When the Great Global Warming Swindle was first broadcast - climate deniers thought that at last they had the definitive polemic to beat back the forces of science and reason..... This 8-minute video corrects multiple manipulations of data presented in the film, including points relating to volcanos, sun spots, scientist quotes, out-dated findings, edited footage, and selective use of graph data.
For more in-depth analysis of the film, continue on to parts 2, 3 & 4.
A Note from Films For Action:
If you're skeptical about climate change or have seen the aforementioned film, definitely take a minute to watch these.
After watching The Great Global Warming Swindle ourselves several years ago, we were admittedly pretty dismayed by what we watched. The film by itself is very convincing and caused us to question our thinking and made us doubt whether this issue was real. However, with every issue, if you want to be thorough, you have to look at the other side, especially views that directly challenge this film, and then try to weigh the arguments by their own merits so much as is possible.
What we found provides a rather astonishing lesson in media literacy, showing us how convincing a film can be on the surface despite its conclusions falling so far from the truth when examined with scrutiny.
We learned that at least a few scientists quoted in the film claim that they were totally misrepresented, and it seems the director has suffered some legal problems in the past for selectively editing footage to misrepresent facts. Because of this, the station had to issue an on air apology.
Here are some more links for further research:
An article about the film's director that goes into more detail about other films he has worked on.
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2000/03/16/modified-truth/
This is a Wikipedia article showing some of the scientific disputes that certain scientists have with the film. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Global_Warming_SwindleCriticism_and_reaction
Here's a short article by an astronomer about sunspots.
http://astroblogger.blogspot.com/2007/03/sunspots-and-global-warming-oh-my.html
This is an article that takes major points of the film and tries to judge their validity. It agrees with some and disagrees with others.
http://www.jri.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=137&Itemid=83
Here's an article about the U.S. government trying to suppress evidence of global warming.
http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2006/06/11/nasa-admits-deutsch-muzzled-scientist/
A round-up of the 10 best films about climate change or the issues related to it. Click the title of each film to watch all of these documentaries online.
HistoryCommons.org has compiled an incredible historic resource that documents the rise and escalation of the climate denial industry over the last 15 years. Without editorializing the content, these articles summarize 178 headlines (often with multiple news article sources for each headline), which covers a range of climate change topics. History Commons lets the stories speak for themselves...
Here is a far more exhaustive critique of the film: