Mr. Andrew Bolt, the flamingly notorious bigot who writes blatant, unsupported falsehoods for the Herald Sun, has the following statements from the English High Court, stating that An Inconvenient Truth has the following 11 serious untruths (spin for "lies") and unsubstantiated claims:
1. Gore presents Mt Kilimanjaro's melting snows as proof of global warming. In fact, the snows are vanishing thanks to local factors, including deforestation.
2. Gore suggests Antarctica's ice cover is melting. Most studies says it is increasing or stable.
3. Gore shows scary graphics of cities drowning in seas that rise 7m, causing millions of refugees. But the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says the seas will rise at worst by 59cm this century.
4. Gore uses images of Hurricane Katrina and suggests it was caused by global warming. The Government's expert in this case admitted such one-off events can't be blamed on warming.
5. Gore suggests ice-core evidence shows rising CO2 caused temperature rises, which ended the past seven ice ages. In fact, the CO2 rises followed temperature rises by 800 to 2000 years.
6. Gore claims global warming could stop the Gulf Stream, causing an ice age in Europe. Recent studies deny it.
7. Gore blames global warming for species losses and coral reef bleaching. The Government couldn't show evidence to back this claim.
8. Gore claims a study showed polar bears had drowned because of vanishing ice. The study actually said just four polar bears drowned, and only because of a bad storm.
9. Gore suggests Greenland's ice could melt, causing a dangerous rise in sea levels. In fact, Greenland's ice won't melt for thousands of years.
10. Gore shows the drying up of Lake Chad and claims this was caused by global warming. The Government's expert agreed this was not the case.
11. Gore claims rising seas have forced people to flee Pacific islands to New Zealand. There is no record of any such warming-caused evacuation.
Except of course, that Bolt forgot to support his own points of view, allowing concerned thinkers like myself to point out his own unsubstatianted claims, listed under the number as it appears above:
1. What are these "local factors?" Citation needed.
2. Bolt believes that "Most studies" say that [Antartica's ice level] is increasing or stable. Which ones? Who did them, what where their methods? Citation needed.
4. "The Government's expert in this case admitted such one-off events can't be blamed on warming." That's good, but I don't think you will find a reasonable climate scientist who will claim that weather patterns changing is a direct result of any single event. Of course, it's almost impossible to prove direct links for these things in a field as complex is meteorology. But using that as evidence is just broken thinking. Despite uncertainty, it does not dispel the possibility that climate change will obviously effect the chance of these mega-events occurring - explained in the "Up in Smoke" report by various (admittedly biased) WWF and Greenpeace, and an article in Time magazine scant months back.
5. "CO2 rises followed temperature rises by 800-200 years" Wow. Which studies? Extraordinary claims, either way, need extraordinarily good evidence.
6. "Recent studies deny it." Citation. Severely. Needed!
7. "The Government couldn't show evidence to back this claim." The late Carl Sagan once said "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."
9. "In fact, Greenland's ice won't melt for thousands of years." See 5.
It seems like a person who is speaking out against unsubstantiated evidence should take a good look at himself first. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
No comments:
Post a Comment