Is it getting hot in here?

Headline: Scientists OK Gore's movie for accuracy

So what does this imply? Al Gore's movie on global warming has to be scientifically accurate, right?

The AP contacted more than 100 top climate researchers by e-mail and phone for their opinion. Among those contacted were vocal skeptics of climate change theory.

Wow! This has to be a balanced article. More than 100 scientists, even those skeptical of global warming! Let's keep reading...

Most scientists had not seen the movie, which is in limited release, or read the book.

Okay, so how many scientists were actually polled? 100?

The former vice president's movie...mostly got the science right, said all 19 climate scientists who had seen the movie or read the book and answered questions from The Associated Press.

So it was 19. 19 scientists said Al Gore is spot on. Now, if you were a climate researcher and thought global warming was a load of crap, would you go see the movie? But if I wanted to believe in global warming, I would probably go it see it.

I wish I could get to this Wall Street Journal article again: There is No 'Consensus'. It makes a number of excellent points. But the one I found most damning was that when people scream about scientists coming to a consensus that global warming exists (what step in the scientific method involves "finding a consensus" anyway?), they are just talking about scientists in general. A scientist's field may or may not have anything to do with climatology. So why would their opinions about the causes of climate change count? Even if a scientist's field is climatology, most climatologists study the effects of climate change, not the causes!

So in summary, 19 scientists who may or may not study the causes of climate change, and are probably biased towards believing in global warming, all agree that Al Gore got all his facts right in his movie. This basically means squat, since science is based on facts, not opinion polls.