matter where on the political spectrum you fall because you're going to breath the same air as everyone else around you. So unless you're putting food on your table from profits of gasoline or coal, this is a movie worth seeing.
A Call To Action
I've made the decision to pay for every single Axosoft employee, their families and their friends to go see The Inconvenient Truth. If there are going to be organizations such as NewsMax who are going to spread false information, we all need to counter this effect by making sure that people are well informed. I remember these sorts of debates surrounded smoking cigarettes and whether or not it's bad for you, long after the scientific community had already concluded so. How many lives would have been saved if journalists had not participated in the misinformation?
I encourage you to go see the movie and if you happen to be in a position to encourage someone else to see it or like me, if you happen to be the CEO of your company, then do what you can to get the message out. It's worth it! To learn more about The Inconvenient Truth, visit the site ClimateCrisis.org.