This is a collection of thoughts and statements about things that annoy me. I am a big, angry man. Hear me roar, or piss off and give me peace.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

An Inconvenient Indoctrination

The BBC reports that Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth, is apparently still allowed to be shown in British schools even though it, according to the judge, contains nine serious errors.

The decision to send the film to schools throughout Britain was taken to court by an angered parent who was unhappy about the political bias, factual errors, and as such, showing it to school kids was a breach of the Education Act.

The judge decided that the film could be shown, but that certain guidelines should be followed - teachers should point out controversial or disputed sections.

This begs the question - how well will teachers, many of whom will not have a sound understanding of climate science, or politics, be able to follow these guidelines, and suitably answer questions from the kids in schools?

One can only hope that a complete analysis of the faults in Gore's indoctrination film is given to each and every child who has to suffer watching the film.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is absolutely ridiculous. I challenge anyone to find a documentary in which every fact presented is unquestionable. The "faults" found by the judge were simply labeled as alarmist, and while there is no definitive proof global warming is responsible for those 9 points, there is no proof that it is not either. When we are talking about environmental conditions for every living creature on our planet I think it's better to lean towards the alarmist state. Better to relate the concepts to others and open the path to discourse than to simply ignore the problems...

Angry Steve said...

It's not about being the documentary being unquestionable (although it should be), it's about it being shown to kids and indoctrinating them with science that is just plain wrong!

And as for the scare tactics of "something must be done, whatever the cost" that is exactly the problem with this indoctrination video. It does not help matters at all. We could do more harm than good trying to change something we cannot - although that would keep you and your hippy mates in jobs - wouldn't it? Nothing like a bit of redistribution of wealth when accompanied with guilt.

Angry Steve said...

A Place to Stand

An Englishman's Castle

Cranmer

Sinclair's Musings

The Devil's Kitchen

The Devil's Kitchen

Anonymous said...

Steve,

http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/johann_hari/article3061190.ece

Anonymous said...

Steve,

My last post was an attempt to link to an article in the Independent. It is quite contradictory to your post and I would be interested to know your response.

Angry Steve said...

I think Johnn Hari is wrong, and makes a number of leaps of faith, which is, after all, what AGW is all about.

Gore's film is not about the truth. Science is about the truth. As long as the science is being politicised, then we will get further and further away from reality.

I particularly liked the bit about Al inventing the internet. Perhaps Johnn should read a couple of books on the history of the internet. A bill on High Performance Computing does not an Internet make...