With Al Gore’s recent re-emergence from the dead with An Inconvenient Truth, Version 2.0, I find myself noting his website, The Climate Reality Project (formerly The Alliance for Climate Protection) countdown clock has a familiar look to it.
It has a simple 3 step plan, for those that have trouble with the more complex steps of choosing reality. I wonder though, if the folks at choose-reality.org are going to file a copyright lawsuit? But reality aside, compare Al’s new web page to these great moments in failure prediction :
The “Doomsday Clock”by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists – hasn’t been right yet.
End of the world, May 21st, 2011, now scheduled for Oct 21st due to “technical difficulties”
Not the end of the world, but just as relevant as Al Gore’s countdown
Get the app, just in case you can’t keep track:
No wonder we are starting to see stories like this one:
Warmers Go Harold Camping On Us
I gotta wonder about his ability to carry a tune though, when Al puts up stuff like this in the “About Us” page of his new project.
If it isn’t our fault, but our problem, then who’s fault is it? Oh, and that “And with your help” is code for “donate”.
And when you visit the donate page you get an address:
Want to donate by mail?
Write a check to “The Climate Reality Project” and send it to:
The Climate Reality Project
901 E Street NW, Suite 610
Washington, DC 20004, USA
Guess who else shares this address:
http://www.pewenvironment.org/about-us/contact-us/
Al Gore 2.0 – just as credible as any other pollster donations solicitor doomsayer.
You didn’t mention Prince Charles. His regular doomsday pronouncements never come true either.
Malthusians have long since given up on natural resource depletion doing the culling they are sure is necessary and desirable, and are prepared to take a direct hand. Hm, energy starvation, yeah, that should get rid of a few billion! Then, with reproductive permits issued only to carefully selected Alphas, Betas, and Gammas …
Add the Climate Reality web page to the “Climate Fail Pages”
Why can’t these people get real jobs and do something productive rather than beg for a living?
Here’s a tax increase for you, anyone that begs for a living…..(Al Gore, pan handlers, Jerry Lewis, …) should pay an additional %10 income tax. There, send that up to the repubs and Barry, maybe that could be their compromise!!!
The PEW Charitable Trusts (PCT) is the largest contributor to the Tides Foundation, set up by Drummond Pike and with Wade Rathke (founder of ACORN) on the board. If one studies all the tentacles of the movement, the emerging image is of Progressive Collectivism, Social Justice, and extreme Leftists agendas. But we knew that, right?
No one over the age of 12 admitted …
It’s annoying that the AGW proponents have hijacked climate realism which has heretofore been a sceptical nomenclature as here:
http://climaterealists.com/
Perhaps that is a sign of AGW failure ?
Of course it’s Orwellian NewSpeak. “Choose Reality” means rejecting reality and choosing the models’ doomsday forecast. Anyone who chooses the reality of actual measurements of the actual planet has no choice but to be highly skeptical of the AGW hypothesis.
I think it is a good move for Gore to become the Harold Camping of Climate Change. Camping’s followers have proven to be much more resilient to reality than the general public and even some of his former alarmist groupies, he’ll now have a base to work from.
And don’t forget Homer Simpson’s doomsday – next Wednesday at 3:15 pm. Oh wait, Al used the same method:
Add the number of degrees in the Russian heatwave to the current CO2 levels and subtract 350.org. Multiply this number by the difference between the number of rings in Mann’s hockey stick, and the number of hairs remaining on his head. Adjust for the difference between the rise in sea level since 2003 and add the sine of the angle at the top of the 1998 El Nino peak. The answer: 12151272012. Translated to 12:15 on the 127th day of the year 2012. Don’t forget your raincoat – or suncream, or something.
I’ve put a couple of comments on their blog.
Wonder if they will get through moderation ?
My response (and donation level, too, I suppose) is a deep gutteral laugh. That’s it. That’s all they’re worth.
“Why can’t these people get real jobs and do something productive rather than beg for a living?”
because, thanks to the taxpayers’ generous donations, it is far more lucrative to be a parasite than a producer, and no taxpayer ever has or ever will take any responsibility for the damage he pays for. not only that, but they contort themselves absurdly in attempts to argue that any nickel of their tax dollar that they get something out of is worth it all. they won’t ever stop paying or complaining about the obvious harm and waste because they are self-trained – autodidactic sheep. they are in denial about how predation is made possible, sustainable – rewarded and encouraged (taxpayer financing) or where the buck stops (with the taxpayer who finances the damages).
