The Great Global Warming Swindle - a swindle itself?

Tonight Pearl station broadcast a documentary film directed by Martin Durkin, which was produced by WAGTV. It was first broadcast in UK in March 2007 by Channel 4.

After its broadcast, it stirred up controversies about its biased, misquotation and unprofessional presentation. The editorials of British newspaper Guardians, Independent and even Daily Mirror expressed their concern and worry about its approach and the role of media in this kind of debate.

One of the quoted professional in the film is Carl Wunsch, the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physical Oceanography, MIT. He actually wrote an email to Steven Green, the producer of WAGTV on 10 Mar 2007, to express his protest of twist of his words inside the film through edition and out of context quotation.

The problem of the film is, it can actually present its idea about the scientific facts and counter theories with supporting, relevant documents (such as Nature, Journal of Climatology, etc). However, it starts with the hypothesis "the environmentalists are all liers, we are the truth" and go on to spend efforts disqualifying the credit of those mainstream theories and even worse, try to propose that environmental movement is only a left ring propaganda to push forward the fight of anti-capitalism and anti-globalization, that is, environmental movement is a conspiracy.

I myself have been uneasy about the extreme aspects of environmental movement and PR approach but I sincerely believe in the information provided (in fact I realize the global warming discussion from journals like New Scientists, Nature, and Journal of Oceanography about 20 years ago!) However, in general, climate science is a multi variable science and proof or dis-proof of any theory can be uneasy and will leave some parties unhappy. But the raw truth about global warming is, human factor does count, not as the film proposition that solar activities and cosmic rays are major factors (they are indeed factors but the weightings are not as significant as stated in the film).

Hong Kong is a place still having freedom of speech. I respect the right of others to express their opinion against global warming. However, this film is about twist of professional opinion to favor the director's view point, what a disappointment!

If you really care about how climate scientists view the complicated issue, please go to Real Climate website.