I love documentaries. I am not sure why, but there is just something about the fact that I can learn something in the two or so hours I am sitting down watching the television that seems magical to me.
Last weekend, I learned all about Al Gore in his tribute to himself, "An Inconvenient Truth."
I picked up the movie because I like to see both sides to a story. Personally, I see no real evidence pointing to this phenomenon known as "global warming."
I was largely unmoved.
Perhaps Gore does not know that telling people his son was hit by a car might not prove that the earth is coming to an end.
Sure, I feel bad for the guy. He had humble beginnings as the son of a farmer, his sister died from lung cancer after smoking the same tobacco that was being grown in the family's fields and he got cheated out of the presidency because of the Electoral College.
Judging from the ample time he devotes tao these disasters in his life, you would think that Gore would be going after illicit drivers, the tobacco industry or the absolutely moronic idea of the Electoral College. How he came up with "global warming" is beyond me. Maybe they accidentally edited out the part about his dog dying of heat stroke or something.
The whole "global warming" thing just seems a bit overdone to me. I mean, in the past 28 years, the hottest 14 temperatures on record have occurred. Gore used this piece of information to show that the world is getting warmer, and thus, global warming is occurring. What he did not say is that the record he cites from only includes the temperatures since 1850. While 156 years might seem long to us in our humanity, in the Earth's 4.5 billion-year timetable it is almost nonexistent.
He also made reference to the 2005 hurricane season and claimed that the violent weather the world has experienced could be attributed to global warming. I find this funny when the 2006 hurricane season has been one of the calmest on record with only nine storms. I guess the Earth is so damaged by us she is confused.
Gore even included the tragedy that occurred in New Orleans. I find this in extremely bad taste and see it as nothing more than using a disaster to further an individual agenda. Gore used the deaths and suffering of people to "prove" the reality of global warming just as Bush and his administration has consistently used Sept. 11 in defense of his fruitless antics in the Middle East.
Hurricane Katrina was such a disaster because of three things: the levees were in disrepair, New Orleans is below sea level and, in essence, created a bowl to which the water could collect and the government is still behind on relief to reestablish these people and chose rebuilding the French Quarter over rebuilding homes and schools.
There were many other subjects Gore brought to the table, like the extinction of species and massive death tolls due to droughts and heat, but those topics can all be explained by the simple fact that the world is populated by more people who are gathering together in less ideal places - like deserts - and destroying the natural environment.
These are the basic effects of civilization, not global warming.
I am no scientist. Maybe I should not take a stand on such a subject with nothing more than an interest and some research under my belt.
Then again, if that is good enough for Gore, I guess it is good enough for me.
Christian Robinson is a junior telecommunications major and writes 'Overshare!' for the Daily News. Her views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper.
Write to Christian at cmrobinson@bsu.edu.
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