This is mind blowing ignorance on the part of Al Gore. Gore in an 11/12/09 interview on NBC’s tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, speaking on geothermal energy, champion of slide show science, can’t even get the temperature of earth’s mantle right, claiming “several million degrees” at “2 kilometers or so down”. Oh, and the “crust of the earth is hot” too.
Temperature of the sun’s corona: 1–2 million kelvin
Temperature of the sun’s photosphere: 6,000 kelvin
Temperature of the Earths mantle, more than “2 kilometers or so down”: between 500 °C to 900 °C (773 to 1173 kelvin)
Watching Gore make a complete scientific idiot of himself on national TV: priceless
Don’t believe me? Watch the video from NBC below:
For a faster presentation, without a pre-viewing commercial, here is the same video on YouTube
Oh…and here is a graph of the vertical temperature profile with drilling depth:
And here is the temperature profile of the Earth’s crust, mantle, and core:
Source: Electropaedia (Mpower UK) page on geothermal energy
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Richard (22:28:48) :
“PS the Magma pools dont have to be under volcanoes (active ones that is) Auckland is sitting atop large magma pools.”
And most of the rest of New Zealand has more sense.
———————
Go to Ebay and buy an old drilling rig.
Set it up in your back yard and start drilling.
When you hit the magma, withdraw the drill and stand back.
Look, a do-it-yourself volcano.
Make one yourself, and be the envy of your friends.
———————
Can’t somebody just tell Al Gore that geothermal is not cool
Gore’s an idiot for sure but he is also a soft target. Let’s focus here.
“It’s today’s definition of “enlightenment”.
This really would be inconvenient for the gold miners in South Africa – currently pushing through 3777m http://www.miningweekly.com/article/worlds-new-deepest-mine-safe-cheap-anglogold-2009-02-09
I wonder if they noticed those hot rocks on the way past today?
I did see a documentary of hydro power generation used in the mines to both cool the water and generate some power from it.
I work at the 6800 foot level in Creighton mine. Taking the cage down, the air gets cold as we pass the ice fields around the 2000 foot level. The ventilation system uses the ice fields to cool the air before it gets sent down to the lower levels. Working out in the drift on 6800 is warm. The walls are constantly near 34 Celsius. It is a degree or two warmer down on the 7000 foot level and it gets warmer the deeper you go. — John M Reynolds
“AlGore” and “Idiot” just seem to be made for each other. The longer he talks and the more he answers questions without a “teleprompter” the more ridiculous he becomes. No wonder there is no open Q&A, no discussion, no debate.
I am grateful for intelligent discussion of geothermal energy and I have some questions. Tor Hansson (16:39 – 11/16) provides a link to info on Iceland’s Reykjavek geothermal heating and electric plant. The description seems to have been written in the early 1990s for data on waste water:
“There are two important features of the waste water from high-temperature fields that may have a negative effect on the environment. These are the raised temperature of surface waters and ground water aquifers and the presence of hazardous chemicals in the waste water, i.e. arsenic, mercury, boron, etc. Extensive research has been carried out at Nesjavellir with respect to disposal of the waste water. ”
The article concludes that there are no problems with the surface disposal of waste water. Shore water of Lake Thingvallavatn continues to be the same as it was in 1979 before the plant was built. My old-fashioned (olive green) realist environmental self asks: “Can this be true year after year, or is the waste frozen for the present in Iceland?” “Can we get something for nothing?” Perhaps Roger Sowell on California geothermal, or others, have some answers.
As Patrick Davis notes, Rotorua had to control the tapping of geothermal steam by private residences so as to save the geysers at Whakarewarewa thermal reserve, which is a famous tourist attraction. The power station at Wairakei has been running for decades now and shows no sign of faltering, as far as I am aware. There are a number of tourist attractions close by where boiling lakes and regular geysers are to be seen, so its pretty hot close to the surface.
In fact, NZ continues to build geothermal stations of various sizes and there have been no subsidence or pollution problems anywhere, nor have any run dry. Auckland is certainly underlain by a large volcanic field that is a long way from extinct yet. A new volcano in the city is by no means impossible, so a geothermal operation ought to be viable there as well.
I shall allay my language here, but watching Al is difficult for me.
Of course we would disagree on almost everything, if perchance we met.
I would not and do not deny his rights to say what he feels and thinks.
We would certainly differ on hypothetical AGW conjecture.
What I do find painful however, is this guy – and I hesitate to be too brutal, is a dullard and his public speaking/interviews or addressing of the camera is, to say the least halting, unsure and timid ( as if he knows he is a charlatan), his comments simply, are ill-informed pap.
