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Judge attacks nine errors in Al Gore's 'alarmist' climate change film

7 points by gibsonf1 19y ago

Retric 19y ago
I don't think this really needs to be on Hacker News but this is an interesting argument over word choice. So I think it is important to remember that people can listen to the same presentation and assume far different meanings. http://ninepoints.pbwiki.com/low-lying%20inhabited%20Pacific%20atolls http://ninepoints.pbwiki.com/low-lying%20inhabited%20Pacific... "That's why the citizens of these pacific nations had all had to evacuate to New Zealand." Is Ambiguous if it's saying all the people who left for that reason then it's true as some people did. If it's saying everyone who was there left it's false because there are still people there. http://ninepoints.pbwiki.com/Hurricane-Katrina http://ninepoints.pbwiki.com/Hurricane-Katrina http://ninepoints.pbwiki.com/shutting-down-the-ocean-conveyor http://ninepoints.pbwiki.com/shutting-down-the-ocean-conveyo... http://ninepoints.pbwiki.com/Sea-level-rise http://ninepoints.pbwiki.com/Sea-level-rise etc. PS: If you're going to do a demo / presentation try it out on a friend who does not know anything about what you are saying to see how they interpret your words. Having coworkers listen to a presentation it's like proof reading while you type it's hard to distinguish what you meant from what you said.
brlewis 19y ago
Did more than one version of "An Inconvenient Truth" circulate, or is error #1 just totally made up? From my recollection seeing the movie, and from the transcript below, Gore never claimed that a 20 foot rise was inevitable 'in the near future.' He said that scientists have been surprised at the higher-than-expected rate of melting, and that the potential exists if all the ice melted to have a 20-foot rise. Other "errors" also seem to be much more definitive statements than what was actually said in the movie. http://forumpolitics.com/blogs/2007/03/17/an-inconvient-truth-transcript/ http://forumpolitics.com/blogs/2007/03/17/an-inconvient-trut...
- anamax 19y ago
  The movie is basically an enumeration of: (1) Evidence that global warming is occurring. (2) Consequences of global warming. Clever parsing aside, do you really want to argue that he wasn't suggesting that catastrophic ice melt wasn't in (2), but just a random fact thrown in?
  - brlewis 19y ago
    It doesn't take any clever parsing to see that if person A says "X is possible" and person B says, "No, you're wrong! It's not 100% certain that X will happen!" then person B is misinterpreting person A, either mistakenly or deliberately.
anamax 19y ago
GW is actually quite convenient for Gore. "It is the most dangerous challenge we've ever faced but it is also the greatest opportunity that we have ever had to make changes that we should be making for other reasons anyway," Gore said. http://in.news.yahoo.com/071012/137/6lvvz.html http://in.news.yahoo.com/071012/137/6lvvz.html He's been pushing basically the same program for decades, well before the global warming excuse.
cstejerean 19y ago
I think type of article is specifically mentioned as not appropriate for YC News.

7 points by gibsonf1 19y ago

I don't think this really needs to be on Hacker News but this is an interesting argument over word choice. So I think it is important to remember that people can listen to the same presentation and assume far different meanings. http://ninepoints.pbwiki.com/low-lying%20inhabited%20Pacific%20atolls http://ninepoints.pbwiki.com/low-lying%20inhabited%20Pacific... "That's why the citizens of these pacific nations had all had to evacuate to New Zealand." Is Ambiguous if it's saying all the people who left for that reason then it's true as some people did. If it's saying everyone who was there left it's false because there are still people there. http://ninepoints.pbwiki.com/Hurricane-Katrina http://ninepoints.pbwiki.com/Hurricane-Katrina http://ninepoints.pbwiki.com/shutting-down-the-ocean-conveyor http://ninepoints.pbwiki.com/shutting-down-the-ocean-conveyo... http://ninepoints.pbwiki.com/Sea-level-rise http://ninepoints.pbwiki.com/Sea-level-rise etc. PS: If you're going to do a demo / presentation try it out on a friend who does not know anything about what you are saying to see how they interpret your words. Having coworkers listen to a presentation it's like proof reading while you type it's hard to distinguish what you meant from what you said.

brlewis 19y ago

Did more than one version of "An Inconvenient Truth" circulate, or is error #1 just totally made up? From my recollection seeing the movie, and from the transcript below, Gore never claimed that a 20 foot rise was inevitable 'in the near future.' He said that scientists have been surprised at the higher-than-expected rate of melting, and that the potential exists if all the ice melted to have a 20-foot rise. Other "errors" also seem to be much more definitive statements than what was actually said in the movie. http://forumpolitics.com/blogs/2007/03/17/an-inconvient-truth-transcript/ http://forumpolitics.com/blogs/2007/03/17/an-inconvient-trut...

anamax 19y ago
The movie is basically an enumeration of: (1) Evidence that global warming is occurring. (2) Consequences of global warming. Clever parsing aside, do you really want to argue that he wasn't suggesting that catastrophic ice melt wasn't in (2), but just a random fact thrown in?
- brlewis 19y ago
  It doesn't take any clever parsing to see that if person A says "X is possible" and person B says, "No, you're wrong! It's not 100% certain that X will happen!" then person B is misinterpreting person A, either mistakenly or deliberately.

anamax 19y ago

GW is actually quite convenient for Gore. "It is the most dangerous challenge we've ever faced but it is also the greatest opportunity that we have ever had to make changes that we should be making for other reasons anyway," Gore said. http://in.news.yahoo.com/071012/137/6lvvz.html http://in.news.yahoo.com/071012/137/6lvvz.html He's been pushing basically the same program for decades, well before the global warming excuse.

cstejerean 19y ago

I think type of article is specifically mentioned as not appropriate for YC News.