UPDATE: In a strange twist, Climate Depot reports that Brochure reveals Gore accurately cited scientist’s prediction of ice-free Arctic — It is the Scientist who has the explaining to do — not Gore
Marc Morano writes via email – This is turning into a war of phrases. Maslowski tells the UK Telegraph: “I was very explicit that we were talking about ‘near-ice-free conditions’ and not ‘completely ice-free conditions’ (as Gore claimed) in the northern ocean.”
Read details here
From the “Inconvenient Truths” department, the Times is reporting that Gore got called out for saying older figures on Arctic sea ice as “fresh” when they were not, and misrepresenting what the scientist actually said. This latest gaff makes three in a row for Mr. Gore, who recently made bizarre claims of the leaked CRU emails being “10 years old”, when there were many, many in the last decade, some in the last month. Gore also recently stated on national television recently that the Earth’s mantle was “several million degrees”, making it likely hotter than our sun.
As indicated by the Times article, his latest gaffe has not gone unnoticed by the MSM.
Excerpts of the Times article:
There are many kinds of truth. Al Gore was poleaxed by an inconvenient one yesterday.
The former US Vice-President, who became an unlikely figurehead for the green movement after narrating the Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, became entangled in a new climate change “spin” row.
Mr Gore, speaking at the Copenhagen climate change summit, stated the latest research showed that the Arctic could be completely ice-free in five years.
…
Mr Gore told the conference: “These figures are fresh. Some of the models suggest to Dr [Wieslav] Maslowski that there is a 75 per cent chance that the entire north polar ice cap, during the summer months, could be completely ice-free within five to seven years.”
However, the climatologist whose work Mr Gore was relying upon dropped the former Vice-President in the water with an icy blast.
“It’s unclear to me how this figure was arrived at,” Dr Maslowski said. “I would never try to estimate likelihood at anything as exact as this.”
Mr Gore’s office later admitted that the 75 per cent figure was one used by Dr Maslowksi as a “ballpark figure” several years ago in a conversation with Mr Gore.
…
“This is an exaggeration that opens the science up to criticism from sceptics,” Professor Jim Overland, a leading oceanographer at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.
“You really don’t need to exaggerate the changes in the Arctic.”
…
[Maslowksi said] “I was very explicit that we were talking about near-ice-free conditions and not completely ice-free conditions in the northern ocean. I would never try to estimate likelihood at anything as exact as this,” he said. “It’s unclear to me how this figure was arrived at, based on the information I provided to Al Gore’s office.”
Read the complete Times article here
Marc Morano of Climate Depot also has a take on it here
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What I would like to know is how long ago did Al Gore get this information about the North Polar ice completely melting within five years? If it was more than five years ago then the Ice cap should already be gone. If it hasn’t been five years then we need to know so we can set our count down clocks.
Gore’s ‘new computer models showing an ice free arctic within five years’ was part of the lead story on TVNZ’s One News tonight….
People trying to get this stuff pushed through know that all they need to do is say it. It doesn’t matter if it’s true or false, they know that the media will pick up the line, forget about the retraction and now a fair chunk of the NZ public is reeling at dinner tables up and down the country.
This guy and his mates are real PITA’s!!
Sometimes I just wish that we could have one person on TV long enough to tell those same people reeling from Al Gore’s latest exaggeration to just go and switch on the family PC and check things out for themselves!! I saw a U TUBE piece the other day with Monkton debating one such person on the street. 10 minutes of ferreting around is all it would take for people to get suspicious enough to click their way to an epiphany of immense proportions!!
One can only dream…..
Caption:
“Former Vice President Al Gore gives his accountant the secret hand signal to dump shares of Generation Investment Management while being fact checked at a press conference last night in Copenhagen”
Since Reed Coray published his anti-Gore poem on this thread, allow me to post my poem, which I also posted on National Review Online (it made the several finalists published). I read Gore’s poem in his latest book and I knew I was a better poet than he is:
From fevered brows
spring acid lies.
Dissent stifled;
fraud prevails in the semantic age.
The shepherd cries
too loudly, methinks.
Louder he cries,
less people know.
Then true disaster,
the loss of liberty,
strikes harder and faster
than lightning upon a dessicate forest.
Beware of charlatans
posing as prophets.
Glenn (21:31:22) :
All good points. It has become a dog eat dog world in AGW politics. Gore probably didn’t think he would be so quickly thrown under the bus. As alarmists try to save face, It seems there is no shortage of busses lately.
Gerald Machnee (20:34:25) :
“Wasn’t Dr. Maslowski in charge of the three hikers to the north pole last spring??”
Yes, and I’m thinking that he gave Gore the “75%” figure over the phone sometime before that. Not to defend Gore, often misinformed and ignorant, but as far as I know, not a liar.
My christmas wishlist, another Al Gore, the gift that keeps on giving.
I think Al Gore might be Joe Biden’s brother. Big mouths, full o’ crap, gaffe machines. Can two people be that full of it and not be related?
Not read the posts. Maybe said. Two items…sort of related.
1) Has anyone kept track of the predictions made by Gore and others… say, going back a few years. In 2007, some Canadian goofs said Arctic ice would be gone by 2012 … something like that. We should start a collection of predictions that have failed. Oh BTW it will soon be 20 years since the first IPCC report. That was full of predictions headed South.
