Regarding "An Inconvenient Truth"

My 16-year old 11th grader, as a part of his environmental science class at Tech High School will be watching "An Inconvenient Truth," in segments, over the next several days. When I asked if there would be any opposing viewpoints entertained as a counterpart to the good Rev. "Bigfoot" Al's proselytizing, he said that there would be a "discussion period" after each segment. So I sent the following along with my kid, to pass along to his teacher, for "discussion purposes."

Questions to ask regarding “An Inconvenient Truth” and anthroprogenic (human-induced) “global warming”

• Given the fact that the ice age came – and went – leaving sheets of ice one-half mile thick across two-thirds of the North American continent – and given that it occurred tens of thousands of years before the current age of human industrialization; how is it that the massive amounts of ice melted, given that there were no SUV’s or industrial emissions to warm the planet?

• Read this news story:

"A considerable change of climate inexplicable at present to us must have taken place in the Circumpolar Regions, by which the severity of the cold that has for centuries past enclosed the seas in the high northern latitudes in an impenetrable barrier of ice has been, during the last two years, greatly abated."

"2000 square leagues of ice with which the Greenland Seas between the latitudes of 74° and 80°N have been hitherto covered, has in the last two years entirely disappeared."

"The floods which have the whole summer inundated all those parts of Germany where rivers have their sources in snowy mountains, afford ample proof that new sources of warmth have been opened ..."

The Royal Society, London. Nov. 20, 1817; Minutes of Council, Vol. 8. pp.149-153,

Given that the industrial revolution, which served as the advent of the internal combustion engine (supposedly a primary cause of so-called anthroprogenic global warming) would not have begun to occur for at least another 50 years, what is it that caused the global warming that served to melt the ice caps during that relatively recent period of our planet’s history?

· Given our supposed high rate of climate change that is supposedly serving to forever alter our climate and boil our oceans, why is it that the Antarctic ice shelf, long thought to be contributing to rising sea levels as a result of global warming, is shrinking on a much-less rapid pace than once thought, or even increasing in size? http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast27dec_1.htm; http://www.iceagenow.com/Growing_Antarctic_Ice_Sheet.htm

· Outside of an occasional solar-powered Rover, SUV’s and other reported man-made climate-change agents are absent on Mars. So how does one begin to explain the shrinking of the Martian polar ice caps? http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=3503 Furthermore, if Mars is subject to action and cycles from the sun in the melting of its ice caps, why then is the earth immune to such?

· Despite the “consensus” that Al Gore claims is the basis for his supposed credibility with regard to the supposed global warming crisis, why is it that whomever questions Mr. Gore and his adherents is excoriated to the level of those excoriated for insinuating that the earth wasn’t flat? Why are the global warming alarmists so afraid of academic and intellectual scrutiny? Why is it that a supposed weather channel “climate expert” called on the American Meteorological Society to strip members of their scientific certification if they dared question the global warming dogma? http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressRoom.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=32abc0b0-802a-23ad-440a-88824bb8e528

· Why does the so-called scientific community, who by definition and by trade must rely on precise measurements to test and prove hypotheses, see nothing wrong with utilizing weather-measuring data from instruments that were not calibrated properly or weren’t even operational? http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/09/one_more_reason_to_distrust_gl.html

· Furthermore, why have scientists completely disregarded the role of sunspots, which appear to have a much higher correlation with changing climatic cycles than did the advent of the industrial age? http://www.qualitydigest.com/mar98/html/spctool.html

So what is the agenda behind the global warming scare?

· Why does Al Gore, who calls on us to embrace a lifestyle change by driving less, taking bicycles to work, and relying more on unreliable energy sources such as solar and wind power, himself ride in SUVs, and take private jets on his global travels, that emit tens of thousands of pounds of Carbon Dioxide on a 2,000 mile trip?

· Why does Al Gore, who calls on us to embrace a more puritan lifestyle, himself have a lavish mansion, complete with a heated pool room that in and of itself demands a $500 electric bill per month to operate, not to mention the over 22,000 kilowatt hours that Mr. Gore used per month in his lavish estate (the average American home uses a bit over 10,000 kilowatt hours—IN AN ENTIRE YEAR). Of course Mr. Gore says that he purchases “carbon credits” to finance his opulent lifestyle (does buying indulgences in the Catholic church in the middle ages ring a bell?) But since Mr. Gore calls on those who view his movie to sacrifice in their lifestyle, if he was truly a man of conviction and really believed what he preaches, wouldn’t he be leading the charge by example? http://www.tennesseepolicy.org/main/article.php?article_id=367

· Given that Al Gore made over $24 million dollars from the movie, “An Inconvenient Truth,” not to mention the ¾ million dollars that was his share of the proceeds (and of course the prestige and speaking fees that he could and does command) from the Nobel Peace prize recently awarded him; that Al Gore just may have a self-serving agenda behind his Jim and Tammy Faye Baker style crusade?

As a parent, this is only the tip of the iceberg regarding my skepticism of the whole idea and agenda behind the concept of anthroprogenic global warming, which in my opinion has emerged as a caricature of itself and a cottage industry that has kept a lot of people bankrolled who would otherwise be out of a job; not to mention utilized as tool by other nations to attempt to hamstring the economy of the United States and other free developed nations.

It is my hope, that as an academic exercise, that you will pay due attention to these and other arguments that serve to question the “global warming” dogma that has permeated academia without opportunity for question. It is the very idea that there are those who refuse to even entertain opposing facts and viewpoints that gives me great pause before accepting anthroprogenic global warming as truth.

Sincerely,

Leo Pusateri

Parent.

I'm quite anxious to see how his teacher handles this, and will report on this as time progresses.