I remember once having an argument on this blog with someone who claimed Al Gore was “no longer political” but now was “all about science”. Erasing all doubt, Gore’s “We” campaign announced today a series of webcasts to America’s youth designed to target students at college campuses to enhance their voting on election day.
You can read all about it (and signup to watch) here on the webpage “Gore Power Vote“. they say:
On Oct. 29, former Vice President Al Gore will address youth everywhere in the first-ever Power Vote live webcast. He’ll be talking about his Repower America challenge, the connections between the economic and climate crises, and the importance of the upcoming election.
Sign up below to join the webcast.
Hmm, I wonder who he will push to vote for? In a mailing obtained by WUWT, Cathy Zoi, CEO of “we can solve it” announced this:
Power Vote webcast to college campuses across the nation
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008
5pm Pacific / 6pm Mountain / 7pm Central / 8pm Eastern
After the webcast, Power Vote will be kicking off six days of Get-Out-The-Vote campaigning on key campuses across the country, urging young people to make clean energy and climate a top priority in their vote this election. Youth turnout is going to be a crucial factor in this election, and the young leaders on these campuses are going to be the ones who usher in the new clean energy economy that Vice President Gore is calling for.
Our good friends at the Energy Action Coalition are co-sponsoring this webcast with us, and driving the Power Vote campaign on campuses. The passion of these young leaders, in dozens of small organizations across the nation, is a true inspiration.
While this method of “getting out the vote” is certainly part of our democratic system, given the propensity for Mr. Gore to exaggerated and in many cases use discredited talking points when he discusses climate issues, one wonders if these young impressionable minds will be able to withstand Gore’s glizty barrage and find the real answers themselves. I once beleived what Gore and hansen were talking about in the late 80’s and early 90’s, now I think they are like Jake and Elwood Blues (you can choose who should fit what role) on a “mission from God” to save the penguin, er world.
I was wondering how that $300 million for “marketing” was going to be spent.
It all seems like a weird 60s Sci-Fi movie, it’s an election right? Sorry if I forgot.
It is sad that people like Gore get any attention at all. It will be sadder if people vote for AGW as their new religon.
The obvious answer is for us to make sure WE vote in this election.
You can always tell a demagogue. Their self-perceived greatness allows them to exempt themselves from whatever nostrum they prescribe for their inferiors; i.e. everyone else.
Thus does Al Gore demand that the rest of us reduce our use of natural resources (such as electricity, etc.) while, unrestrained, he gobbles up whatever attracts his appetite….. Disgusting!
“The importance of the upcoming election” is to get Al back in the White House.
Doesn’t anyone remember that this guy and his wife wanted to censure lyrical content in music? That alone should tell you where his mind is set . Control.
Hmmph…
I remember The Coming Ice Age era. I was out of college and wearing Uncle Sam’s green suit. Still a bit wet behind the ears {though no longer quite that wet}. Read those tales of pending disaster thinking that these are scientists and they must know something — time can be such a good source of enlightenment on that issue. {Remember The Population Bomb or Club of Rome?} But I at least had the good sense to understand that even if it were true, we had a good long time to adjust to that type of scenario.
Now, courtesy of Mr. Gore, we can see how throughly politicized the area of climate science has become. He is leading the charge to corrupt responsible care of scarce resources into a dogmatic approach that may very well inflict serious damage on the world economy. When the dust settles and the climate turns colder over the coming decades, there will be vast hordes of disillusioned suckers that will look back on this foolishness they took part in and feel betrayed and played. In addition to the many economic victims of this silly fantasy trip, there will be serious harm done to the reputation of science for the way so many scientists, who should have known better, jumped into the AGW movement.
The new touchstone in this political arena is ten years. We must act in ten years, we’ll reach a tipping point in ten years, we must replace our energy infrastructure in ten years. Hysteria is not a pleasant sight to see on an aging third-rate politician’s face; it’s an even less pleasing sight to see on any scientist’s face. Unfortunately, I expect to be around long enough to be able to unsatisyingly say, “I told you so.”
This is not the first time I have seen his supporters refer to Mr Gore as “Vice President Gore”. As I understand it, past Presidents are granted the honorary title “President” for life, hence it is correct to refer to President Cater, President George HW Bush and President Clinton; but the office of Vice President does not entitle the holder to any honorary title once his term of office is over.
I wonder whether Mr Gore has taken any steps to prevent this misuse of a title he does not have.
Woops, I meant President Carter, no offence intended.
Al Gore, nobel prize winner right along with Yasser Arafat.
