Australia was at last able to view this “documentary” a few nights ago. What we saw is apparently the fourth edit, as some of the more outrageous items have been removed and the contributions of Dr Wunsch deleted at his request. My own impression is that it was a competent presentation of a point of view without much heard of the opposing view. The titles superimposed over the talking heads were also impressive.
Martin Durkin allowed himself to be interviewed afterwards - probably a mistake on his behalf, although it is always interesting to watch a defence of the indefensible. Some of the more blatant misrepresentations were examined. For instance, the comparison of temperature rise and solar activity that ended in 1980(?) just when the solar activity started to decrease. Durkin’s explanation seemed to be along the lines of “a graph has to end somewhere”. Many of the impressive titles of the talking heads failed to survive this interview, or greatly lost their credibility.
Next we had a panel where there was approximately a 50% split between Swindle believers and sceptics. Some of the believers had the grace to look embarrassed to be supporting the program. Most surprising (to me, anyway) was the coal industry representative firmly amongst the believers in CO2 related global warming.
Questions from the audience were hilarious for those who managed to stay watching. Unfortunately, I missed most of it but did hear an incomprehensible question concerning Carbon 14 that didn’t reach the panel.
Finally, there was an interview with Dr Wunsch to explain how he believed he had been deceived and misrepresented and why he had requested that his comments be removed.
John Quiggin’s blog has a long discussion dated July 12 for anyone after more detail on the showing.