U.K. Judge OKs Gore Film For Schools

But Teachers Required To Point Out Opposing Arguments And Errors

(CBS)  It's been a box office sensation, praised as a cinematic wake-up call about global warming.

The documentary won Al Gore a prize at Cannes and a couple of Oscars -- and it surely wasn't overlooked by the Nobel committee that just gave him the Peace Prize.

Now chalk up another award: a moment of celebrity for a British truck driver named Stewart Dimmock, and a day in court, reports CBS News correspondent Richard Roth.

"My legal case was an attack on the government's decision to peddle his politically partisan film and viewpoints in the classroom," said Dimmock.

He charged it was "brainwashing" in the classroom when British officials launched a plan to use "An Inconvenient Truth" to teach students about climate change.

Dimmock sued to stop schools from showing the movie he called "sentimental mush."

While the judge who heard the case found that "An Inconvenient Truth" contains some awkward errors, he also found it was essentially true.

"I think the first thing to notice is that he did in fact accept the main thrust of the argument -- that global warming is happening, that it's real and that it's man-made," said Saleemul Hug of the International Institute for Environment and Development. "What he did was pick up nine what he called inaccuracies, which were more in the level of exaggerations, if you like."

Such claims as that the snows of Kilimanjaro are melting from global warming, or that that polar bears are drowning, searching for ice are "not proved," said the judge, who nevertheless called the documentary "powerful" and "broadly accurate," and cleared it for use in school -- as long as teachers now explain -- in effect -- that's it's only a movie.

[klingon69]

I see no problem with presenting a fair and balanced viewpoint to children both here and abroad. There have been many weather anomalies in recent years, Summers hotter and wetter. Winters shorter, warmer and drier. At least that is variance from the norm in my area. Is this due to global warming? Is there such a thing as global warming? Is this just simply one of earth''s cycles it repeats every dozen millineum? Lots of questions and not enough answers. However if it is global warming, and man made, there is little we will be able to do to reverse it in our lifetime. If we are going to help preserve this world for our great...grandchildren, we must develop and implement true plans, they must be all-encompassing and be designed to last for generations.

[klingon69]

???

[mediapreachr]

Yea,some people don''t know what they are going to eat at lunch but they''re certain the polar bears are gone in 50 years.What arrogant,unqualified fools.
I love Global Warming.This year there''s been an increase
in the sightings of babes in bikinis.I met 3 or 4 at the Live Earth concert not long ago.
Also can''t wait till all the ice is gone at the pole-I''ll be first there fishing.
Remember when the US gov gave away land and money to people just to settle parts of good old USA??
The canucks will be doing that soon.Tired of competing with hordes of illegals in overcrowded cities for a fistful of dollars?
By the way I''m neither republican nor democrat.Like most people I''m independent.

[lindainsfnm]

REVEALED:Fuel & Mining Magnate Behind Gore Film Attack In UK


10/14/2007 12:50:22 PM EST
British Government released the movie, An Inconvenient Truth, to be shown in schools.





Teaching union slams Gore film ruling

Oct 12 2007 by Abbie Wightwick, Western Mail0
WALES%u2019 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.


The Observer has established that Dimmock''s case was supported by a powerful network of business interests with close links to the fuel and mining lobbies. He was also supported by a Conservative councillor in Hampshire, Derek Tipp.


It seems Mr. Gore will have no choice but to run for President. As Republicants and Conservanots have shown, making everything related to humanity poltical, and if these issues are to be solved, we need someone who cares about them to solve them.


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/10/14/102512/29

[wallabbie]

and you probably think that Leslie Gore was Al Gore''s sister...fiction too!

[bec67]

Love the way the rightwing just keeps repeating the same rightwing water carriers'' talking points. One can go from the blogs to the comments sections and see the same talking points repeated over and over and over again. Evidently, the thinking is if it''s repeated enough it will make it true!

[abbe91]

"By the way, if you haven"t seen "An Inconvenient Truth," you are missing out on a very good film."

They should ok the "Great global warming swindle" too, so people could see both sides of the story.

[abbe91]

"It really is well done and engrossing. Much more so than "Jurassic Park," for instance.
Posted by Iceman_1960 at 08:42 AM : Oct 14, 2007"

Good comparison. Both are fiction movies.

[iceman_1960]

By the way, if you haven"t seen "An Inconvenient Truth," you are missing out on a very good film.

Borrow it for free from your local library if you don"t want Al Gore getting your money.

It really is well done and engrossing. Much more so than "Jurassic Park," for instance.

[iceman_1960]

CBS has given this story a decidedly pro-Gore spin that right wing Gore-haters aren"t going to like very much.

But their poor Republican party has fallen so far on nearly every issue, GOP-ers have every right to cry.

It"s their party after all.

As Lesley Gore put it, "It"s my party and I"ll cry if I want to, cry if I want to, cry if I want to... You would cry too if it happened to you..."