Email excerpt number one:
There are also three movies I would like you to view. You may disagree with some of the information they provide, but I would ask that you watch them with an open mind and if you disagree to backtrack the sources to either verify or debunk them and in return I will do the same for any information you provide me.Email excerpt number two:
The three movies are:
The Corporation
An Inconvenient Truth
Life Running Out of Control and/or The Future of Food
I think that Life Running Out of Control is the better choice, but The Future of Food is available through NetFlix which the former is not.
A Truncated Response to:
An Inconvenient Truth: An Inaccurate Depiction of the State of Global Warming Science
by Robert C. Balling Jr. (October 13, 2006)
(http://capmag.com/article.asp?ID=4806)
1) The Revele article sited is 14 years old.
2) I don’t know anything about declining atmospheric moisture.
3) Gore shows research covering 600,000 years not merely 1000 years.
4) Gore doesn’t discuss greater frequency of storms, but greater intensity.
5) Gore doesn’t claim that the sea has risen significantly yet, but that it has the potential to rise.
6) a) Gore admits that he was mistaken in not pushing to sign the Kyoto treaty.
6) b) It is the responsibility of the US to lead the world by example.
5 out of 6 points the article is making are either deceptive or inaccurate. Balling also appears to have received funding from oil and gas companies which makes his objectivity suspect. I would be hesitant to use this article as a refutation of global warming arguments.
"Balling is a declared 'global warming skeptic.' However, in Balling and Sen Roy (2005) he writes: 'There is substantial evidence that a non-solar control has become dominant in recent decades. The buildup of greenhouse gases and/or some other global-scale feedback, such as widespread changes in atmospheric water vapor, emerge as potential explanations for the recent residual warming found in all latitudinal bands.'" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Balling
"Balling has acknowledged that he had received $408,000 in research funding from the fossil fuel industry over the last decade (of which his University takes 50% for overhead). Contributors include ExxonMobil, the British Coal Corporation, Cyprus Minerals and OPEC." - http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Robert_C._Balling
Robert C. Balling Jr. has received funding from ExxonMobil according to http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/personfactsheet.php?id=5
"Robert C. Balling, Jr. has received more than $400,000 from the coal and oil industries,” according to the Center for Media and Democracy. - http://www.answers.com/topic/robert-balling
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A Truncated Response to:
Wake up and Smell the Ammonia
by John A. Charles, Jr. (January 3, 2007)
http://capmag.com/article.asp?ID=4885
This author makes some valid points in terms of the significant impact that livestock production has in terms of greenhouse gases. It is one of the reasons that I am a vegetarian.
However the following is from an EPA report:
“Although transportation is a vital part of the economy and is essential for everyday activities, it is also a significant source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In 2003, the transportation sector accounted for about 27 percent of total U.S. GHG emissions, up from 24.8 percent in 1990.” - http://www.epa.gov/otaq/climate/420r06003summary.htm
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A Truncated Response to:
The Real Inconvenient Truth About Global Warming: Skeptics Have Valid Arguments
by Tom DeWeese (December 19, 2006)
http://capmag.com/article.asp?ID=4870
“The main source of such thinking seems to come from the Eden Institute, operating out of New York and with close ties to the UN. The official use of globally acceptable truth is best described in a letter to the Eden Institute from Robert Muller, Assistant Secretary General of the UN. He wrote, ‘I am referring to the need to establish a body of objective, globally acceptable information to serve as a foundation for global education…Its (Eden Project) formula for identifying universally acceptable objective data is truly unique. It achieves this distinction by establishing a global standard for inquiry.
Translation: We will decide what is truth and all new information or scientific discovery will be judged on whether it matches this ‘globally acceptable’ truth.”
I believe that Tom’s translation may be a little skewed. I think the keyword in the quote is objective. I would point out that the Bush administration has stacked the environmental and organic commissions with industry insiders as has been reported in the mainstream media as well as documentaries such as The Future of Food; that reports by government scientists have been censored (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/24/politics/main564873.shtml); and that NASA would attempt to silence their own experts (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/science/earth/29climate.html?ex=1296190800&en=28e236da0977ee7f&ei=5088)
“There are over 12,000 environmental groups in the country controlling over $20 billion in assets...”
The author seems to suggest that there is a money motive behind the attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but according to him the total funds that have been devoted by all the environmental groups to this issue is $20 billion. This is less than one years profit by one oil company.
If you want to look at money as a motivating factor then it seems the oil industry has a huge stake in maintaining the status quo.
Tom DeWeese has received funding from ExxonMobil according to http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/personfactsheet.php?id=1158
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I’ll take a look at some more of the articles, but I have a hunch that anyone writing for Capitalism Magazine is going to have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.
Concentration of power has always been a dangerous thing and traditionally leads to human rights abuses, etc. The multi-national system of corporations that we are currently experiencing borders on fascism due to the amount of power that a few corporations wield. It is a corruption of the original intent of corporations which was to serve the public good by working on large scale projects.
By law a corporations main obligation is to earn profits for its shareholders. The shareholders may do good works with their profits, but the corporations themselves are not humanist because they can only promote good works if it serves the bottom line.
There are a couple of other documentaries that I would like to recommend. I find them fascinating on a number of levels. They are:
Why We Fight
Who Killed the Electric Car
There are also a couple of books that I have found to be worth reading:
The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability
by Paul Hawken
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
by William McDonough & Michael Braungart
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