Global warming is a controversial issue by itself; however, the documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle has made it even more debatable. The film was released in March 2004 in the UK and caused different opinions about the issue which is presented. Global warming critics supported the documentary, while different scientific organizations greatly criticized it.
The film presents the idea that global warming can hardly be man-made with CO2 emissions having no relation to raising the temperature of the Earth. Instead, as the film posits, global warming “is one of the defining moral and political courses of our age” (The Great Global Warming Swindle 2007). According to the film, the main aim of the scientific organizations is to get funding for the research of this problem and attract additional attention to global warming, while in reality, the climate is changing regardless of human activities.
While the world is greatly preoccupied with the theory of anthropogenic global warming, The Great Global Warming Swindle argues against this theory. Its main arguments are that the climate has always been changing and that some facts within the issue under consideration do not match the theory; on the one hand, the arguments presented in the film are convincing, while on the other hand, they are based on the out-of-date research, which makes the problem of the global warming still open to discussion.
Film’s Key Points
First of all, the documentary in question expresses the idea that CO2 emissions have no relation to global warming. Several scientists agree with the view that the greenhouse effect is caused by humans (Newman 2000; Manahan 2007). As stated by them, “the most common cause of … greenhouse effect is the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere” (Manahan 2007, p. 22). In this way, industrious society and the use of technologies are blamed for global warming. However, there exists an opposing view that “long-term global warming is not caused by human beings” (Vilcox and Mohan 2007, p. 87).
The documentary supports this idea by stating that “the Earth climate is always changing” (The Great Global Warming Swindle 2007). Expressing this point, the film gives several examples of how the climate of the Earth changed throughout the centuries; at this, carbon dioxide emissions were quite low. Thus, the film mentions the Little Ice Age which took place in the 14th century, the Medieval Warm Period, the Holocene maximum, etc. These events date back to those times when humans hardly knew anything about environment-destructive technologies, which is why climate change is not connected with human influence.
In addition, to prove their right, the contributors to the film state that certain facts in human history do not match the theory of anthropogenic global warming. For instance, when there was an industrial revolution in 1940, the CO2 emissions were higher than ever. According to the theory, the temperature of the Earth should have increased; however, it went down instead. This resulted in the assertion that human CO2 is not what causes global warming.
The fact that the film contributors are professors, researchers, and scientists makes their views convincing, which is why the attitude of several people towards the issue of global warming changed after the release of the movie. This, however, made the proponents of the opposite view look for the flaws in the film’s ideas.
Critique
The ideas regarding the climate change causes presented in the film documentary are quite convincing. The strongest point of the film is that the arguments are logical. Thus, the film contributors clearly state their point of view (man-made global warming is senseless), support their opinion with evidence (no temperature rise when CO2 emissions were high and no technology used when the global warming took place), and show where exactly the theory of anthropogenic global warming is erroneous (some facts do not match the theory).
At the same time, however, their arguments have a weak point. They are based on out-of-date research (the latest are the 1950s), which creates limitations to their findings. It was named after the 1950s that technologies started developing most rapidly, becoming more numerous, and even more destructive for the environment. This is why the argument presented in the documentary cannot be considered completely reliable.
Conclusion
The documentary film The Great Global Warming Swindle altered some people’s ideas about the issue of global warming or, to be more exact, its causes. This film presents the idea that the greenhouse effect is not caused by carbon dioxide emissions and, thus, has no relation to the industrious society and the use of technologies. The logical presentation of the argument and the credentials of the contributors into the film make this view convincing. At the same time, the out-of-date research on which these contributors rely does not allow considering their arguments fully valid. This is why the issue of global warming and its causes remains controversial.
References
Manahan, SE 2007, Environmental science and technology: a sustainable approach to green science and technology, CRC Press, London.
Newman, EI 2000, Applied ecology and environmental management, Wiley-Blackwell, New York.
The Great Global Warming Swindle, 2007, Documentary film, broadcaster Channel 4, United Kingdom.
Wilcox, MW and Mohan, TO 2007, Contemporary issues in business ethics, Nova Publishers, New York.