For IA #5:
First click on the following link:
Then, read all of the overview text at the bottom of the prompt describing this unique film on a relevant and controversial topic.
Watch the film and be objective in your discussion as you address the specific prompt question. Take notes on all of the specific titles of the speakers, noting their ETHOS and/or their credibility to speak on the matter. Also, pay close attention to the film’s emphasis on how this particular topic is more of a media and/or a political issue than a scientific issue–even though it is obviously a scientific subject, and the speakers in the film actually ask why they are censored when they advocate for the scientific method instead of dogma.
In this response, you will be evaluated, in a big part, on your ability to accurately and specifically decipher the claim (the thesis) OF THE FILM and multiple points made in the documentary–in addition to how you respond to the very specific prompt question below using your own unique critical thinking and analysis.
PROMPT QUESTION: Given the qualifications of speakers in the documentary, especially those with science backgrounds with earned credentials, explain why you believe their “natural causes” (for climate change) views are censored in mainstream media and/or never presented through open debates with those who preach the popular narrative on this particularly charged topic of global warming. NOTE: This prompt is NOT asking you to defend a position either for or against the subject of global warming, as doing so would be to miss the thesis of the documentary and this prompt because the focus of this prompt is on the media and/or the dissemination of information.
On a page before your analysis starts, provide a list of all the speakers and their respective titles (ethos) please; copy and paste the list below if you wish.
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Overview of the Film:
The Great Global Warming Swindle caused controversy in the UK when it premiered March 8, 2007 on British Channel 4. A documentary, by British television producer Martin Durkin, which argues against the virtually unchallenged consensus that global warming is man-made. A statement from the makers of this film asserts that the scientific theory of anthropogenic global warming could very well be “the biggest scam of modern times.” According to Martin Durkin the chief cause of climate change is not human activity but changes in radiation from the sun. Some have called The Great Global Warming Swindle the definitive retort to Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. Using a comprehensive range of evidence it’s claimed that warming over the past 300 years represents a natural recovery from a ‘little ice age’.
According to the program humans do have an effect on climate but it’s infinitesimally small compared with the vast natural forces which are constantly pushing global temperatures this way and that. From melting glaciers and rising sea levels, The Great Global Warming Swindle debunks the myths, and exposes what may well prove to be the darkest chapter in the history of mankind. According to a group of leading scientists brought together by documentary maker Martin Durkin everything you’ve ever been told about global warming is probably untrue. Just as we’ve begun to take it for granted that climate change is a man-made phenomenon, Durkin’s documentary slays the whole premise of global warming.
“Global warming has become a story of huge political significance; environmental activists using scare tactics to further their cause; scientists adding credence to secure billions of dollars in research money; politicians after headlines and a media happy to play along. No-one dares speak against it for risk of being unpopular, losing funds and jeopardizing careers.”
Main contributors to the video:
1. Professor Tim Ball – Dept. of Climatology – University of Winnepeg, Canada
2. Professor Nir Shaviv – Institute of Physics – University of Jerusalem, Israel
3. Professor Ian Clark – Dept. of Earth Sciences – University of Ottawa, Canada
4. Dr. Piers Corbyn, Solar Physicist, Climate Forecaster, Weather Action, UK
5. Professor John Christy – Dept. of Atmospheric Science – University of Alabama, Huntsville – Lead Author, IPCC (NASA Medal – Exceptional Scientific Achievement)
6. Professor Philip Stott – Dept of Biogeography – University of London, UK
7. Al Gore – Former Presidental Candidate
8. Margaret Thatcher – Global-Warming Promoter
9. Professor Paul Reiter – IPCC & Pasteur Institute, Paris, France
10. Professor Richard Lindzen – IPCC & M.I.T.
11. Patrick Moore – Co-Founder – Greenpeace
12. Dr. Roy Spencer – Weather Satellite Team Leader – NASA
13. Professor Patrick Michaels – Department of Environmental Sciences – University of Virginia, US
14. Nigel Calder – Former Editor – New Scientist
15. James Shikwati – Economist & Author
16. Lord Lawson of Blaby – Secretary of Energy – UK Parliament Investigator, UK
17. Professor Syun-Ichi Akasofu – Director, International Arctic Research Centre
18. Professor Fredrick Singer – Former Director, US National Weather Service
19. Professor Carl Wunsch – Dept. of Oceanography – M.I.T., Harvard, University College, London, University of Cambridge, UK
20. Professor EigilFriis-Christensen – Director, Danish National Space Centre
21. Dr. Roy Spencer – NASA Weather Satellite Team Leader
22. Paul Driessen – Author: Green Power, Black Death
