Chicken Little Has Crossed the Road

“You can live to be a hundred if you give up everything that makes you want to.”
--Woody Allen, from script for "Interiors"

Fifty miles south of Anchorage, Alaska, there is a glacier so stunning that a visitor center was built next to it in 1985. Visitors watch a brief film and the curtain goes up to reveal a stunning blue expanse of ice. Or that was the idea. It turns out the glacier has receded and is no longer visible from the visitor center. (see http://www.alaskanha.org/begich-boggs-visitor-center.htm)

For years leading climatologists could not understand why glaciers and polar ice were not disappearing more quickly. After all, their data demonstrated convincingly that the earth was getting warmer. This led many to question their research, and doubt the phenomenon of global warming. The reasoning was that it was “just a theory” and was not backed up by “the facts.” Various political commentators loved to use the term “Chicken Little” to refer to climate scientists who track the earth’s temperature patterns and other factors.

Well, I guess Chicken Little has crossed the road. As things have turned out, the Alaska example above is but one of dozens that have been publicized over the last year, especially since the release of the very good movie "An Inconvenient Truth."

It is very interesting to me that, in the wake of the film, there has been some criticism of Al Gore, mostly from his usual detractors, but there has been no criticism or refutation of the movie’s very carefully laid out premise.

If you have not seen the film, I strongly encourage you to take the time, however you feel about Al Gore. I didn’t find it dull or pedantic--it’s very interesting, and it’s constructive. It’s still in theaters, and comes out on DVD on November 21.