Product Description

The most explosive film of the year.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7673 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-07-23
• Rating: Exempt
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 78 minutes

Synopsis
Candid documentary that offers an alternative--and controversial--perspective on the global warming debate.

Review
'Devastating' --The Washington Times

Review
'Only rarely can a documentary be seen as a pivotal moment in a major political debate, but such is The Great Global Warming Swindle. Never before has there been such a devastatingly authoritative account of how the hysteria over global warming has parted company with reality. Martin Durkin's superbly professional film shows how the evidence is now overwhelmingly that the chief cause of climate change is not human activity, but changes in radiation from the sun.' --Christopher Booker, Sunday Telegraph

Customer Reviews

A missed opportunity for making a serious critic of the science behind GW
The Great Global Warming Swindle is a controversial documentary, promoted as a counterbalance to Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Mr. Durkin certainly takes full advantage of the exaggerations and the fact that the man-made global warming theory is based on incomplete science and on "what if" scenarios produced with climate simulation models, that are being considered as unquestionable facts by the mainstream media and many politicians. However, and despite the collaboration of respectable scientists, such as Richard Lindzen, Paul Reiter, and Patrick Michaels, Mr. Durkin chose to edit and alternate these qualified expert opinions with comments by the narrator or by some others not so qualified interviewees making the documentary a smear attack on Al Gore and the IPCC. Even spicy conspiracy theories are proposed regarding Margaret Thatcher political agenda for supporting man-made GW, and another to suppress Africa's development by forcing poor countries to use expensive clean energy sources.

On the positive side, the documentary briefly presents the main alternative hypothesis for the origin of modern global warming, solar variations in combination cosmic rays, a physical phenomenon that seems to influence cloud formation, a key natural element of the greenhouse effect and one of the main uncertainties in the consensus theory. However, it is really a shame Mr. Durkin decided not to go deeper into the details of this alternative hypothesis or any other of the serious weaknesses of the prevailing theory; but instead, he chose to waste the opportunity for making a serious critic of the science behind man-made GW.

The Great Global Warming Swindle lack of seriousness is clearly reflected by the fact that the DVD content is not the same as the originally aired documentary in the U.K. on March 2007, because due to complaints and criticism, some significant factual errors had to be corrected, and one of the original interviewees requested to be withdrawn (M.I.T.'s Carl Wunsch). Even, Eigil Friis-Christensen, one of the leading researchers on the solar variation-cosmic ray theory, who together with Henrik Svensmark were the first to suggest a link between cosmic rays and global climate change, requested for corrections on the content, as findings from his research were not properly used in the documentary.

For those with a genuine interest in the science behind GW, a more serious criticism and analysis of the weaknesses of the science supporting the hypothesis of man-made global warming is presented in the book The Deniers: The World Renowned Scientists Who Stood Up Against Global Warming Hysteria, Political Persecution, and Fraud**And those who are too fearful to do so. For those curious or with an interest on the alternate hypothesis regarding the Sun's radiation and cosmic rays, read The Chilling Stars, 2nd Edition: A Cosmic View of Climate Change or Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years, Updated and Expanded Edition (in both cases make sure to get the updated edition). Just be aware that this competing theory is still a work in progress. For a no nonsense critic of the economics behind the mitigation policies read An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming. Lawson's book is much better than Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming

Some bad science has been exposed
Climate change and the CO2 driven model currently becoming a religion with some people, and a so-called paradigm by others, does need to be questioned. Listen to radio or watch TV and you will, if you pay close attention, hear bad science quoted on both sides of the debate, but unfortunately more often from the environmental/green side of the debate. Serious questions about a human, CO2 emission driven climate of global warming should be challenged - it is only a scientific theory. This documentary does just that, but watch for one or two pieces of bad science that slip in when the programme tries to do the same as the environmentalist/green lobby, and push alternative theory forward. One scientist who took part in the programme has even renounced it - an earlier reviewer mentions this. But this programme works as a serious alternative to "Mythbusters" - because in science all you have to do to prove a theory wrong is to present enough evidence to show that it must be incorrect. The Great Global Warming Swindle does manage this - I counted three major defects with the current evidence, which showed that current climate change theory has a long way to go before explaining the science behind climate change and global warming. The documentary also includes a fascinating insight into the politics behind the current religion of global warming. Definitely worth a watch - and as some of the environmental/green lobby are trying to get C4 not to repeat the documentary or show it again on TV - suppressing debate, rather than allowing it - you can bet that although it has its shortcomings as a documentary, it contains some searching questions from some extremely credible contributors.

Finally, some balance to the hysterical "An Inconvenient Truth"
I am a high school science teacher who has been searching for a counterweight to the shrill, scientifically questionable arguments Al Gore puts forth in his "documentary" called "An Inconvenient Truth". I have found it in this film, which I showed my students immediately after their viewing of Mr. Gore's movie.

Al Gore claims that "the science of global warming is settled" and that the only people who disagree with him are those who are funded by "big business" or the "oil industry". In fact, there are many scientists who disagree with the ideas presented in "An Inconvenient Truth". While they agree that the earth is indeed getting warmer, they do not agree that man is the cause of it.

Despite his claims to the contrary, Mr. Gore is quite aware of the existence of such scientists, because he routinely ignores their invitations to debate him and his ideas (the latest being Lord Monckton, a former policy adviser to Margaret Thatcher during her years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom).

This movie, produced by the BBC, finally provides a voice for those in the scientific community who disagree with Mr. Gore and the fundamental arguments of the idea of man-made global warming. Their resumes include institutions such as NASA, the Pasteur Institute, and MIT, to name only a few.

I invite everyone with an open mind to watch both this movie and "An Inconvenient Truth" and draw your own conclusions.