An Inconvenient Truth- MOVIE

[buzzaro]

You really think boat, motorcycle, PWC, car motors here in the US will make a difference when 3rd world countries have absolutely no regard for emissions and spew pollution into the environment in the form of coal power plants that are not clean burning like the ones here in the US? What about volcanoes? What about wild fires?
The fact is that the earth temp fluctuates as a normal cycle. We are an insignificant dot on the timeline of the history of the earth. To think that we can change the earth temp is ignorant. What warmed the earth up after the last ice age? 2-stroke Eskimo sleds?
Gore is a whack-job with an agenda and he is a joke. Don't fall into his trap. If we do all the shit he says we should, we will be left in the dust by the 3rd world manufacturers who will not abide by the clean air regs and produce goods for far cheaper than we could ever attain. Not only are we fighting cheap labor but also an unfair playing field with regard to environmental regulation. We are already the most environmentally conscious major industrial nation in the world by choice. If we tighten the noose any farther we will wither up and die. Open your eyes, don't believe everything you hear. I suppose you enjoyed and buy into Fahrenheit 911 also.
Theres truth to be found on both sides of this argument. Total disregard for the environment isnt going to help us (people living on the planet) any more than eating grapenuts will.

[Schiada76]

The argument is over fellas. Non scientists calling scientists junk scientists.... I love it...LOL...
Lets quote some junk scientists.....
Global Warming Discrepancy Resolved
3 MAY 2006
Simulations of the temperature change due to all forcings. Source: USCCP
Climate scientists have resolved a discrepancy in the rate of global average temperature increase for the surface compared with higher levels in the atmosphere, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
This discrepancy had previously been used to challenge the validity of climate models used to detect and attribute the causes of observed climate change.
The report from the US Climate Change Science Program—Temperature Trends in the Lower Atmosphere: Steps for Understanding and Reconciling Differences—corrects errors that have been identified in the satellite data and other temperature observations.
Specifically, surface data had showed substantial global-average warming, while early versions of satellite and radiosonde data showed little or no warming above the surface. The team identified and corrected the errors in the satellite and radiosonde data. Furthermore, new data sets do not show such discrepancies.
Discrepancies between the data sets and the models have been reduced and our understanding of observed climate changes and their causes have increased. The evidence continues to support a substantial human impact on global temperature increases. This should constitute a valuable source of information to policymakers. —Chief Editor Thomas Karl, director of the NOAA National Climatic Data Center -
The report, the first of 21 such Synthesis and Assessment (S&A) reports to be issued by the Climate Change Science Program, states that for recent decades, all current atmospheric data sets now show global-average warming that is similar to the surface warming.
The published report also states that research to detect climate change and attribute its causes using patterns of observed temperature change in space and time shows clear evidence of human influences on the climate system due to changes in greenhouse gases, aerosols and stratospheric ozone.
The observed patterns of change over the past 50 years cannot be explained by natural processes alone, nor by the effects of short-lived atmospheric constituents such as aerosols and tropospheric ozone alone.
One issue does remain, however, and that is related to the rates of warming in the tropics. Here, models and theory predict an amplification of surface warming higher in the atmosphere. However, this greater warming aloft is not evident in three of the five observational data sets used in the report. Whether this is a result of uncertainties in the observed data, flaws in climate models, or a combination of these is not yet known.
Katrina as a CAT-5 hurricane, the day before it slammed into the Gulf Coast. Credit: NOAA
Separately, NOAA scientists reported that the region of the tropical Atlantic where many hurricanes originate has warmed by several tenths of a degree Celsius over the 20th century. New climate model simulations suggest that human activity, such as increasing greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, may contribute significantly to this warming.
This very long-term increase in temperature may seem small but is comparable in magnitude to shorter time-scale, multi-decadal changes that many scientists now believe contribute strongly to an increase in hurricane activity in the Atlantic.
The challenge is to understand the relative roles of anthropogenic and natural factors in producing these temperature changes—and this study is a step in that direction—and then to determine whether and how these long-term changes in temperature could be affecting Atlantic hurricane activity.
—Thomas Knutson, NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory
The region—known as the Main Development Region—extends from 10 degrees N to 20 degrees N in the area of the Cape Verde Islands, and has been identified as the origin for a large portion of major hurricanes in the tropical North Atlantic.
Ocean surface temperatures in this region warmed over the 20th century, roughly tracking the global mean, or average, but this region has greater multi-decadal variability than the global mean does when looking at long-term trends.
The climate model simulations are based on a new state-of-the-art coupled atmosphere-ocean model developed over several years at GFDL. The new simulations include improved representations of a number of environmental factors that can affect climate, such as greenhouse gases, volcanic eruptions, solar variability, land-use changes and atmospheric aerosols, very fine particulate matter in the air. More research is being conducted to improve the representation of these forcings, and of the aerosol effects in particular.
The new model simulations used current best estimates of a number of historical climate forcings to simulate climate variations over the 20th century. In the Main Development Region, the observed warming during the 20th century is simulated much more realistically in the models that include anthropogenic forcing than in models with only natural effects.
The results suggest that the century-scale warming tendency in the Main Development Region may have been caused largely by anthropogenic forcing, including increases in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations.
Other sources of anthropogenic forcing include aerosols and land-use changes. Examples of natural effects are volcanic emissions, long-term variability of solar radiation, and internal variability, such as the internal processes within the climate system.
The day prior to these announcements, NOAA had released the Annual Greenhouse Gas Index (AGGI), showing a global steady rise in the amount of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
So then bright boy what caused global warming around the time of the industrial revolution???
I know, It was George Bush wasn't it??? Well wasn't it? He's Jack the Ripper too.

[centerhill condor]

As I understand it... this has more to do with the '00 election than anything.
If A.G. is such a great leader where was he during B.C.'s moment of doubt and shame? Doing nothing. A.G. had his chance to demonstrate his real leadership when he stood behind, way behind, B.C. A.G. coulda, woulda, shoulda took the reigns and sent old slick willy home. A second term would be a certainty. I would have his picture in the living room.
Or where the stakes just not high enough? Me thinks that going along with a lie to get elected once is an indicater of future behavior... here's your inconvenient truth!
As for the CO2 problem... most of you are correct. We don't want to end up like mars.. shrouded in frozen CO2. Nuclear provides a non carbon based production of power. And we've come a long way baby on plant design. The world is awash in fissile material... so fuel is not an issue. Nuclear's big problem; Jimmy Carter. As President he signed an executive order outlawing the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. Yea, he outlawed recycling, go figure. The stroke of a pen can remedy this problem. Again the problem is political not technical.
Coal plants can be modified, at considerable expense, to convert CO2 emissions into limestone (CaCO3). This makes coal much cleaner but less efficient than today.
I could copy/paste endless scientific articles to support my claims. But then, what's the point of having an education? or free thought? Ya'll have your own intellect and good ideas. That's what makes this country great.
We'll outgrow this "technological adolescence" but we'll never rid ourselves of the fear mongering politician until it works no more. the new chant... no more al gore no more al gore...'tis better than zieg hiel!

[rodnjen]

Seems to me that the movie has done its job. A bunch of people are talking about something that they would ordinarily never talk about. Debates on global warming are endless and abstract. However, the immediate problem of polution and reliance on fossil fuels are a little more concievable. We need to take greater responsibility for the preservation of natural resources and condition of our environment.
That being said, I'm still going to the lake this weekend and will ski, wakeboard, drink beer and spend quality time with my family.