‘taxpayer’ should be regarded as an epithet – an incredible calumny. payers of taxes should feel nothing but shame for what their hirelings have done. taxpayers should be blamed for these problems. it won’t stop until they stop or are bankrupted. we’re almost there. at that point, taxpayer’s job is done- we’ll have 5 year plans for recovery every year thereafter – and never will recover.
thanks, taxpayers – you’ve farked the whole world.
Call to Mark Morano:
In anticipation of Al Gore’s Semi-Live Aid (for the Planet), perhaps Morano, through Fox News or something like that, could put a public call for a debate with the Gore a week before his 24-Semi. The concept that afterwards Gore will be able to ship the video as “Al Gore Destroys His Foe and Prepares To Save Earth”. Gore, with slides, is asked to set up to destroy every line of reasoning Morano has in his slides. And nobody does anything but keep “Morano” from fighting, crying or having a heart attack under the relentless purity of The Great Leader, Al.
Give Gore all the benefit possible. And if Gore is too busy, then Gore nominates a “second” to stand in his place. Same then with Morano. The assumption is, of course, that Morano is an idiot and Gore, brilliant. Let the warmists have that starting point. The fall is greatest for those who choose the highest ground.
Each night Fox reports on the response from Gore. Starting now.
It is not a stretch to call the CAGW debate a type of war. There are large numbers of “troops” well paid by taxpayers to fight, with a great amount of probable harm economically and lifestyle-wise. to more. Personal freedoms of movement are at stake – already the freedom to express yourself has been compromised by mainstream powers in lockstep with the meme. Global societies are in a war, civil and national (look to Britain’s attempts to force American airlines to buy carbon credits prior to using their airspace/airports).
The greatest problem in warfare can be to get the enemy to face you in open combat. Time to force Gore to step from behind the trees into the open meadow and find out what sort of (semi-) man he is. Call it “Last Man Standing: the Gore-Morano Climate Change Debate”, have Gore positioned as the Clarence Darrow of his time. Personally, I see him more as the Joe McCarthy, Morano, the Edward Murrow of his day.
Speaking of which, this clip from Murrow’s summing up of McCarthy in Murrow’s March, 1954, program, is appropriate to what is happening today with Gore:
“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men. […]
We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.” (Wikepedia quote on Joe McCarthy)
Larry Summers White House Memo
http://www.ascension-publishing.com/BIZ/WH-loan-guarantee.pdf
NOTE: The Renewable Energy Loan Guarantees and Grants are set to expire (sunset) on Sept. 30, 2011
James Sexton says:
July 13, 2011 at 7:11 am
“Why can’t these people get real jobs and do something productive rather than beg for a living?”
Because people like Big “G” Al make some SERIOUS bank off of the gullible.
There’s one born every minute ya know.
When it gets to zero will Al Gore explode?
No doomsday list would be complete without Y2K .
Didn’t Al Gore say about 5 years ago that humanity had 10 years to do something about global warming or it would be too late? When the date comes shouldn’t he go way? There won’t be anything left that he can do, since it will be too late.
Well here’s one thing for sure – with all the doom & gloom people making predictions every day of the year for whatever future dates they calculate, at least one person is bound to “get it right” by pure coincidence.
Brian H you should add only ”Light Skinned” “Alphas Betas and Gammas”..
Having Native American and Barbadian ancestry. In amongst the Scots-Irish and Swiss..
i think its spelled “Climate ReAlity Project”….
Semi-OT but still relevant: Can folks please go weigh in on http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/12/on-experts-and-global-warming/? The author argues that “we non-experts” should not question the “global warming experts”.
I do not presume to suggest what people should say, but a lot of people appear to be reading that blog, and comments seem to indicate a fundamental lack of understanding of the scientific method. Perhaps some of the scientists/engineers who post here would care to comment….
Guess who else haunts the halls at that address?
Corporation For Public Broadcasting
901 E St NW Washington, DC 20004-2037
(202) 879-9600
Eeeeeek!!!
