Gore dodges questions at environmental journalist conference

At a conference for environmental journalists in Wisconsin, Al Gore dodged questions on the many identified errors in his global warming movie, An Inconvenient Truth.

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore is known for not taking questions at appearances - so it was a rare event that Gore agreed to field a dozen questions at the Society of Environmental Journalists annual conference on Friday. "We're very close to that political tipping point," Gore said. "Never before in human history has a single generation been asked to make such difficult and consequential decisions." While the audience of environmental journalists were largely in agreement with Mr. Gore's presentation and his positions, one Irish journalist and filmmaker asked Gore about the many scientific errors that were found in Gore's global warming movie, An Inconvenient Truth. "A judge in the British High Court, after a lengthy hearing, found there were 9 significant errors," said Phelim McAleer, director of Not Evil Just Wrong. "This has been shown to children. Do you accept those findings and have you done anything to correct those errors?" Gore did not provide an answer, saying: "The ruling was in favor of showing the movie in schools." When Mr. McAleer sought to press an answer to his question, McAleer's microphone was cut off and he was escorted away. Not everyone agrees with Mr. Gore's easy dismissal of the U.K. High Court finding. "The U.K. High Court 'found in favor of the movie' by, for example, saying Gore’s claims 'arise in the context of alarmism and exaggeration in support of his political thesis,' 'there is a view to the contrary, i.e. (at least) the mainstream view,' and the sea level rise claims 'distinctly alarmist,'" Chris Horner wrote in The National Review. "The closest the Court came to supporting the movie was to say that it was grounded in the science . . . and spends the rest of its opinion detailing how it then egregiously departs from the science. In other words, any invocation of that snippet as supporting the film is a dishonest use." An Inconvenient Truth offers a doomsday scenario on global warming and climate change, pointing the blame squarely on human activities as the cause for increases in global temperatures. Mr. Gore has sought to elevate and coordinate policies from worldwide governments around the thesis proposed in his film. A carbon bill - known as cap and trade legislation - is looming currently in the U.S. Senate.