2) Not unrelated. I’ve started (wow two items so far) a list of researchers who keep saying:
A) “The region I am studying has warmed much more than everywhere else.” And
B) There is a similar slant. “This area I am studying is expected to get much warmer than elsewhere.”
We need a good catalog of the silly predictions and statements.
I predict that it will be dark tonight and light again tomorrow. ☺
Cheers!
Clive
Where, as I write, it has warmed to a balmy -31°C. Wow!
Caption:
“Mr. ButterFigures goes to CopenHagen”.
(Way to go, Al, you’re halfway under the bus already.)
I just noticed the tag for this thread: ‘Al Gore is an idiot’
Priceless!!!
Wait a minute!!! You are saying Al Gore is bizarre???????????………………..ok.
Caption competition:
Doh! Brain freeze.
Reported on the front page (online) of the Australian.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/al-gore-faces-own-inconvenient-truth-after-arctic-ice-estimates-revealed-to-be-off-target/story-e6frg6xf-1225810599409
Regards
Michael
Dave Wendt and others about no or little ice on the Arctic Ocean
A positive aspect, I think, is that Polar Bears would have to eat more goose eggs and as there are too many geese – or were a few years ago – this would work toward habitat protection of the far North. I looked this stuff up last spring and posted it but don’t have time now, but it wasn’t hard to find on the Web.
Five to seven years?
Well then, that’s that. By AGW theory we might already have passed one or more tipping points as the permafrost is thawing and releasing methane, besides some other “facts.” Even the IPCC said the warming will continue for quite some time centuries even. Even if we could shut down civilization overnight, which we cannot, there will still be volcanoes, massive fires, and other CO2 sources loading up the atmosphere. Therefore the melting of the Arctic ice is officially inevitable.
Which leads to the caption:
Wow, things are just not working out here. Maybe I should start investing in new Canadian beachfront properties instead.
Fetch that man a geological map showing where the new waterline will be! Don’t forget to figure in the ocean rise!
In Norwegian newspapers now the norwegian foreign minister says that I am “strangely constructed in my head” or something like that, If I dont believe what Mr. Gore’s latest report is saying.
http://www.vg.no/nyheter/utenriks/klimatrusselen/artikkel.php?artid=599182
Of course you cannot understand the text, but…..
-Sealevels to increase more than 1 meter (3 ft) within 2100
( Worst case 2 meters)
-Now its methane instead of CO2….
-They talk about Antarctica melting….hmmmm then its gonna be real hot….
-Oh…the scientists have understood Archimedes’es law….melting of Arctic wont have much to say….good…
Aha; The message is;
I’m stupid if I dont understand that we are in trouble if everything melts down…..I see.
Well, I thought the issue was;
I’m stupid if I dont accept its man-made?
hmmmm….I must be stupid.
Many years ago, door-knocking for his first election campaign, Al Gore visited some remote farms. As he stepped out of his car heading to one farmhouse door, he stepped in a fresh, sloppy, steaming cowpie. Al looked down to see what has caused the sudden stench and slipperiness under foot. “Oh, no!” he cried, “I’m melting, I’m melting!”
Caption contest:
“Why won’t any take me super cereal when I talk about manbearpig?”
Hey, Al baby, if ya need a little ego/cred boost, ol’ Lord Monckton needs a punching bag….er partner for a little discussion over tea and crumpets. I swear, it’ll be just what the doctor ordered. Trust me. I only have your best interests at heart. I’ll even pinky swear to it.
DABbio (19:18:59) :
C’mon, everyone, best caption contest is now open.
“Brain overheating… need to replace cooling unit before everyone discovers I am a Scarran/Sebacean hybrid…”
Hank Hancock (22:10:57) :
“All good points. It has become a dog eat dog world in AGW politics. Gore probably didn’t think he would be so quickly thrown under the bus. As alarmists try to save face, It seems there is no shortage of busses lately.”
I’m more concerned about the scientist’s reputation than in Gore’s accuracy. Maslowski claims to remember the telephone conversation with Gore, that Gore said happened “several” years ago. Seems he doesn’t disagree that he gave some ballpark figure %, but that he would never be so specific with a prediction, and claiming he explicitly referred to “near” ice-free as opposed to “complete” ice-free conditions in 2013. Weasel words.
The problem is that he has, over two years ago. He said “If this trend persists, the Arctic would be ice-free [in the summer] by 2013”. The word “would” indicates not 75%, but 100% confidence. He made no mention of “near” ice-free conditions, but “ice-free by summer 2013”. He also said that prediction didn’t factor in 2005 and 2007 conditions, and has commented on the conditional “if” (the trend continues) as a “projection” on “track” and too “conservative”.
What Wadhams said ““Maslowski’s work is very well respected, but he’s a bit out on a limb,” said Professor Peter Wadhams, a specialist in ocean physics at the University of Cambridge” is liable to be what set him off against Gore.
!!!!!!! AL GORE PEEWEE’d-UP IN COPENHAGEN !!!!!!!
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1586271&l=c3923a469f&id=1468039409
Listening to Sattelite radio on the way home the AP news covered this.
Well 1/2 of it.
The reported Al Gore saying that the arctic will be ice free in 5-7 years.
No follow up on the fact tha tthe guy he says he got his numbers from said no such thing.
Story is now on Foxnews.com. New picture too.
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2009/12/15/inconvenient-truth-gore-claims-dont-add/
The problem with the Warmist Climate Models is that they are using the wrong AlGoreithm