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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For the true believers defending the profit of AGW, at least ask try to reflect a bit:
Why exactly are you so enchanted with Al?
You know he is a personal hypocrite – his personal energy use is flagrantly and massively high. He flies personal planes. He directly prophets from selling products that are popular because of his claims about climate.
What if any skeptic at all had made the numerical blunder Gore made on TV?
You know that every AGW promotion blog out there would be talking about nothing but this as *proof* of how ignorant and subhuman denialist scum are.
Gore, in ignorantly claiming that significant geothermal energy is available on 2 kilometers down, and implying that it is easily done, was just plain misleading people. And his reference to the temps involved is more reflexive, in that context, of a man who does not give a fig about what the facts may actually be, and who has no significant understanding of the topic at all.
That Conan was not sharp enough to pick up on the pile of ignorance Gore was selling only points out to me why his show is not doing so well. If you are willing to let a big easy target like Gore stroll around dropping misinformatoin off like that, then maybe you are not really ready for prime time.
You know in Gores new religion Hell would literally open up and power Turbines 🙂
Check National Geographic on the Witwaterrand: It’s 130+ degrees down there, not 2 million.
Elmer Fudd weighs in on Climate Change.
Shhhh. I’m hunting Carbon Wabbits.
Omigod, it’s Gwobal Warming, huh, huh, huh, huh!
~”What a Maroon”.~
Drill bits made of material that can withstand temps over a million degrees?!
Wow!
Must be some new super material I aint heard nothing about.
Mr Moderator
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/6588040/Doctor-Who-star-David-Tennant-to-feature-in-online-climate-change-game.html
An actor who plays a science fiction character is playing a climate change game on Oxfams web site. Very appropriate.
Can someone look at Oxfams accounts and tell how much of their income is spent on salaries?
Al Gore should stick to inventing the next version of the Internet. It’s obvious he know more about IT than geology. What a dope!
Yeah, that’s why Jay Rockefeller, Doofus-WV, is against Kerry-Boxer. Those coal miners have enough to deal with, with the heat and all.
Great catch Anthony. I linked it for the 10 people who don’t already know you put it up.
The 500 to 900 degrees 2 kilometers down or so is not correct. I have been underground in South Africa 12,000 feet and it is not that temperature. The rock temperature is 145 degrees farhenheit at that depth.
Philip T. Downman (04:16:00) :
“The fact that Al Gore mentiones it is not enough to dismiss geothermal energy.”
Of course. Even a stopped clock …
What is Al Gore? A pseudo-scientific opportunistic politician who has been seriously WRONG. He should be ignored henceforth.
The true energy solution is Liberty. One size does not fit all.
“… A good illustration of the difference between “knowledge” and “intelligence.”
The former refers to the ability to remember facts, figures, and events. The latter refers to the ability to figure out what those facts, figures, and events actually mean.”
But if one has no grasp of the facts, can he possibly ‘figure out’ what they mean? Falsity has no meaning.
When is Gore coming out for table-top fusion? Or perhaps for power generated by rubbing crystals and listening to Allen Ginsburg chant ‘Om’?
Do not mock the all-knowing, all-seeing and wise Goreacle. Remember, in just a little over 4 years now (Dec., 2013) the ENTIRE north polar ice cap will DISAPPEAR. Poof, and it will be gone, and the flooding that will result will be on a biblical scale. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth by those who Didn’t Listen. We know this because the Wise One said it, so it must be so. In fact, I hear of a great Ark being built now in Memphis, and there is word of creatures of all kinds heading there by twos.
Dutch wrote: “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!”
Club of Rome wrote: “In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. All these dangers are caused by human intervention, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy then, is humanity itself.”
G. Orwell wrote: “Peace is War”
The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) wrote: “Threat of climate change should be treated like war” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/6554690/Threat-of-climate-change-should-be-treated-like-war-say-engineers.html
Now, make peace, not love, brothers & sisters!
Big Brother
From http://www.tennessean.com/article/20091115/NEWS08/911150340/Al+Gore+sees+global+shift+on+climate+change
Why do some people ridicule you about climate change?
I think there are three or four reasons why there’s a persistent group of deniers out there. Number one, there has been a huge ongoing effort by many of the largest carbon polluters to run a billion dollars every year in advertising aimed at reinforcing skepticism about this. … Secondly, … there is a really large effort that works hand in glove with the point of view of the carbon polluters. Third, the old cliché “Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt” also applies. … And then I guess the fourth element is there’s an ideological group of opponents who believe that any serious effort to solve the climate crisis is going to involve a role for government in limiting carbon emissions….
I see he’s wrong about that too. 🙂 I don’t have time today to make my four suggestions, but the above comments have plenty.
Well to be fair to the man (why not) he did say “the interior of the earth is extremely hot; several million degrees.”
