Inconvenient Truths

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I was teaching back in 2006-7 when Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth' came out.

One of the key scenes showed the hockey-stick graph of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

I remember that we weren't allowed to teach with the film without offering some additional guidance at the time. Stewart Dimmock, a school Governor from Kent accused the government of "brainwashing" children with propaganda by showing the former US vice president's film in the classroom. He started a court case, which resulted in the need for teacher guidance. He wanted the film banned.

The case arose from a decision in February by the then education secretary Alan Johnson that DVDs of the film would be sent to all secondary schools in England, along with a multimedia CD produced by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs containing two short climate change films and an animation about the carbon cycle.

The Climate Change Resource Pack has been sent to more than 3,500 schools and is aimed at key stage 3 pupils (11 to 14-year-olds).

Mr Johnson said at the launch that Mr Gore's film sent a "powerful message about the fragility of our planet" and would stimulate children into discussing climate change and global warming.

I remember receiving our copy and showing it in the classroom.

Here's one objection the judge upheld...

Other problem areas included an assertion that the sea would rise up to 20 feet "in the near future" as ice in Greenland or Western Antarctica melts. The judge said this was an alarmist statement. He added that scientific consensus held that that kind of sea level rise would be possible if Greenland's ice melted, but that that melt would happen "after, and over, millennia".

The Judge would be surprised to see what is happening in Greenland currently perhaps.

Here's another one as well...


The 56 page guidance can still be found on the ARCHIVE website. It remains a useful document.

Google: inconventient truth teacher guidance and you will find lots of resources from a number of countries, including the USA.

Here's Ed Hawkins, creator of the Climate Stripes on some of these inconveniences that are making the news, rather than the ACTUAL disturbances to come...


Update

Interesting Directions blog from Noel Castree on the language we use... 


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