If you haven't seen 'The Great Global Warming Swindle' you simply don't know what you are talking about

I couldn't be more shocked than I am now.

While the kettle boiled and the anti-piracy message played I pondered the possibility of seeing 'the other side' of the global warming message, of weighing the merits of counter arguments and opinion. It would be, I expected, an interesting 78 minutes. I considered the carbon footprint of the packet of Gingernut biscuits I was opening and how that might be calculated. I also considered that, with my Excel spreadsheet skills being as finely honed as they are, I could probably do so and justify a career move into Global Warming consultancy. Ultimately though, I shuddered at the thought, thinking of the computer contracts I yawned my way through in the lead up to Y2k and what was then, seemingly just as enthusiastically, considered the impending doom of mankind.

My own beliefs before I watched this documentary were simply that a range of political agendas and a deep human pessimism had converged in a period where any view which expressed the idea that humanity itself was the problem would be ascendant. This can be demonstrated in a huge range of topics.

While obviously already skeptical of the seriousness of the global warming message, nothing could have prepared me for how shocked and astounded I would be at the end of this documentary. I would give an arm for a photo of the look on the face of a global warming zealot as they cringed their way through this.

Esteemed expert after esteemed expert parade their expert testimony and attempt to understand the social and political emergence of the overwhelming consensus that global warming is a man-made problem.

When I see members of the IPCC who have resigned and threatened legal action to have their names removed from its reports, the head of Green Peace claiming that the organization he helped found has become 'anti-human' in its core beliefs - the list goes on - it has the effect of making me feel quite naieve in the shallowness of my suspicions. This goes deeper than I'd imagined.

There are billions of dollars and thousands of careers now riding on the man-made global warming message remaining unchallenged. There are billions of lives at risk should it continue unchallenged.

I'll avoid any more spoilers here. If this is herecy, then it'll be a short, painful gesture to the poor souls who've made this documentary to give them their time.

Links

• Official documentary site
• Wikipedia debate
• Channel 4 pages