He never saw a hockey stick he didn’t like. It’s hard to imagine how people listen to him about CO2 while he flys around in his private jet. — Huts my brain.
Anyway, I continued my Grant Tamino posts looking at a 3 year trend.
http://noconsensus.wordpress.com/2008/10/24/more-evidence-of-taminos-folly/#more-1201
Anthony, I love the website and reading all the posts. It is great that people can disagree without being disagreeable. Crucial in moving mankind forward. You may know of my father, Dr. Tim Ball. I would like to tell you the tale of how my father has been smeared and marginalized by the media, but it would take an enormous amount of time. David Suzuki has gone to great lengths to make sure that my father is viewed as “a nutbar”. I would like for you to see the relevance of my dad’s work on this issue, and what he has been saying for 30 years. There is no political or monetary motivation behind it. Simply to further the science. It is a sad story that many on this side of the debate can attest to. Feel free to contact me if you like. Sadly, no “oil money” in our lives as Dr. Suzuki would have you believe. My father’s Doctor of Science in climatology is real as well, despite what desmogblog have posted. Strange how the media have listened to those without credentials on the subject, yet have disregarded many who have. Dr. Lindzen, Dr. Fred Singer, Dr. Tim Patterson, and on and on. WFUWT? Thank you again for your amazing website.
When considering the people at the top of the AGW pile (Gore, Hansen, The hockey Stick Team, et al), I am reminded of a book titled “Snakes in Suits…” at http://www.amazon.com/Snakes-Suits-When-Psychopaths-Work/dp/0061147893/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224825170&sr=8-1
Hmmm… if the profile fits…. I’m happy to let everyone draw their own conclusion on this…
One question. Is this not the same Albert Arnold Gore who, a couple of years ago during the release of that astounding scientific masterpiece of Hollywood showmanship, “An Inconvenient Truth”, in which he boasted sea-level rises around the world of 20 feet or more? Yet in the same year purchase $4.0M worth of sea-front condominium a few fet from the sea?
Well, always DAISNAID! Do As I Say Not As I Do! Perhaps there is time for him & his offspring to enjoy it for a few years before selling on to some unsuspecting sap!
I found it interesting, that Gore’s new website (and more disturbingly many media websites supporting AGW) do not have a forum or only crippled versions, where readers can express their opinions.
I found out, that there is a high correlation between quality of journalism and the ability for readers to comment.
On the issue of giving people honorifics they may not deserve, the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC – Government funded radio station) this morning called Mr Rajendra Pachauri (chair of the IPCC) ‘the world’s senior climate scientist’. They were discussing the Austrlian Government Garnaut Report on the effects of an emissions trading scheme – and, of course, we are not doing enough).
The world’s climate scientists would probably balk at the notion that they are part of a seniority system and do the pronouncements of the ‘senior’ scientist make them more correct? I took this to be spin on the part of the ABC to lend credence to Mr Pachauri’s words.
[…] from a comment on Watts Up With That? by David […]
{Remember The Population Bomb or Club of Rome?}
All too well.
David Ball:
Hello, welcome, and give your dad a wave for me. His work is among the first to open my eyes to what is going on!
And, from the perspective of a Calgarian, I can assure you that Suzuki is viewed here as the king of the nutbars. Heck, they could wrap him in plastic and sell him beside the Oh Henry and Eat Mores. If only “The Nature Of Things” hadn’t vaulted him (via taxpayer money) to a measure of credibility.
Leon Brozyna: “The new touchstone in this political arena is ten years.”
That’s probably no accident – it’s a nice round figure. Ten years is short enough to appear fairly urgent (as opposed to fifty years) and long enough to avoid being obviously silly (as opposed to two years.) And a decade from now is long enough to be quietly forgettable once the tipping point tips and nothing scary happens. After all, who remembers anything that was said in 1998?
Cynical? Moi?
I can’t wait to see the reaction of business when Gore lands on earth.
It’s part of the deal to get the Climate and Energy Czar position, which will oversee the DOE and EPA…call it DOEP if your wish.
That bureaucracy would make the IRS look like a Salvation Army santa. Remember – CO2 is a pollutant!
Leon Bronzyna:
You surely must know that like all squirming politicians, bandwaggon-jumping scientists, & activists, when the cat is let out of the bag on climate change the majority of the AGW camp will merely claim something along the lines of “we were simply responding to the best available scientific views & data available at the time”! Followed by “You cannot possibly hold us responsible for causing scare stories on that basis.”