I think that should be “Al Gore 2.0 – just as credible as any other
pollsterdonations solicitorbeggardoomsayer.Politics aside, I find it humorous, as well as fitting, that Rush Limbaugh posted the “Al Gore Doomsday Clock” on his home page – http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/today.guest.html . This was established following Gore’s doomsday prediction at an NYU Law School speech in January 2006:
“Many scientists are now warning that we are moving closer to several ‘tipping points’ that could – within as little as 10 years – make it impossible for us to avoid irretrievable damage to the planet’s habitability for human civilization.” – http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Al_Gore#NYU_Law_School_speech_.282006.29 .
Unfortunately for Gore, his prophecy fails to align with the more alleged yet wildly popular Mayan one about 2012. Now THAT would have been a marketing and merchandizing coup!
These people have simply been channeling one of the infinite number of alternate realities that current theory addresses. All of these dire predictions have happened or will happen in one or more of these “sister” universes. Just not in this one. 😉
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Many-worlds_interpretation
Ah, the irony – it burns.
Give this to Fat Albert, tho’: it’s a brilliant tactic of rhetorical ju-jitsu – co-option of your opponent’s terminology.
I suggest that we realists not use our standard tactic of patiently pointing up the errors of fact & logic. The AGW/Environmental crowd doesn’t just spin, it churns. They are the undisputed masters of this. We genuine realists can’t compete in that arena, nor would we want to, but just this once we should try to come up with a neat ju-jitsu volley of our own and put this back in their court.
I would do it myself, except that I have neither talent nor taste for it, and besides it will probably flop.
UnfrozenCavemanMD says: “Of course it’s Orwellian NewSpeak. ‘Choose Reality’ means rejecting reality and choosing the models’ doomsday forecast. Anyone who chooses the reality of actual measurements of the actual planet has no choice but to be highly skeptical of the AGW hypothesis.”
Well said. Al’s “choose reality” begs the question as to whether AGW is real or not, merely ordering the uninformed reader to “choose” to believe in it. Typical Gore proctoganda.
From the video, it looks like Big Oil and Big Coal.
This kinda worries me:
mrdarcy_pemberley says:
July 13, 2011 at 8:30 am
As a geologist, one thing I’m absolutely sure is that Earth will experience another Ice Age in the not so distant future–and it will happen with devastating consequences–a true “tipping point” if ever there was one. To counter the above AlGorian pronouncement, it is likely that abundant anthropogenic CO2 is forestalling the next Ice Age, so their “irretrievable damage” meme is unjustifiable; indeed, it is possible that they’re trying to destroy the one thing that will delay, nay, might even save the world from the next 100,000-yr deep freeze.
During Gore’s 24 hr live event, Anthony should set up a panel of skeptical experts who could do some live blogging to refute the specious attribution claims that will undoubtedly be made (Russian droughts, Australian floods etc) . With a little publicity and some big names it could be quite a battle of minds. Just a thought.
Oh, I get it. If they have 24 presenters in 24 different time zones presenting on the same day, they can’t possibly experience the Gore effect in every place.
Or can they?
Since P.T. Barnum was right re. suckers born every minute, they are probably going to make another billion for Fat Albert.
I also notice that of the 24 locations chosen, all are at special risk from the “effects of climate change.” Places where they say “extreme weather is already happening.” For example, most are islands or coastal cities.
I don’t blame them for not choosing a place like northern Alberta. It wouldn’t look too good to come to a place where the weather is boringly predictable year after year. No extreme anything, except for the -40 we endure for a good portion of our winters every year. Nope… nothing to see here… move along please.
I just went over to Mr Gore’s web site, and found the following comment on the blog:
“Roz Rogoff July 13th
I’d like to see an experiment on Mythbusters. The guys have access to a very large warehouse. I’d like to see them take the temperature inside the warehouse on a cool night, one where the outside temperature is going down. The warehouse should not be heated.
Then bring in one car, maybe a Model T Ford, and start it running and take the temperature again. Then bring in a Model A Ford (OK I like old Fords), and start it running (this should probably be done by remote control so the guys won’t be asphyxiated).
They gradually fill up the warehouse with cars and generators and coal barbecues (pseudo power plants), and see if the temperature inside goes up. Wanna bet it will. Ask the question, where would the heat go? It doesn’t. It’s captive inside the Earth’s atmosphere. It’s everywhere.
Then they turn all the cars off. How long would it take for the temperature to drop if the building is sealed. I don’t know but probably hours maybe days.
