An Inconvenient Truth

I haven't gotten around to watching the movie yet, but I did get a chance to hear Al Gore give the closing keynote at the RSA Conference 2008. The talk itself was titled, "Emerging Green Technologies", but a good portion of it was spent highlighting the evidence and issues surrounding global warming. About halfway through the talk, a woman stood up in the middle of the audience and started screaming how Al Gore was spewing lies, which them prompted two other groups of people to stand and heckle. Everyone was immediately removed by security, but what really amazed me was how unfazed Gore was by all the commotion. Once it was clear what was going on, Gore simply continued on with his talk, neither hurrying his speech or increasing his volume. It was as if the hecklers weren't there, his disregard muting their cries.

What puzzles me are the arguments these people make and how Gore's "lies" further invalidate the idea of global warming. Let's assume for a moment that the facts presented by Gore are grossly incorrect and that global warming is nothing more than urban legend. Does that really change the fact that pollution is a problem and we should do something about it? Does it change the fact that we shouldn't rely on non-renewable energy sources? It seems to me that these are good ideas in general, regardless of what you think is going on with the polar ice caps.