Teaching Union Slams Gore Film Ruling

[Hissyspit]

Source: Western Mail

Teaching union slams Gore film ruling
Oct 12 2007 by Abbie Wightwick, Western Mail

WALES’ biggest teaching union yesterday accused a High Court Judge of acting like Big Brother by ruling a film about climate change can only be shown in schools if accompanied by new guidance notes to balance its views.

- snip -

Last night the WAG said it was considering the ruling’s implications, although no similar complaints from parents have been made here.

NUT Cymru campaigns officer Rhys Williams said he was “outraged” by the judge’s ruling which appeared to imply teachers would not support the film with debate. He said it was inappropriate for a judge to dictate how films or other creative work was taught in schools and that all literature from Shakespeare to Doris Lessing was political.

“This response from the High Court in London is outrageous. It is scary. It’s like the thought police. It’s 1984 arriving in 2007,” he said. “It’s a slap in the face to teachers to suggest they are incapable of chairing a mature discussion to go with showing this film.

Read more: http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk:80/news/wales-news/2007/10/12/teaching-union-slams-gore-film-ruling-91466-19940190

[BulletproofLandshark]

1. There's that word "balance" again.

Lies are no balance for irrefutable facts.

[DCKit]

3. A simple but effective ploy all tyrants use....

Give something a name - blue skies, healthy forests, green acres, Homeland Security, etc... - exactly opposite of the actual intent.

The other thing they're good at is slinging slurs then backing off without apology. Apparently, enough of the sheep are mentally incapable of accepting the truth after the initial idea has been hurled out of the pig pen and they've wrapped their tiny minds around it.

KKKarl is a master of both tactics.

We've got to clean up our political system and edumacate the 'merkin pubics.

[SlowDownFast]

8. 'Greenwashing' is the term for it. n/t

[TheBaldyMan]

11. Wales is part of the UK, the furore comes in the wake of a High Court judgement

earlier this week, on the basis of nine minor documented inaccuracies in Gore's film the judge ruled that guidance notes must be made availiable to stop young minds getting a skewed view of the issue of global warming.

It's a disgrace, the whole sorry episode is thanks to some FReeper parent in Kent, England ( yes, we have half educated trolls in the UK as well ) taking exception to the film and unconcerned with the 'myth' of global warming.

[roguevalley]

10. If, as they say, all historical stuff and everything else has two sides,

maybe they can show the 'other side' of the Holocaust. Oh, yeah. I forgot. That kind of revisionism is illegal. The idea that everything has two sides is evil.

[MarkR1717]

12. What the Judge said....

The first mistake made by Mr Gore, said Mr Justice Burton in his written judgment, was in talking about the potential devastation wrought by a rise in sea levels caused by the melting of ice caps.

The claim that sea levels could rise by 20ft “in the near future” was dismissed as “distinctly alarmist”. Such a rise would take place “only after, and over, millennia”.

Mr Justice Burton added: “The ar-mageddon scenario he predicts, inso-far as it suggests that sea level rises of seven metres might occur in the immediate future, is not in line with the scientific consensus.”

A claim that atolls in the Pacific had already been evacuated was supported by “no evidence”, while to suggest that two graphs showing carbon dioxide levels and temperatures over the last 650,000 years were an “exact fit” overstated the case.

Mr Gore’s suggestion that the Gulf Stream, that warms up the Atlantic ocean, would shut down was contradicted by the International Panel on Climate Change’s assessment that it was “very unlikely” to happen.

The drying of Lake Chad, the loss of Mount Kilimanjaro’s snows and Hurricane Katrina were all blamed by Mr Gore on climate change but the judge said the scientific community had been unable to find evidence to prove there was a direct link.

The drying of Lake Chad, the judge said, was “far more likely to result from other factors, such as population increase and overgrazing, and regional climate variability”. The melting of snow on Mt Kilimanjaro was “mainly attributable to human-induced climate change”.

The judge also said there was no proof to support a claim that polar bears were drowning while searching for icy habitats melted by global warming. The only drowned polar bears the court was aware of were four that died following a storm.

