Two very lame 60 sec TV adverts by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, an industry-funded lobby group about 'why we need carbon dioxide' can be found here. The third one on the site is an equally pathetic attack on Al Gore's habits. Needless to say, they're extremely biased. They are also lacking in scientific evidence and are filled with tacky, feel-good images. With the funding available to the CEI, I wonder how such poor, unconvincing, low-budget ads could ever have ever been conceived. They're so awful, that you must see them to appreciate it. Here's a line from one of the adverts:

"As for carbon dioxide, it isn't smog or smoke, it's what we breathe out and plants breathe in. They call it pollution. We call it life."

It sounds almost what you might say to a 5 year-old - with a tasteless tagline to boot. You wonder what the advertisment company must have been thinking. Either the advert is indeed aimed at 5-year-olds or they're just desperately grabbing at straws to find something remotely sensible to pass as an advert.

OK, so there is a bit of scientific evidence in the second TV advert but a professor behind one of the research papers stated that the advert misrepresented his research "in a deliberate effort to confuse and mislead the public". In fact, the thickening of ice in that particular area of the ice cap is consistent with the theory of global warming.

On the other side of the debate, there is Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" which is a documentary-movie about global warming. I hope to see it soon, and what I gather from the trailer and reviews, it does seem to be quite worth the watch.

I personally am probably 90% convinced about global warming, as I feel the statistics are indeed mixed, albeit skewed towards the pessimists. But either way, it's a risk which I think cannot be taken lightly given the consequences, which is something the US' current administration has taken much too lightly. I'll be sure to watch Al Gore's movie, when, um, it comes out on pirated DVD here in Shanghai (hey, what am i to do when there are no legitimate copies available?).