You're Doing It Wrong

If you are on Twitter.com, you will find that Al Gore, the former Vice President of the United States, has an account.

On November 12^th his Twitter post reads “Let's have a constructive debate.” The debate he was referring to took place on Saturday November 14^th at the Minzer Park Ampitheater in Boca Raton, Florida.

According to the Sun Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale, FL, he was greeted by protesters. Unfortunately, the protesters felt they needed to be disruptive in order to get their point across. They “booed” Mr. Gore as he took the stage. Others were outside the ampitheatre with “drums, bullhorns, and posters”.

One [poster] read "Practice what you preach," accusing Gore of not living a green lifestyle. This accusation is the fallacy Ad Hominem – attacking the person instead of the issue. It also called Poisoning the Well – if unsavory information about a person is brought up, then whatever that person says must not be true. Whether Al Gore is the “perfect model” of “Green and Sustainable” living or not, this should not make the issue of climate change irrelevant.

"Another poster read 'The masses follow the asses'...”. This is a play on the phrase “The masses are asses” - an odd choice for people who are behaving rudely. This argument is simply a Red Herring – diverting attention from the topic - saying that the “real” issue is about the general population's common sense.

Some of the protesters believed Mr. Gore's view would “eventually lead to increased taxes and flawed business legislation.” This is an Appeal to Fear – the protesters are trying to generate opposition by claiming any action taken in favor of Mr. Gore's concepts will be undesirable.

To assume that people would rather have lower taxes than be more responsible on the social level - Appeal to Popularity (Ad Populum). It is also assuming that any legislation passed would be ineffective because the legislation is designed with counter-measures to climate change. This is a Straw Man argument: exaggerating the situation and then attacking the exaggeration.

Overall, the whole approach of these protesters was an Appeal to Ridicule – mockery is not a substitution for a solid line of reasoning.

The situation was not what Mr. Gore had in mind when he said he hoped the debate would be “constructive”.

Opponents of Al Gore and other Sustainable Living advocates want to argue that their “facts” are “more relevant” than the proponents of “Going Green”. This is a Genetic Fallacy – supposedly, facts supporting global warming are flawed because they are not “in line with standard patterns of traditional thinking”. To say everything must conform with previous patters is another fallacy – Appeal to Tradition.

Another strong stance taken is that man-made climate change might be true to some degree, but not as bad as “alarmists” claim. There may be a concession that human impact on the global environment exists, but significant consequences will not happen in our lifetime. This is called Middle Ground, or The Truth is in the Middle – if there are two sides with different viewpoints, the truth must be in the middle.

The global ecosphere is not going to wait for humans to moderate amongst themselves.

Some want to claim that man-made climate change is a “belief”. Therefore you can “believe” it is true or not true. Even if this False Premise is approached, how can you associate “belief” with something that is “TRUE or FALSE”?

It is extremely frustrating when an issue cannot be discussed in a reasonable manner. Falling into heavy displays of emotion clouds the communication.

Those who do not want to accept man-made climate change need to do better in pleading their case. If one side becomes belligerent, it is no longer a debate, it is a grudge match. So I say to those who are opponents of “Going Green”: you're doing it wrong.

To read the Sun Sentinel article by Sofia Santana, click the link below:

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/fl-al-gore-boca-20091114,0,5503886.story

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