Scientists OK Gore's movie for accuracy
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP
Science Writer
Tue Jun 27, 4:24 PM ET
The nation's top climate
scientists are giving "An Inconvenient
Truth," Al Gore's documentary on
global warming, five stars for
accuracy.
The former vice
president's movie — replete with the prospect of a
flooded New York City,
an inundated Florida, more and nastier
hurricanes, worsening droughts,
retreating glaciers and disappearing
ice sheets — mostly got the science
right, said all 19 climate
scientists who had seen the movie or read the
book and answered
questions from The Associated Press.
The AP
contacted more than 100 top climate researchers by e-mail and
phone for
their opinion. Among those contacted were vocal skeptics of
climate change
theory. Most scientists had not seen the movie, which
is in limited
release, or read the book.
But those who have seen it had the same
general impression: Gore
conveyed the science correctly; the world is
getting hotter and it is
a manmade catastrophe-in-the-making caused
by the burning of fossil
fuels.
"Excellent," said William
Schlesinger, dean of the Nicholas School of
Environment and Earth Sciences
at Duke University. "He got all the
important material and got it
right."
Robert Corell, chairman of the worldwide Arctic Climate Impact
Assessment group of scientists, read the book and saw Gore give the
slideshow presentation that is woven throughout the documentary.
"I
sat there and I'm amazed at how thorough and accurate," Corell
said.
"After the presentation I said, `Al, I'm absolutely blown away.
There's a
lot of details you could get wrong.' ... I could find no
error."...
The tiny errors scientists found weren't a big deal,
"far, far fewer
and less significant than the shortcoming in speeches by
the typical
politician explaining an issue," said Michael MacCracken, who
used to
be in charge of the nation's global warming effects program and is
now chief scientist at the Climate Institute in
Washington....
While more than 1 million people have seen the
movie since it opened
in May, that does not include Washington's top
science decision
makers. President Bush said he won't see it. The heads of
the
Environmental Protection Agency and NASA haven't seen it, and the
president's science adviser said the movie is on his to-see
list.
Read more at Yahoo News:
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