A British judge has criticized Al Gore‘s documentary An Inconvenient Truth–claiming the environmental film has nine inaccuracies.
The climate change film was critically acclaimed after its release last year and earned Gore an Oscar – but it has come under fire in the U.K. after the government sent copies to 3,500 British schools to educate teenagers about the perils of global warming.
Last week, High Court Judge Michael Burton ruled An Inconvenient Truth should be shown in schools – as long as teachers provided a balance to the film’s political undertones.
But while agreeing the film was “broadly accurate”, Judge Burton has also pointed out several untruths, which are likely to have arisen in “the context of alarmism and exaggeration”.
These falsehoods include the claim sea levels could rise by 20 feet in the “near future”, and that atolls (islands of coral) in the Pacific Ocean had already been evacuated as a result of global warming.
In his ruling, he said: “It is plainly, as witnessed by the fact that it received an Oscar this year for Best Documentary film, a powerful, dramatically presented and highly professionally produced film. It is built around the charismatic presence of the ex-Vice President, Al Gore, whose crusade it now is to persuade the world of the dangers of climate change caused by global warming.
“It is now common ground that it is not simply a science film – although it is clear that it is based substantially on scientific research and opinion – but that it is a political film.”
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