Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Give an Inconvenient Truth for Christmas.....

In the comments Anonymous asks:

I need advice. My relatives and most of their friends pride themselves on their climate change ignorance and denial. In fact that they work hard at actively maintaining their delusional states of mind. When ever you mention any scientific facts they don't like the sound of they smirk smugly and stay silent. They act if as if you are not there and completely ignore whatever you might be saying. It is is as though you are invisible in those moments.
and Eli responds....
Well you could always give their kids Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth DVD for Christmas.....Still time to get it delivered.
It's number 3 on the Amazon DVD list! The reviews are interesting, demonstrating a breakthrough that this movie has contributed strongly to. You will never get through to the parents, but the kids.....:) More on this later in conjunction with the issue of how bludgeon like one should be.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Speaking of inconvenient truths:

http://www.wmo.ch/web/arep/arep-home.html

1. Though there is evidence both for and against the existence of a detectable anthropogenic signal in
the tropical cyclone climate record to date, no firm conclusion can be made on this point.
2. No individual tropical cyclone can be directly attributed to climate change.

Anonymous said...

Maybe the ideal gift for my brother, who works in coal research, or maybe not.

EliRabett said...

Strangely enough, Eli did some coal research work about 15 years ago (very long story about which we may write later). Going to coal conferences was interesting because a)everyone was aware of the issue of global warming b)almost everyone accepted the reality and realized the implications for the industry. Dr. Rabett was very impressed. Of course, these were mostly academics, government scientists/engineers and researchers.

EliRabett said...

Ah yes Anon, the Pielke Proclamation. I will simply note that Holland and Webster strongly disagree about the absence of a detectable anthropic signal in tropical cyclone intensities, and his Bouldership is not pleased.

stevesadlov said...

Why would anyone who has a true love of science, and the scientific method, want to give a gift which both rewards the quasi theological non scientist who wrote it, and helps to spread distortions, misconceptions and outright lies? There are many, many others texts which deal with climate and climate change, written by scientists, which would be more appropriate.

EliRabett said...

1. Because Gore has a firm grasp of the issues and their policy implications. This is now policy issue as much or more than a science/technology issue.

2. Please point out the distortions, misconceptions and outright lies or stop waving your hands.

3. You gotta be kidding. Go read a textbook for Christmas? Right, you want to get thrown out of the house? You also again miss the point of the DVD and movie, to encourage people to go read a textbook (or blog) and learn more about the issue

4. Welcome:)