He certainly hit a nerve with his power-point presentation a few years ago, though I remember the hullabaloo about Disney’s ‘ Jungle Book’ or the ‘Lion King’, great films but only cartoons………. and really only for the little ones.
Finally, it is no wonder he shuns a public debate with the likes of say Monckton………………….. !
Al (20:25:30) :
“If you had exactly one question to ask Gore in a psuedo-private gathering of law students and professors what would you ask?”
I’d ask, “Al, could you cut me in for 10% of the action? I could use the bucks.”
” How many fingers am I holding up, Winston ? ”
” Four. ”
” And if the party says that it is not four but five – then how many ? “
OT, but The UK Times has mentioned the sun/climate link
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6919256.ece – the second time in a couple of weeks that I’ve seen this crop up in mainstream UK papers.
We might be getting there
“So, a question for all of you (and I) that have made disparaging remarks about Al: ” Who is the fool, Al or me?”” Jon Jewett
What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? Matthew 16:26
Probably he watched Lothar Emmerich’s movie 2012 before the interview! It’s even funny but stupid like Al Gore.
Let’s see….?
“Several million degrees” at “2 kilometers or so down” !
Given the geothermal gradiant that would still put the earth’s crust at > 1million K.
It’s a wonder he not puzzled by the presence of any ice at the north pole, or south pole for that matter.
It’s interesting the term algorithm is derived from algebra, an word with origins in Arabic, to decribe a new mathematic discovery made in the Islam world before the times of Grenada and Toledo. The foundation of science as we know it is based on algebra, among others. It’s rather funny that we use the nickname “algore-ithm”, or some other such nicknames to describe him, but he certainly has nothing to do with sceince at all.
Noticed a miss-wording in the title of the youtube clip. It should be that Gore ‘makes a profit’ for Gaiea not “is the prophet”
In the screencap Gore seems to have his hands clasped… Let us pray…
Ok, he makes a mistake in temperature, but I think his point is clear and I really think it is a good thing to seek for new energy resources. At least smarter then make war for the old ones!
el chiefo seesms to have done a very complete job of pulling GISS apart take a look
http://chiefio.wordpress.com/
“John (16:34:53) :
If the MSM decides to look into this, which they likely won’t, it will be the death knell for the former VP.
How can you win a Nobel Prize for pushing complex science and be so ignorant about basic geology?
How can you come on a nationwide TV show and talk about geothermal, and not know the temperatures?
How can you not know that drilling equipment can’t withstand temperatures of a couple of million degrees?
I’m very shocked at Gore’s ignorance. But I will be just as shocked if the media ignore this. And I’m pretty jaded, as are most of us on this blog, it seems to me.”
A few things to keep in mind:
1) He’s not stupid, unfortunately. He’s made billions, yes, with a “B”, of dollars shilling like this.
2) He won the Nobel PEACE prize…that’s the PEACE prize. A fact that’s consistantly and conveniently overlooked by the MSM.
3) Since when has ANY politician known much of ANYTHING about what they’re talking about. Remember point #1.
4) Shocked at his ignorance?…he’s one of the craftiest, coniving, manipulative figureheads out there. Of his many faults…ignorance ain’t one of ’em.
JimB
Roger Knights (20:04:52):
Roger, do you have a point??
“ocntrasted”.
When I use this word. I will refer back to you, Roge
“dutch (03:31:27) :
Ok, he makes a mistake in temperature, but I think his point is clear and I really think it is a good thing to seek for new energy resources. At least smarter then make war for the old ones!”
Are you suggesting WWI and WWII were all about energy? You should read up on your history. Were the Nazis and Stalin at war with people over energy?
Just confirms what I already knew, Gore is an uneducated wind-bag who hasn’t a clue about climate change, the environment of anything helpful to the debate.
As with most politicians these days, They’re only as good as their script writers – no wonder politics and science are in such an abysmal state.
2 kilometers, huh? 2 million degrees? I bet the folks working the TauTong mine in South Africa, at 3.9 kilometers, really hate getting up in the morning.
Yes, right. The poor guy is unfamiliar with geology and makes misstakes. From some of the comments above it seems that the subject of geothermal energy is not very familiar to many others either. For example the crust is not evenly thick everywhere. If you drill in northern Scandinavia you have to go several kilometers down to reach a temperature high enough for a power station, while in Iceland and parts of western USA the crust is thin. Gore has caught the general principle. There might be technological issues to be overcome, but it is a possible source of energy. For example Chevron and Calpine already earn money from Geothermal energy.
The fact that Al Gore mentiones it is not enough to dismiss geothermal energy.
He might be less than clever on temperatures and geology but that’s a different issue.