Doesn’t the logo of “we” look like “me” upside down? That’s quite egocentric, er e-Gore-centric 😉 I don’t doubt that the whole global warming campaign is a political one. He’s relatively young, so he can still aim to apply for the Presidency in 8 years from now. Or even 4 years, if Obama screw things up in the next 4 years, or if the president is Republican. Meanwhile, I hope that during that time Sun’s activity will still be very low, and the climate cools down enough so that his brainwashing arguments lose enough strength that he won’t be able to fulfill his dreams of power (and ideally, to be completely discredited). I never thought that I would cross my fingers for a really bad thing, like a natural global cooling and/or a decreased protection of the solar system from the solar wind, just so that a group of people gets discredited.
Well, if we are to be rigorous, I still don’t see any indication on any kind of endorsement. Albeit no one believes he’s gonna vote for McCain, at least he has been refraining to say so and fully endorse Obama. So while I get why you are so vitriolic against Al, you have nothing here against him, only FUDdian speculation, you know, the very same thing that you accuse these folks of doing?
The strawman that Gore is worried about “science” not politics is insane. He’s no scientist, therefore he isn’t “worried” about science. He’s an activist, trying to get people’s attention towards his own agenda, be it reasonable or not, altruistic or selfish. He has some scientific facts backing him up, but make no mistake, he’s a “politician” in the sense that he’s trying to change the world.
So what you shouldn’t be worried is if this campaign of Al is going to “decide” the election or not (I think the people have already chosen, but there are still two weeks to go), you should be worried instead about how the high marketing gear that these people have backing them up will affect the scientific enterprise of finding out the truth.
Anthony: Hansen’s advocacy role has reached new heights, too. Refer to his recent newsletter. http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/20081023_Obstruction.pdf
But take heart, Jake and Elwood did eventually wind up behind bars, singing “Jailhouse Rock”. The verse with number 47 talking to number 3 makes me cringe, now.
David Ball (21:57:53) :
Of course we know him, though I confess some embarrassment when I started digging into what’s really going on at not knowing his work and thinking that Suzuki was a Japanese violin teacher. It didn’t take long to get straightened out.
My guess is that the next few years may have a crescendo of ad hominem attacks on scientists like your father as the AGW folks becomes increasingly desperate to retain support from the general public. Eventually, or during the next really cold winter (maybe this one), their house of cards will collapse, and leave everyone’s reputation sullied.
People who stick to the high road, like your father, have the best chance of regaining the respect they deserve and helping us catch back up to reality. Perhaps WUWT will lead the way.
Thank you Code Tech!!It is difficult to see all the lies printed about ones father in the MSM, especially when you know him to be a man of principal. Google Dr. Tim Ball to see all the negative hits that come up. Smacks of someone desperately trying to silence a voice.
David Ball,
Please thank your father for me, too. I have great respect for his work and the other like him. Shout out to friendsofscience.org
Anyone who believes the vast majority of the modern environmental movement is nonpartisan and purely scientifically driven is seriously deluded. Follow the money trail, hundred of millions are flooding into this campaign, tens of millions from suspect sources. Large portions of this cash are channeled into “green” organizations such as the Sierra Club, which then give to the Obama campaign and other hard left democrats. Climate Alarmists Gore and James Hansen are direct recipients of the largess of ultra wealthy liberals via front groups such as moveon.org and the Democracy Alliance.
According to Capital Research Center(CRC)’s Foundation Watch “the Democracy Alliance (DA)— is meant to be a financial clearinghouse. The Alliance got off to a rocky start, but to date it’s brokered more than $100 million in grants to liberal nonprofits. The goal is not merely to elect Democrats this November, but to permanently realign U.S. politics.”
Who is the Big Dawg behind the Democracy Alliance? Why billionaire socialist George Soros and his Open Society network.
For more info check out CRC and read “THe Shadow Party” by David Horowitz.
The stock market is crashing this morning, who is going to be worried about Gore’s Global Warming? Get real, this guy is a nut case.
This is going to take some explaining and I am not really the one to do it as I do not have access to the scientific references to back up this claim, but about 85 years ago, top notch physicians were renowned for their diagnostic abilities. A patient could walk into an examining room and by the time they sat down, doctors would have had a fairly good idea about what might be wrong. Obviously, there would also have been the fullest examination possible, for that period, but most diseases were known and thoroughly described in the journals. So, the doctor knew very well what was wrong with the patient, but probably was unable to do much to help, owing to lack of treatments at the time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pernicious_anemia#History
Having said that, I state that today’s doctors should also have those skills (I hope!). Therefore, look long and hard at the face and body of that fat, smug, self serving, conniving, SOB at the top of the page. He is not the picture of a healthy man. I suspect that his heart is on its last legs and cancer cells are already implanting themselves, in a belt and braces move, to dispatch him from this world, before too much more time passes.
