(This is a copy of a post I put on the blog my buddies and I have www.mob2006.blogspot.com) I finally allowed myself to watch an inconvenient truth. Usually I avoid movies like that because they tend to sensationalize otherwise rational arguements (re: Farenheit 911). But in light of the current hype around the movie and my general sense of being in a good mood lately I decided to watch it.
If you can get past the obvious self glorification Al Gore tries to make about himself the evidence presented with-in is well worth the watch. The data he presents is not new, it has been around the scientific community for years. Unfortunately (or possibly fortunatley) scientists are not very good at sensationalizing the data they find. They know better than to claim "proof" or "truth", that is not the objective of any good scientific research, but they are willing to assemble data sets and make hypothesis about what they have observed.
How does this apply to Al Gore's powerpoint presentaton? I have heard many calling him a hypocrite, which may be true $30,000 for a year of utility bills is excessive to say the least. In fact I may find myself calling him the same. It is really too bad that he had to be the one to make himself the most recent spokesperson for the human impact on global climate change. The reason it is unfortunate is because it has sparked very LITTLE intelligent debate. Most people's response to ALL of the incredibly condeming data that he presents is, "Well he's a hypocrite." WHO THE H CARES! if he is a hypocrite, that has NOTHING to do with the data he presents.
If you do take the time to watch the movie, pay special attention to the ice core data, this is some of the most accurate climate data we have avaliable to us. But please take the time to watch the movie before responding to this. Again you need to get past the fact that it is Al Gore and pay attention to the DATA! Hypocracy or not data is data, it's NOT facts, it's not absolute truth (as his title implies), but it is the closest we can come to knowledge about our earth and our impacts on it. If you consider yourself a Christian (as many Americans do) then as God's "stewards" of this earth are you not implicitly commanded to take responsibilty for it (re: the creation account in Genesis)?
