Let me preface this diary by saying I have no affiliation or any relations otherwise with the author of the videos. I discovered them almost by accident and am sharing these with this community. They deserve to be seen by a lot more people.
Let me also say the author of these videos deserves huge praise for making them, not only for the skill by which they are crafted, but for the content. Folks, this is REAL SCIENCE JOURNALISM, and it is rare. Kudos, whoever you are potholer54.
Finally, let me say that climate change has become too politicized, on both sides. Science is by nature with qualifications, and no statement be proven in science in the strict sense (only falsified a.k.a. disproven). Al Gore, who deserves praise for a lot of things, nevertheless, takes some flak in these videos, and somewhat rightly so. There are real issues to debate and there are those issues worthy of debunking -- these videos mainly deal with the unscientific claims from climate change deniers.
Videos links and my commentary on each one below the fold...
Anyone who wants to have a serious discussion dinner-table type about climate change with someone who doubts anthropogenic climate change should watch these videos. They are as thorough as YouTube videos can get for a general audience.
These videos will arm you with weapons of knowledge you need top debunk specious claims and have an intelligent discussion rather than political low-information-content argument match (I understand I write this with some irony on DailyKos, but I hope DK strives to be a reality-based community).
Each video is about seven to ten minutes in length.
Video 1: The basics
This video explains the basic science and the current scientific theory of climate change in simple to understand language. Must see if you are fuzzy on the details.
Video 2: The (lessening) scientific debate about anthropogenic climate change
This video deals with the scientific objections to anthropogenic climate change, from scientists (keyword anthropogenic, as no real scientists doubt the climate is changing). It's quite objective in its analysis of the competing theories/models.
Video 3: The myth of 1970s global cooling
Now we get into the meat of things. This is the first "debunking" video, and it debunks various claims by people like George Will and others that keep repeating the lie that scientists thought in the 1970s the Earth was cooling/entering an ice age.
Video 4: Urban myths on climate change
This video deals with Al Gore and Martin Durkin (maker of the counter-documentary to the Inconvenient Truth).
Video 5: The myth of natural variations
Must see. This video debunks many of the claims by various climate change skeptics that climate change is "natural". It goes into more detail about the factors effecting climate, like solar output, and how it was played a part in the past climate of the Earth.
Video 6: Climategate #1
Video 7: Climategate #2
These videos are also a must see if you need to see a good debunking of climategate. Video 6 details with the so-called conspiracy and right-wing hysteria over these emails, while video 7 deals with the science content/process and "suppressing opposing viewpoints" .
Video 8 and 8a: The Earth is cooling (now) debunked
This video debunks the stuff James Inhoufe, among others (e.g. FOX news) have been recently been repeating that the Earth is now cooling (in the last 15 years or so).
Supplement to #8 that won't embed properly: http://www.youtube.com/...
I'd like to conclude this by diary by with simple two words: fucking finally.