Gore's 'Inconvenient Truth" is more like science fiction

Dallas Morning News | Mark Davis:

“With the release of An Inconvenient Truth, the former vice president has cemented on film a distinction I have long observed: Some people are to be debated, and others are so unhinged that they forfeit a seat at the table of reason. ... But with our planet's history of vast temperature cycles and its amazing propensity for cleaning up events from volcano eruptions to oil spills, the notion that man can change the global climate seems to be a flimsy premise for draconian laws sought by global-warming fearmongers.”

Ed Cognoski responds:

There are three truths about global warming:

• Global warming is real.
• It is human-induced.
• It is serious.

Ostriches like Mr Davis have for years vehemently denied these truths. More recently, they are beginning to grudgingly concede, slowly, point by point. Mr Davis here admits that global warming is real. President Bush goes a step further: "We know that the surface of the Earth is warmer, and that an increase in greenhouse gases caused by humans is contributing to the problem." The last refuge is in refusing to accept that the issue is serious enough to take serious action.

Mr Davis' arguments are reminiscent of the tobacco industry's response to the growing scientific case against smoking. First, deny the correlation between smoking and cancer. Then, accuse public health advocates of a post hoc, ergo propter hoc logical fallacy because a causal connection wasn't proven. Leave readers with the false impression that if any non-smokers die of cancer, then smoking cannot be the cause of smokers dying of cancer.

In the case of global warming, Mr Davis would have you believe that because earth's climate has experienced natural fluctuation in the past, that all such fluctuations must be natural. In fact, the direct line from burning fossil fuels to increased greenhouse gas emissions to a greenhouse effect on the atmosphere to global warming is overwhelmingly accepted by the scientific community. The tobacco industry was always able to trot out some supposed expert or other to deny the danger of smoking. So, too, with global warming. Mr Davis would have you believe that there is still serious debate in the scientific community about the truths of global warming. It's simply not true.

Former Vice President Gore was one of the first legislators to recognize the potential of the Internet. His leadership accelerated its development and deployment, to everyone's great benefit. He was also one of the first government leaders to recognize how serious is the threat of global warming. Once again, Mr Gore's foresight is being proven correct. A hundred years from now, Americans will look back and appreciate his vision and wisdom about these great turning points of his day. And regret that their ancestors didn't listen to him. That, instead, they let their hatred for liberals and, more specifically, environmentalists, and Al Gore in particular, cause them to become "so unhinged that they forfeit a seat at the table of reason." Mr Davis' own place at that table has been empty for a long time.