A group of professors, scientists and skeptical citizens came together to make “The Great Global Warming Swindle,” which was screened Tuesday night on campus by the Bruin Republicans.
It is a documentary originally aired on BBCi in response to Al Gore’s award-winning “An Inconvenient Truth” and addresses what some scientists in the film call alarmist propaganda about humans and their impact on global warming. At one point in the film, the media’s depiction of global warming is described as “a story of censorship and intimidation.”
David Lazar, chairman of the Bruin Republicans and a former Daily Bruin columnist, introduced the film.
“We paid a poor guy in India not to do laundry for a month so that this presentation could be carbon-neutral,” Lazar said jokingly.
Jennifer Propper, a second-year history student and the marketing director for the Bruin Republicans, said the theory of blaming humans for global warming demands further examination.
“A lot of people accept the theory of man’s impact on the climate as fact and they don’t realize that there are scientifically based theories that challenge that notion,” Propper said.
The film acknowledges that Gore’s documentary is for the most part factually correct, but holds that it fails to address scientific evidence suggesting humans are not to blame for global warming.
For instance, “An Inconvenient Truth” presents excavations through glacial layers that show varying levels of carbon dioxide over the past few millennia.
But “The Great Global Warming Swindle” noted that some climatologists believe temperature affects carbon dioxide levels, not the other way around.
Huy Le, a first-year bioengineering student, attended the showing in preparation for next week’s debate between the Bruin Republicans and the Bruin Democrats on the issue.
“I want to keep my mind open as of now, so I can get more information before I make a conclusion,” Le said.
The film examined past dramatic changes in global temperature, suggesting that even large fluctuations may be natural occurrences. Art from about 200 years ago depicts people in England playing games and holding “ice fairs” on the frozen Thames River ““ an uncommon occurrence. This time period is referred to by scientists as the “Little Ice Age.”
Esther Keesen, a second-year political science student, said she was relatively unmoved by the film.
“I think it’s pretty extreme. There were some good points, but there’s never something moderate to say about these kinds of issues,” Keesen said.
Darlene Franklin, a fifth-year political science student, said she came to see if the documentary provided right-wing extremist points or factual data.
“I think it actually had both,” Franklin said. “I’m going to go back and look more into it.”