Tuesday, March 13, 2007

A Convenient Exaggeration

It appears our former Democrat VP, Mr Gore, may have exaggerated some of his "facts". Maybe the debate isn't over after all. The following is extracted from an article in todays New York Times. “Hardly a week goes by,” Dr. Peiser said, “without a new research paper that questions part or even some basics of climate change theory,” including some reports that offer alternatives to human activity for global warming. Geologists have documented age upon age of climate swings, and some charge Mr. Gore with ignoring such rhythms. “Nowhere does Mr. Gore tell his audience that all of the phenomena that he describes fall within the natural range of environmental change on our planet,” Robert M. Carter, a marine geologist at James Cook University in Australia, said in a September blog. “Nor does he present any evidence that climate during the 20th century departed discernibly from its historical pattern of constant change.” In October, Dr. Easterbrook made similar points at the geological society meeting in Philadelphia. He hotly disputed Mr. Gore’s claim that “our civilization has never experienced any environmental shift remotely similar to this” threatened change. Nonsense, Dr. Easterbrook told the crowded session. He flashed a slide that showed temperature trends for the past 15,000 years. It highlighted 10 large swings, including the medieval warm period. These shifts, he said, were up to “20 times greater than the warming in the past century.” Getting personal, he mocked Mr. Gore’s assertion that scientists agreed on global warming except those industry had corrupted. “I’ve never been paid a nickel by an oil company,” Dr. Easterbrook told the group. “And I’m not a Republican.” Biologists, too, have gotten into the act. In January, Paul Reiter, an active skeptic of global warming’s effects and director of the insects and infectious diseases unit of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, faulted Mr. Gore for his portrayal of global warming as spreading malaria. “For 12 years, my colleagues and I have protested against the unsubstantiated claims,” Dr. Reiter wrote in The International Herald Tribune. “We have done the studies and challenged the alarmists, but they continue to ignore the facts.”

9 comments:

Adrienne said...

If the news is good - winning the Oscar - then the credit does not go to Gore. But if the news is bad - misinformation in the movie - then the blame goes to Gore.

Seems like there is need for more than debate...........

marty said...

I didn't know that you (the right) were that afraid of Gore. From what you are saying they have fed you on Fox news they must have a real dread of his doing something big in the political world.

marty said...

Adrienne....A movie about Picasso is of concern to the Academy only for the film making. However the merit of Picasso's work is still his.

Sean M. said...

Whether he's right or not, isn't it our duty as earthly citizens to take care of our environment? No one can deny that conserving energy, reducing emissions, etc. are good for the environment. So many people have a problem with the whole Global Warming thing, but that's not the only issue here. The issue is that we are not taking care of the Earth and it's natural resources, and though Gore may be a hypocrite as far as his mansion/lifestyle go, what he says isn't all bad. I think we just need to give the guy a break! He's not even in politics anymore...

Sean M. said...

Unlike SOME of our nation's leaders who are on the sides of the oil companies, and are profitting from them...

Anonymous said...

I don't know if the Earth is warming or cooling. I do know that in my lifetime this is the third cycle in which we were bombarded with predictions of climate change. My first recollection was that the Earth was warming. Then, out came scientists that said it was cooling and I remember thinking that humans would adapt just as we always do, like wear warmer clothing, even if we had to dress as Esquimos all year around. Now, the fad is warming and people are just as serious about it now as they were in the past. I just can't get worked up over this. I remember standing on a golf course with a farmer one day. He looked up into the sky and pointed out a lone cloud to me and said: "If that cloud would move over about two miles to the right it would mean about two thousand dollars to me." We could not imagine we had the power to move it over and make it rain. We were as powerless to do that as we are in many other things.

John Beauregard said...

Marcel - I've never heard of a farmer on a golf corse before. I guess I never lived in the same parts of the country as you.
Marc is a former farmer who now plays lots of golf but I believe he did not golf when he was a farmer.

John Beauregard said...

Sean - I agree wholheartedly that we need to take better care of the environment and the earth's resources. I object, however, to pompous evangelists who exploit a cause (religious or environmental) for their own gain by exaggerating or distorting the truth and preaching behaver that applies to everyone except themselves. Gore reaps a fortune off his "slide show" but will not lift a finger himself to alleviate environmental issues. I don't agree he deserves a break. (BTW: I think carbon offsets are just another fraud perpetrated by those who try to justify their lavish, environmentally damaging behaver.)

Anonymous said...

John, you are a big city guy and do not rub elbows with some of those that make this world a better place. Van Wert, Ohio has many affluent farmers (corn) and they frequent the golf course in that Town. Marc is an exfarm-boy and enjoys his golf but he cares not a whit about moving clouds to improve his yield.