Inconvenient Truths Surface in ‘Not Evil Just Wrong’

by Darin Miller

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” Former vice president Al Gore uses this Upton Sinclair quote in his 2006 Oscar-winning documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” when describing politicians and businessmen who oppose his belief that the world is in trouble—big trouble—due to the increasing threat of global warming. But a just-released film is reversing the role. 

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Irish directors Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney have brought Gore’s controversial picture back under critical focus in their new documentary, “Not Evil Just Wrong,” which addresses the science and language of Al Gore and other environmentalists who see global warming as a major problem. Nearly 10,000 people in 22 countries simultaneously watched the film as it was streamed online via USTREAM (28,000 tuned in at different times), as well as almost 8,000 screenings across the U.S., all of which started at 8 p.m. EST. yesterday, October 18. 

This isn’t the first time “An Inconvenient Truth” has been critically studied. When the British government planned to send the DVD to 3,500 secondary schools in 2007, volunteer school governor Stewart Dimmock challenged the decision, believing it is inaccurate and biased. Just over two years ago (Oct. 11), British High Court Judge Michael Burton found nine significant errors in the film, and ruled that it could be shown in schools only if accompanied by guidance to counter its one-sided views. Without this guidance, showing the film would have been breaking the law. While Gore himself claimed he won the case, Judge Burton disagreed, saying, “I conclude that the claimant substantially won this case by virtue of my finding that, but for the new guidance note, the film would have been distributed in breach of … the 1996 Education Act.” 

“Not Evil Just Wrong” picks up where the High Court left off, picking apart both Gore’s film and the environmental movement through case studies and in-depth interviews. It addresses the economic and societal impacts of environmental regulations, as well as the scientific truth behind today’s environmental hype. Key components included a study of DDT, a chemical that kills mosquitoes. It helped end malaria epidemics in many countries, and was once widely used in the United States until environmentalists convinced governments around the world that it caused cancer and was harmful to wildlife. Because of this DDT was banned. Without DDT, malaria-carrying mosquitoes have thrived in third-world countries, especially in Africa, and have killed millions. But in 2006 the World Health Organization removed its ban on DDT after beliefs about its negative affects were disproven. 

The film also revealed that the “hockey stick” global warming graph, which was cited in “An Inconvenient Truth” as evidence of global warming, was in fact incorrect since its compiler Michael Mann used flawed mathematics to reach his end result. Its underlying mathematics was flawed. The film cites a warm period during the Middle Ages and the 1930s as exceptionally hot periods. 

Gore himself declined to be interviewed for the film, but McAleer was able to pose a question to Gore at the Society of Environmental Journalism’s 2009 conference in Madison, Wisconsin, giving his film a burst of publicity just before its release. They briefly sparred after McAleer asked Gore whether he accepted the British High Court’s ruling that there were nine significant errors in the film and what he’d done to correct the errors. Gore evaded the question and the two locked horns over one issue: the number of polar bears alive today. This is probably the worst of the nine errors to fight over, since neither side can say with certainty how many polar bears there are. Terence P. Jeffrey, an editor at large for Human Events, wrote in May of last year that there is really no evidence to base numbers on other than estimation. 

On the whole, the film excellently uncovered the facts about Gore’s campaign, though when the lights came up, I for one would have liked to know more. In that vein Andrew Breitbart plans to help the filmmakers launch “Big Environmentalism” as a platform for environmental truth. McElhinney announced the decision at the panel discussion after the Washington, D.C. film premiere.


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Posted Oct 19th 2009 at 1:43 pm in Featured Story, Film, Politics | 75 Comments