An inconvenient, but not new, truth

By Angela Gunn | Published January 14, 2009, 3:13 PM

Bell Labs: Is there anything those guys didn't figure out? Transistors, the wave nature of matter, talking pictures, modern cryptography, Unix, cosmic background radiation...and global warming.

That's right. In 1958 -- when Al Gore was 10 -- Bell Labs scientists participated in the making of a short Frank Capra-directed film called "Unchained Goddess" for the Bell Telephone Hour, a variety show that ran on TV and radio and at the movies. In it, Bell scientists explained that no one was sure yet how great humankind's impact on the planet would be, but if it was greater than a certain amount, the environmental consequences would be...well, very much as scientists have predicted and documented since.

YouTube, naturally, has a clip from the short film. Many readers may end up with flashbacks to grade-school filmstrips, as many Bell Telephone Hour shorts (including this one) later made the rounds of the school system.

Hat tip to Dr. David Farber's Interesting People mailing list, which invariably is.

Comments

Well, the truth of the matter is that Al Gore invented transistors, the wave nature of matter, talking pictures, modern cryptography, Unix, cosmic background radiation...and global warming, as well as the internet?

Unfortunately, it is inconvenient for everyone to deny the credit he is due.

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Anyone notice how 2008 was supposed to be the hottest on record? I missed that on the CBS evening fiction cast this year touting that accomplishment for the global warming losers. I also seemed to have missed how CBS missed that last year was the coldest in a decade. OOPS. Instead I get that Noah what's his name from ER almost crying on some polar bear "info"mercial while a mama bear leaves the baby bear behind.

BTW, foxfyre, you think the Weather Channel is a laughing stock now, wait until their new owner (NBC) finishes them off the rest of the way. No one watches NBC and their cable idiots now, so I wait with great anticipation for the train wreck to continue.

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I see that some don't understand how averages work........ You take the highs and the lows and add up them and than divide by the total number and that is the average..

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Yup, and the mainstream US media utterly ignores the plethora of articles and data contradicting the Al Gore graphs of linear temperature increase!

Not to mention the founder of the Weather Channel even condemning the warming predictions!

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Now, now. None of your libertopian delusions.....

So, how long have you been a member of the Flat Earth Society? They to make the same claims you are making and say that they can prove that the Earth is indeed flat. Or do you work for a tobacco company and say that all of the evidence that says that smoking is bad for you is wrong as well? Have you no shame whoring yourself out like this to corporate America? After all Global Warming would cost profits.... And we all know that they are far more important than breathable air and drinkable water.... You'll just have to buy them anyways.

Haven't you libertopians done enough to America already?

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You sure do draw a bunch of conclusions from his two-sentence post.

Haven't you libertopians done enough to America already?

Certainly not any more than liberals--or conservatives for that matter--have.

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Oh, don't confuse the socialist dufas with a TV as a monitor just for viewing Britny videos any more than he already is.

He still thinks that Bush was a Libertarian!
That should give you an idea of just how far his head is up his posterior!

LOL!!!!!

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You retards, bourgeoisdud, sure are funny. Looks like you've been living under a rock for the last 8 years. I feel sorry for your kind of willful ignorance....

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You never fail to make me laugh, foxfart. There's a good reason why libertopians side with the republican party. Its the closes that they'll ever get any real power since they share so much with them. Of course you don't see this since you are, after all, a libertopian idiot and don't see the real world around you and the consequences of your way of thinking. They may not be exactly the same, but they are close enough alike to cause real problems for America. But like all libertopians you hate America so you don't care what happens to it as long as you get yours first.

That's a 32" Sony LCD HDTV with HDMI for a monitor that I didn't have to pay for at all. Your petty jealousy is really telling.

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We're all jealous of your new skateboard and Britny lunchbox too.
Now run on home to mommy. I bet she has your lunch with the little sandwiches with the crusts cut off, and milk in your Star Wars glass all ready for her itty bitty baby.

Face it Dude, even in her lucid moments, Britny couldn't care less about you.

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