Gore's 'Inconvenient Truth' required for city employees

Al Gore stars in 'An Inconvenient Truth'

Some of the first City of Albuquerque employees required to view excerpts from Al Gore's movie on global warming as part of a mandatory morning-long seminar on energy efficiency are telling elected officials they feel like they were forced to watch "political propaganda."

"An Inconvenient Truth," considered scientifically suspect and alarmist by its critics, won the 2007 Academy Award for best documentary and paved the way for the former U.S. vice president to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize yesterday.

This week's Albuquerque seminar, the first planned for the city's 6,500 employees, was held for blue-collar and clerical workers. The session ran from 8:30 a.m. to noon and included about 50 minutes of excerpts from the Gore movie.

"I think it's probably a waste of employees' time," City Councilor Sally Mayer, a Republican, told the Albuquerque Journal.

A constituent who is also a city employee called her to complain.

"He was livid, and he said, 'I can't believe they took three and half hours of my morning and made me watch the movie,'" Mayer said.

Mayer was not alone in fielding complaints from angry employees.

"I had no idea about it until I got a call from a city employee who was absolutely outraged he had to sit in on a political propaganda videotape from Al Gore," Councilor Brad Winter told the Albuquerque Tribune. "It's totally ridiculous to me. It's a waste of time and taxpayer money."

Council President Debbie O'Malley also said she received calls over the mandatory viewing.

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Defending the sessions was Mayor Martin Chavez who said the training seminars were meant to help employees learn how to use energy in city buildings more efficiently.

The controversy over the mandatory seminars comes the same week a British judge identified 11 errors in "An Inconvenient Truth" that must be identified with a disclaimer before the Gore movie can be used in British classrooms. WND reported a New Zealand think tank has written the president of the Academy Awards asking that the Oscar given to the film be taken back in response to the ruling.

Patricia Miller, the city's director of human resources, said 40 minutes of the Gore film were edited out so employees would see only the "scientific portions." Miller said her staff developed the "lesson plan" with the goal of giving workers background in the science of global warming.

"We're not trotting them in there to watch an entire movie. It is a piece of their training followed by a presentation on the city's programs that are available to everyone," Miller said. "We then go into breakout sessions and work with the employees and generate their ideas on how they can make a difference in their work environment."

Although attendance at the sessions are identified as mandatory, Miller said any employee who had a problem could opt out without any repercussions.

"If somebody had a huge issue with the whole concept or the philosophy, we wouldn't force them to go through it," Miller told the Tribune. "What would be the point?"

Councilor Mayer linked showing of the movie to the mayor's political ambitions. Chavez is currently a frontrunner for the Democrat U.S. Senate nomination in New Mexico.

"I believe this is so the mayor can say he's the first mayor to have all the city workers attend a sustainability conference," charged Mayer. "This isn't a partisan issue. This is about wasting taxpayer dollars."

The mayor disagreed.

"The only political part about climate change is the unwillingness of some in Washington to recognize climate change," replied Chavez. "We'll go with the scientific facts and the cost savings. We'll leave the politics to everybody else."

Chavez's endorsement of the seminars to save electricity was backed by Councilor Martin Heinrich, who is seeking the Democrat nomination in the 1st Congressional District.

"Even if you're willing to put your head in the sand on this issue, it makes good fiscal sense," Heinrich said.

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