Judge: Gore's Truth Not Exactly
Oct. 27 2008, Published 7:07 a.m. ET
NOT BIG IN THE UK Al (Photo: Getty Images)
An Inconvenient Truth may have been instrumental in Al Gore joining the ranks of the Dalai Lama as a Nobel Peace Prize winner, but just how truthful was Big Al in his global warming epic? Responding to a school official in the UK who did not want to screen it for his students, a British judge has ruled that the film contains errors made in "the context of alarmism and exaggeration."
The ruling isn't exactly shocking—the documentary was never purported to be an impartial examination of climate change, and if Michael Moore's polemics have taught us anything, it's that Oscar-winners needn't be even-handed—but considering the coincidental Nobel announcement, it is an ill-timed ruling nonetheless.
Among the nine dubious facts the judge discovered in the film: Lake Chad isn't drying up because of global warming (insufficient evidence!); Hurricane Katrina wasn't a result of global warming (insufficient evidence!); and four polar bears didn't drown because their ice forts melted away (they were killed in a storm).
Will Gore have time to fix the errors and take home the $125,000 prize currently being offered to anyone who can scientifically prove that global warming exists? Probably.