Gore wins the Nobel Peace Prize, and even more surprising, the IPCC also shares the award.

Why?

Why would a committee award such a prestigious prize right on the heels of his documentary being proven inaccurate and prone to exaggerations? Coming in the same week that Marion Jones is asked to return medals to the olympics, one has to wonder if such a fate will befall Gore in the future.

Al Gore’s documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, is being shown in schools in England. But a recent High Court ruling stated the film must be distributed with caveats to prevent “promoting partisan political views”, citing 9 inaccuracies:

1. Claims of 20 feet sea level rise from Greenland and Antarctica  – Evidence is that will not melt for millennia. 

2. Rising sea levels causing inundation of Pacific islands – Court observed that this was a false claim.

3. Gore claims global warming will “shut down the Ocean Conveyor” – the judge said this was “very unlikely”

4. Graphs showing CO2 versus temperature over 650,000 years were claimed to be an exact fit – The judge said that, “the two graphs do not establish what Mr Gore asserts”.

5. Snowmelt on Mount Kilimanjaro evidenced global warming – deforestation reducing moisture into upslope winds is the cause.

6. The film showed drying Lake Chad, claiming caused by global warming – Court determined that this was false. 

7. Hurricane Katrina was caused by global warming – Court determined it was “not possible” to attribute singular events to global warming. 

8. Polar bears drowned due to disappearing arctic ice – Gore misread the study: in fact four polar bears drowned due to a particularly violent storm. 

9. Global warming caused species losses including coral reef bleaching – Court found this claim difficult to support.

In light of these inaccuracies, there are now calls emerging for the producers of Gore’s film to return the Oscar for “best documentary”.