Similarly, the judge took issue with the former Vice-President of the United States for attributing coral bleaching to climate change. Separating the direct impacts of climate change and other factors was difficult, the judgment concluded.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/corporate_law/article2633838.ece

[me b zola]

13. What do you think about the judge's assertions?

[me b zola]

14. Your link served a useful purpose :>)

Here is my response that I wrote for the comment section:

Welcome to the USA's nightmare. The scientific community agrees on something very basic and important. Then right wingers decide that those facts don't work with their agenda, so they make an idiotic claim to the contrary and create a "debate" where there is none--at least not among sane, intelligent people.

Then print such absurdities in a Ruppert Murdoch owned media outlet and abra-cad-abra you'll end up with a George Bush of your own!

Think I'm kidding? Take a close look at American politics. About 1/3 of Americans believe that Saddam was responsible for 911. This is not because Americans are inherently stupid, it is because of orchestrated PR (public relations)being pelted upon us, and it looks a lot like this story.

For the love of all that is good, please do your own research and learn from the deadly mess that the US is presently in. Al Gore and the scientific community are correct on climate change.

"How could 59459765 Americans be so stupid?" You may soon find out.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2041719

[MarkR1717]

16. Gore..an energy starved planet on a diet and this is a recipe for poverty.........

This is from the Guardian, not a Murdoch Paper.

Gore's Nobel Prize film criticised
Press Association
Friday October 12, 2007 5:03 PM


Al Gore's climate change campaign which has led to him being awarded the Nobel Prize has been criticised as one-sided sentimental mush which could lead to global instability, not peace.

The former vice president's Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth attracted criticism from a High Court judge who pointed out its "nine scientific errors" and "one-sided" view of the issues.

And critics said Mr Gore's campaign to tackle climate change was a recipe for poverty and conflict.

On Wednesday, Mr Justice Barton sitting at London's High Court said some of the errors in Mr Gore's work had arisen in "the context of alarmism and exaggeration" to support the former US vice-president's thesis on global warming.

The judge said that before the film could be shown in UK schools, it might be necessary for the Department of Children, Schools and Families to make clear to teaching staff that some of Mr Gore's views were not supported or promoted by the Government, and there was "a view to the contrary".

The judge set out nine alleged errors in the film in which statements were made that were not supported by the current mainstream scientific consensus.

Mr Gore said he was "gratified" by the court's ruling and added that the "nine scientific errors" highlighted by the judge were only a "handful" amid "thousands of other facts in the film".

Asked what he thought of Mr Gore's Nobel prize, Marlo Lewis, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told CNN: "I was not surprised but I was also displeased.

"I don't think that Al Gore's policies, which the Nobel committee celebrated and mentioned as one of the reason for giving him the award lead to peace. Rather I think those policies lead to global instability and political strife, within nations and between nations.

"Basically what Al Gore and the global warming crusade want to do is put an energy starved planet on a diet and this is a recipe for poverty. And poverty does not lead to peace. It leads to conflict."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/story/0,,-6991972,00.html

[me b zola]

18. ...because after all,

When the neocons drove us to an illegal war they only used faux news to catapult the propaganda, right? :eyes:

I asked you if you agreed with the judge's ruling and you respond by cherry-picking (where have we seen that before?)the fact that Murdoch isn't the only one catapulting the propaganda. I think your non-answer has answered my question.

[wordpix]

15. ya, fair and balanced just like O'Leilly and Fox Noise

[mogster]

2. The so-called 'leftist' media in Norw.

Was shure to include this in their news about him winning the NPP today. Thought police, now that's what the media today are.

[Festivito]

4. Sorry, but I kind of like ADDITIONS.

This is in line with my concept of free speech, that differing sides are given speech.

Sadly some see it as a slap in the face to teachers who should and would give both sides and discuss it. Free speech does involve indignities, but we prize it over such indignities.

I can imagine (with some glee) that those added talking points WILL BE RIPPED TO SHREDS in discussion, and will vilify that type of speech to all those children, and for the rest of their lives they will recall that type of speech as suspect.

I wish we had such astute readers in America.

[rodeodance]

6. I wonder also if a judge should be involved in curriculum!

[Festivito]

7. Just one!? I'd find no limit to the involvement of justice.

Otherwise, there would be no justice -- the first establishment of America.

[LiberalFighter]

5. There needs to be guidance notes with the rulings of the High Court Judge

[Sentath]

9. Updated link

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/wales-news/2007/10/12/teaching-union-slams-gore-film-ruling-91466-19940190/

[Uncle Joe]

17. Kicked, too late to recommend

Thanks for the thread, Hissyspit.