The procrastinator's Blog Action Day

It's Blog Action Day today! Yay! OK, it's not. That was two days ago. What can I say? I'm a procrastinator. But better late than never, right? Right.

This year's Blog Action Day topic is the environment. And since Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth came out last year, global warming has become the single hottest issue for young wannabe environmentalists everywhere. The planet has a fever! We're all gonna die!

Al Gore has since been hailed as a visionary and a hero. I'm sure you've all heard about him winning the Nobel Peace Prize last week. But have you heard about this less reported story? At around the same time, a British court ruled that Al Gore's movie contains various inaccuracies and exaggerations. In particular, the apocalyptic vision of a sudden 23-foot rise in sea level was characterized by the judge as "distinctly alarmist."

I'm not really surprised. When I saw the movie, I did suspect that Al Gore overstated the doomsday scenario for maximum shock value. But the fundamentals of the film are still sound, right? The British judge thought so. I thought so too... until I saw this clip.

Now I'm not so sure anymore.

To be clear, I wasn't impressed by all the name-dropping at the start of the clip--hell, I've seen enough "doctors" endorsing all kinds of crap on TV to know better. But the part about the 800-year gap between the rise in temperature and the increase in carbon dioxide concentration... that's a big deal. Al Gore says that CO2 causes global warming. But if CO2 spikes come centuries after temperature increases, it sure would seem like Al Gore had the cause and effect all backwards. Hmm... chicken or egg? A quick trip to Google got me an explanation and a rebuttal of the explanation, neither of them overwhelmingly convincing.

The question of CO2's role in global warming is highly significant because much of the current effort to address climate change is focused on the reduction of carbon emissions (*cough* Kyoto Protocol *cough*). Global warming is clearly a problem, but if carbon dioxide isn't the primary cause, then we're just wasting our resources. Not smart. If we're going to solve this problem, we'll have to be smart.

Unfortunately, a big chunk of the "green" advocacy is becoming more and more like a religion, where Al Gore is God, his movie is the gospel truth, and everyone who disagrees needs to be browbeaten into repentance. Hey, it's good to be passionate for a cause you believe in, but a little scientific attitude is nice too. If the evidence doesn't support the hypothesis, it's reasonable to be skeptical. More research, less propaganda.

I don't think that PR gimmicks like the Blog Action Day thing really help much. The simultaneous rants of a few thousands bloggers, many of whom got everything they know about global warming from one movie, probably muddle up the issue rather than clarify it.

Sorry for raining on the Blog Action Day parade. Me goes hide from torch-wielding environfascists now. Hey, come on guys, put those torches down. Torches cause global warming!