George is about the only one, who got it right. the majority of comments (and the original article) do misrepresent what he said.
REPLY: “sod” Not only are your the worst of the cowardly trolls, never daring to put a name to an opinion, but you are just as wrong as Gore. There is no place in the interior of the Earth where ther temperature exceeds 1 million degrees F/C/K take your pick. Your agreement with Gore on this indefensible faux pau says more about your lack of character than your troll cowardice. – Anthony Watts
OK people, you’re laying it on a little thick. He fumbled a number. Assuming somebody points it out to him, see if he repeats the error.
Gore also once told a UN meeting that “cigarette smoking is a significant cause of global warming” http://a-place-to-stand.blogspot.com/2006/10/cigarette-smoking-significant-cause-of.html
Though the UN censored releasing the speech.
PT Barnum would be embarrassed that this buffoon is making money selling this snake oil What a hag ridden age we live in.
I agree Al Gore should stick to talking about things he knows about. Like inventing the internet.
Could anyone help out here? We need to identify something Al knows about.
A lot of people seem to think that geothermal energy is unworkable. It seems to be a question of where you are. It works just fine in Iceland. They get all the power they need from geothermal, but then it’s a volcanic island.
Maybe it would be worth doing in Hawaii, and if the mainland US really wants to go green, you could turn Yellowstone into one vast power plant.
Just kidding!
Be at peace, my friends. Former VP Gore is from the political class in Washington, DC, having been born into the family of a Senator.
Thus he is incapable of distinguishing thousands, millions, billions, and trillions. To Gore all such terms mean “many”, as in more than the count of my fingers and toes together.
Gore shares another Beltway Insider characteristic: he is infinitely flexible on issues of truth and morals. He will happily espouse whatever he perceives to be popular today, without any regard to accuracy, or any reference to what he said yesterday.
Lastly I observe that Gore does not believe in capitalism. Were there profit to be made from the sale of geothermal energy, we would be buying that energy. The sole restriction on geothermal use is technical. The last time I looked, the flow of heat in rocks was slow (heat removed from a geothermal source will produce a local heat deficit). So what works today will not work so well in 20 years. And the geothermal heat is separated from us by lots of rock (which is why our feet do not fry); the rock is very hard; the costs to drill down to where the heat is are not yet compensated for by the cash value of the extracted heat. The rare exceptions are, of course, where crustal rifts allow the magma to come close to the surface (Iceland, Yellowstone, etc.).
And flashing water into steam, to be used to drive a turbine, in order to generate electricity, is old technology. As is the case with solar energy, our means of conversion to transportable energy are strongly subject to inevitable entropy loss.
If you really want to become an instant billionaire, invent or develop a cheap and durable method of direct conversion of temperature differential or radiation into readily transportable electricity.
Or even a lossless electrical power line. Figure out a way to reflect or capture all that lovely 60-cycle radio frequency emission from our power lines and you will be very wealthy indeed! Maxwell’s laws are such a bore.
listening to him makes me think of being stuck next to someone in a pub after a few pints and having to listen to them talk absolute [self snip]. biggest problem with having to listen to a drunk is that there is no point reasoning with them because alcohol has shut down the reason part of their brain, in fact reason can be responded to with aggression. Can be the same talking to an activist but they don’t have alcohol as an excuse. Tolerable if you have had a few pints yourself but not if you are sober.
carrot eater (06:15:47) :
“OK people, you’re laying it on a little thick.”
If the ridiculing of Al Gore were doubled and squared, it would not come close to the spittle flecked, red faced arm-waving from the alarmist contingent if, for example, Lord Monckton had said the same thing.
Word up, bro.
An English subtitled version of the Finnish documentary featuring Steve McIntyre and Lindzen (and Briffa, Mann and the IPCC’s foibles) has been posted by Transsylvania Phoenix.
Very well done.
http://transsylvaniaphoenix.blogspot.com/2009/11/global-warming-doomsday-cancelled.html
Just in case anyone has forgotten and to renew my non-coward membership:
My name is Steve Stanley Stipulkoski:
I oppose and will fight to my death:
1) government backed central banking.
2) government backed education.
3) world government
4) the ninny, nanny, welfare/welfare state
5) other things
Now back to my nom de plume.
REPLY: Good for you. -A
carrot eater (06:15:47)- “OK people, you’re laying it on a little thick. He fumbled a number.”
He just released a book last week, supposedly non-fiction, describing ways to solve the climate catastrophe, with in-depth discussions of renewable energy such as geothermal. This ‘fumble’ exposes an inability to grasp the magnitude of numbers. It was very illuminating.
Or maybe it was an attempt at humor, by purposely exaggerating the core temperature by a factor of 200. It sure made me laugh…at him.