Harsh? Hell NO! His AGW scam is not about life and death. It’s much, much more important than that for us!! It’s about truth and honesty.
Perry
Advocacy groups work best on a local level, where they can find common ground and work together. Bird watchers don’t have to hate duck hunters. In fact, because duck hunters preserve marshes and desire more ducks, it turns out they are on the side of bird watchers, especially when you consider the fact they only hunt a few weeks each year, but their Preserves exist 365 days. (Also bird watchers brought about safer meat for duck hunters, when they insisted duck hunters stop using lead shot.)
Here in New Hampshire one advocacy group involves snowmobilers. I may hate the sound of their machines, but there is no getting around the fact they have preserved wide-open-spaces, (or the fact they are the heroes in a blizzard, when the elderly are without power and hot food.)
Snowmobilers joined a whole bunch of other advocacy groups in working out ways for the public to make the best use of New Hampshire public lands, including having some places where snowmobilers couldn’t go. Things were working out well, but then along comes the Sierra Club, based in Washington D.C., with heaps of money and without much interest in the desires of locals, to throw a wrench in the works.
It is when an advocacy group assumes an attitude that their group is far wiser than “the ignorant masses” that they become both repulsive and dangerous.
A great example of this occurred in Greenland not many years ago. Some high-minded Animal Rights Advocates managed to convince legislators in Denmark that Greenland should be pushed into totally banning the hunting of caribou. (They had all sorts of facts and figures produced in European colleges to prove this was wise.) The result? Not only did this harm (and utterly piss off) the Inuit locals who depended on caribou meat, but it lead to a terrible die-off of the caribou population, due to over-population and over-grazing.
The problem with advocates like Gore and Hansen is that they are so convinced they are right that they avoid debate rather than welcoming it. After all, if we are a government of the people, then shouldn’t we include the people…..especially the people called “locals?”
Notice that Gore is standing in front of a Southern Hemisphere hurricane.
David Ball please thank your father for me. I heard one of his interviews on the Roy Green show and he was the first person to introduce me to the other side of the AGW debate. His scientifically logical and sensible position on AGW convinced me to join the skeptical side. I was also happy to find out that he was a fellow Canadian.
Meanwhile ASU satellite temps for Oct are -.11C from Oct 2007, and Oct 2007 was cooler than 2006 (but not 2005 🙂 ). The cooling trend continues
Bill Marsh,
I went to ASU, and it was usually really hot there.
Caleb,
Your story about the Caribou in Greenland reminded me of something similar that happened in Sweden some years back. Following campaigning pressure over the number of reindeer involved in traffic accidents along a major highway to the North, the animals were rounded up and moved far away. After a while the authorities were amazed to find that the number of accidents was increasing rapidly. What had happened was the original reindeer had become used to the road and developed a certain amount of road sense. When they were moved, other deer moved into the vacated territory. These deer were not used to the road and thus became involved in more accidents
Law of unintended consequences 🙂
Having lived in Tennessee for many years, I once had occasion to meet Al Gore.
What an oily individual! Detestable at best. His daddy was a crook before him.
He has about as much scientific expertise as my dog, maybe less.
David Ball
Some days when I am bored, it amuses me to inform Doc. Andrew Dessler of Texas A&M and Gristmill (big AGW rooter) of your father’s ongoing work at Canada’s Free Press.
“What have you been up to Doctor D,” I ask him.
Then I throw in casually, “Doc Ball says you’re fudging numbers, and scaring kids.”
Then I whip out the link to show him. Manipulation of public perceptions by Dr.Tim Ball
Lot’s of fun. I’m still wearing a grin just thinking about it. Your father is wonderful.
Oh by the way, Tom Nelson has given Dr. Ball his own category hyperlink.
Here’s Dr. Tim’s latest CFP article, and a list of all his articles over the year. I especially recommend “Financial meltdown defrocks deceit of man-made global warming”.
Modesty might prevent David from promoting his father’s work, so I’ll go ahead and do it.
I note the ‘w’ in ‘we’ is really an upside down ‘m’
‘we’ masquerading as ‘me’
says it all really.
Well I got that back to front, but you know what i meant.
I learned my company is helping run this Al Gore event today. I feel so dirty.
If you read Inconvenient Truth and other statements by Gore, it’s clear that he is a frustrated preacher at heart. That’s not bad – he just should have stayed in politics. I voted for him!
Big Al probably can’t make a direct endorsement without violating some campaign finance law.
I think he’s really deserving of the title:
Director Of Protecting the Environment.