Would that convince doubters that running enough carbon powered engines in a closed environment causes heat buildup? Do ya think?”
This is what we’re up against.
Sorry, but here’s another one:
“Roz Rogoff July 13th
Snow in Atlanta. Tons of snow in New York City. Obviously that disproves Global Warming, right? Well any third grader can explain this by describing the water cycle.
The ocean is full of water. The sun evaporates the water which rises as vapor and gathers into clouds. The clouds are pushed by the wind until they are too heavy and the rain (or snow if the air temperature is below 38 degrees) starts to fall. Simple, huh.
If the sun is hotter, move water would be evaporated and clouds would be heavier and drop more precipitation. But even that doesn’t go far enough. The quantity of water on Earth has been fix for millions of years. The form of it changes. So sometimes there is more ice and other times there is more liquid water.
Right now the ice is melting. Even Greenland is turning green. This is increasing the amount of liquid water in the ocean. More liquid water with increased evaporation of the surface water means more precipitation. Any third grader should be able to present this to the doubting public.”
Those science communicators are doing a fine job. A fine job.
An old saying from George Carlin regarding Doomsday.
The planet isn’t going anywhere, it’s not going to vaporize and disappear.
The people living on it is a different story.
Pew, again! The old man would have an absolute fit if he knew what uses his dough had been put to by the nutjobs who’ve hijacked the foundations.
RE: Roz Rogoff July 13th
“It’s captive inside the Earth’s atmosphere. It’s everywhere.”
Wow… And CO2 somehow releases this “everywhere” heat Roz is describing? I hate to tell him, but a fair battle of the wits this won’t be–they’re complely unarmed. (At least he indicates he’s not going to stay inside the warehose as he runs the experiment until the CO level kills him.)
The return of Gore: He’s back from a Camping trip.
New & improved, version 2.0 (had a software update).
For anyone looking to blue-screen his speech, just holler “What about Elenin?”
You don’t get to choose reality. Reality has already chosen you.
These doomsday clocks make perfect sense to the inmates of an insane asylum on medication and to politicians seeking to increase taxes, regulate our lives and restrict the economy.
James Evans . . .
you just made my head hurt and wish I hadn’t ever passed 3rd grade. Some things I really don’t want to know about people.
The judgement day billboard looks like someone is sitting on the powerline…lol.
John Marshall (06:59): You say that Prince Charles’s predictions fail.
Ha! He said we had 100 months to save the world (in June 2009).
In November 2017 you may have to eat your words, John.
Have a look at the real doomsday clock.
These guys know about warming too…..(Pugh pronounced Pew) some parallels with Al’s shambolic efforts
The Fire Brigade is perhaps Trumpton’s most-recognised feature. Captain Flack’s roll-call was recited in every episode: “Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble, Grub.”[1] with the exception of “Cuthbert’s Morning Off”[2] in which Cuthbert is omitted. They are continually being called out to attend some emergency or other (in many cases to resolve fairly trivial matters); but to Captain Flack’s annoyance, never an actual fire. (One reason for this may be that both fire and water would have been too difficult to animate.) However after “Right men Action Stations”, this doesn’t stop the Fire Brigade absent-mindedly getting out the fire hose and receiving a rebuke from Captain Flack (“No no! Not the hose!”).
As well as Doomsday predictions we have been subjected to the following “predictions”
Upto 60,000 deaths from Swine Flu last winter in UK
AIDS will kill millions
Mad Cow Disease will kill thousands
We also have various health scares as well; so if you smoke or live with a smoker, are a few pounds overweight, enjoy more than 21 units (whatever that is) of alcohol, or eat more than 200 grams of red meat per week, sunbathe, eat sausages or processed meat or any saturated fat or salt, don’t worry about the fate of the planet, you’ll be dead by 2012 anyway!!
The fact some people actually believe this drivel makes me wonder about the collective mentality of the human race
There is an excellent book which should be placed on the national curriculum as required reading, it is called “Panic Nation” by Christopher Booker and Richard North and discusses these scenarios in great detail.
never buy [into] anything til it reaches version 3.0
RE: Roz Rogoff July 13th mythbusters
The Mythbusters example is bogus because no one claims The HEAT from burning gasoline is enough to affect the temperature of the earth. [It certainly isn’t]
The warming supposedly comes from CO2 interfering with the heat radiation into space.
