Low Impact

The ABC recently aired the TV show “The Great Global Warming Swindle”, which questions mankind’s role in causing climate change. This show has had its fair share of criticism - its been roundly criticised by scientists, and has been exposed as using various misleading graphics and overstating the credentials of their interviewees.

The ABC used an interesting format for their airing - they showed the documentary, then followed it up with a investigative interview with the director discussing some of the film’s shortcomings. Finally, they wrapped it up with a round-table debate between various scientists and industry leaders. Kudos to the ABC in this - a more sensationalist TV station might have chosen just to air the show to generate some controversy, but I think this approach turned what could have been seen as “trashy TV” into an educational experience.

So as a consequence, it had the positive effect (from my point of view) of stimulating a lot of discussion “around the water cooler” the next day - getting people thinking and talking about climate change has to be a good thing! A couple of workmates commented to me that while they left the whole presentation thinking that the show had been largely discredited, they found a few of the arguments against man-made global warming convincing.

So, I dug up this web link that I found some time ago:

http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/dn11462

This New Scientist web page takes you through 26 “myths” that are sometimes raised by climate change skeptics, and comprehensively answers each of them. There’s a lot of content there, and I haven’t made my way though all of it, but it seems to cover each and every one of the points raised on “The Great Global Warming Swindle”.

Heartily recommended for your own education, or for some extra ammunition when you’re having a friendly debate at the office!

Categories: current affairs, environment, green, media