(with apologies to Scott Adams)
I guess if you have an election stolen right out from under you — no matter that you didn’t run a great campaign (it should not have been close) — you believe you have every right to get even by becoming a demagogue. And he has become one of the worst. He could hardly wait until Hillary Clinton was out of the way to endorse Obama; I received an email from him to that effect almost immediately after she suspended her campaign.
Furthermore, we know that Obama can hardly wait until he is inaugurated so that he can declare, and get a law passed to the effect, that CO2 is a pollutant. Wow! Imagine how many tax dollars he and his supporters can gather under those pretenses with which to play and to support their corrupt cronies.
However, I have faith in the good sense of Americans on Nov. 4, unless the fraud is too overwhelming, and in the staying power of science. With a little paraphrasing — [we have] come into the world to bear witness to the truth….And the truth will make [us] free….but first it [might] make us miserable.
Since both major party candidates support Kyoto, we can assume that Al has no partisan motivations.
pyromancer76 (14:09:16)
“Furthermore, we know that Obama can hardly wait until he is inaugurated so that he can declare, and get a law passed to the effect, that CO2 is a pollutant.”
The Supreme Court of the United States decided in
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
Syllabus
MASSACHUSETTS ET AL. v. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY ET AL.
CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT
No. 05–1120. Argued November 29, 2006—Decided April 2, 2007
that CO2 is a pollutant. End of story.
“…I have faith in the good sense of Americans on Nov. 4…”
November 4 is a lose-lose on CO2.
Al Gore has been targeting youth all year. I belong to An Inconvenient Youth for the purpose of telling them that global warming is not happening. However there are adults on the site who close off your discussions if they do not like what you are saying.
The whole purpose of the site is to get young people to vote for the Democrats and to vote for every environmental law proposed.
I am sickened by what I am seeing. This movement is really scary. It is like the Hitler youth.
Reply – Speaking of the Hitler Youth, you might want to read this post: An Inconvenient Youth. About half way through the comments, I offer a summary of the rise of the Hitler Youth. – Dee Norris
Oddly, Gore somewhat reminds me of Hugo Chavez.
To Ed Scott: At least Sen. McCain has chosen a running mate in Gov. Palin who appreciates science and who will advise him about the truths of climate change. MCCain also wants all sources of energy to be utilized, with an eye to their environmental effects (e.g., clean coal). Obama wants to use tax dollars so that the government controls every source of energy, and he has voted for tax dollars to go to that boondoggle, corn-based ethanol. The Supreme Court may have erroneously spoken, but truths will out, and McCain is the only one who has the possibility of waking up to scientific realities. He will be much more ready when the continuing drop in temperatures makes AGW laughable — and I hope he can find a face-saving closet for Gore to “do something” that will not affect our future.
Remember the Ozone scare and CFC`s.
Dr. Linwood Callis of NASA led an agency investigation of the causes of ozone fluctuations during the 1980s. As he told me: “The overwhelming portion of the ozone depletion in the 1980s was due to natural causes,” and the effect of CFCs “was really quite small — less than one-half of one percent.” (His paper “Ozone Depletion in the High Latitude Lower Stratosphere: 1979-1990” appeared in the Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 96, No. D2, Feb. 20, 1991, pp. 2921-2937.) Callis went on to say that he thought that scientists blaming CFCs for ozone depletion were being “less than honest.”
Another one bites the dust.
http://ftp.vix.com/objectivism/Writing/RobertBidinotto/OzoneDepletion.html
CFC`s cause global warming.
There has been a lot of discussion about global warming. Some say anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions caused the earth to warm. Others say there is no abnormality at all, that it is just natural warming. As you will see from the data presented and analyzed, a greater than normal warming did occur in recent times but no measurements confirm an increase in CO2, whether anthropogenic or natural, had any effect on global temperatures. There is however, strong evidence that anthropogenic emissions of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were the major cause of the recent abnormal warming.
CFCs have created both unnatural atmospheric cooling and warming based on these facts:
http://jimunro.blogspot.com/2008/07/cfcs-and-global-warming.html.
http://omsriram.com/GlobalWarming.htm
Cosmic rays cause Ozone hole, why not.
2008-09-16 10:09:59
New theory predicts the largest ozone hole over Antarctica will occur this month
WATERLOO, Ont. (Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2008) — A University of Waterloo scientist says that cosmic rays are a key cause for expanding the hole in the ozone layer over the South Pole — and predicts the largest ozone hole will occur in one or two weeks.
http://newsrelease.uwaterloo.ca/news.php?id=4997
[…] like the Gorenstein is now political again. Watts Up With That? has the […]