Arrhenius proved long ago that CO2 is a greenhouse gas. There is no debate about that. The debate is if 380/1,000,000 would have a measurable effect on planet earth’s temperature.
So Let’s get Jamie and Adam to put 380/1,000,000 Parts of CO2 in the [glass] warehouse and let sunshine in and see how hot it gets. Then remove the CO2 and measure the difference. I’ll bet it isn’t measurable.
Or how the clock during the 1970’s across the street from the newly formed Department of Energy that was busy counting down the number of days until the country ran out of gas. There estimate was 7 years, but the clock disappeared before it finished its countdown and so maybe that’s the answer to these problems (just quit worrying). Or it could have been President Reagan’s dismantling of price controls on natural gas and then developers went out and found a whole bunch more. I can never figure it out.
netdr says:
July 13, 2011 at 12:43 pm
I’ll bet it isn’t measurable.
=======================================
It looks even sillier when you write it this way…..
The CO2 increase, since the Little Ice Age, is 0.01
When he or some other person shows me rising atmospheric infra-red after these past scores of years’ telling me the G.H.G. Effect was gonna snuff out civilization,
When he shows me the unending, screaming-bloody-murder- complaits of the infra-red telescopy field over the past scores of years as they’ve told me the G.H.G. Effect was gonna snuff out my future,
When he shows me the never ending saga of the optical telescopy field complaining about the MANDATORY RISE in MOTION – distortion – through their lenses as rising HEAT – everyone knows the definition of heat on gas is MOTION hence distortion – the name of that effect as everyone knows is Atmospheric Scintillation –
the STARS twinkling over Gore’s and all our heads –
When they show me these MANDATORY ELECTROMAGNETIC SIGNATURES in the past several score years as manmade gases have raged ever upward,
Then they’ll have a Greenhouse Gas Effect.
When they establish that atmospheric heat specifically in the infra-red spectrum has risen in the atmosphere
in the face of recent study releases showing atmospheric infra-red FALLING
then they will have that Magic Greenhouse Gas Effect they promise me there but my background in atmospheric electromagnetic transmission capture and analysis shows me in perfect clarity
isn’t there
THEN – when they do ALL THAT
they can convince me this magically missing effect
is going to terminate civilization through yet more magical means.
Until then they have a hypothesis that’s been proven wrong by the fact not one of the instruments we devised will admit to there being any effect at all relevent to their claims.
I’m an atmospheric radiation man. Al Gore’s the nation’s most notoriously out of touch politician whose own wife got so sick of his constant scamming she left him and threatened a tell-all book to shut down his intimidation tactics, which as we see has worked very, very well.
I get so sick of people whose background isn’t atmospheric radiation telling me I don’t understand, it’s quite annoying. There are a half-dozen ways to check whether this magically un-registerable-on-any-instrument-whatever ‘effect’ even exists.
They all: to the last photon – say ‘Nope, nice try, Epic Phale’ to those who purport this illucid magical gas voodoo/crank theory.
The entire Gore movement is nightly mocked by the stars twinkling over their heads.
Again, science kids, what is the definition
of heat
on gas?
M.o.t.i.o.n.
What is the definition of increasing motion in the atmosphere?
Atmospheric Scintillation or the stars twinkling over our heads.
If there is more heat in the atmosphere there must by definition of heat on gas
be more motion hence more distortion, to optical telescopic instruments magnifying atmospheric distortion hundreds of times.
If, that effect hasn’t been growing, then the lie that heat is building in the atmosphere is nothing more or less than that, and the reason, in all these years,
not ONE professor
not ONE student
looking for that BLOCKBUSTER PAPER that PROVES the G.H.G. Effect is real finally
has gone and simply collected 90 or 100 years’ photographs of sections of the sky at similar times of year and compared them to modern photographs through the same or similar instruments
and trotted out the undeniable evidence that since heat on gas is motion
the ‘more heat’ claim mandatory to G.H.G. Hypothesis it isn’t even a theory –
is happening,
is that every time someone tries to do that, the answer comes up “Phale.”
Because there is no climbing heat in the atmosphere.
And the reason the people who maintain the assemblies that flex telescope mirrors to ADJUST FOR that Atmospheric Scintillation aren’t coming forward saying “Yea, 35 years ago we had to flex the mirrors X amount, but now, it’s more, Y amount,
is because there IS no need for more and more flex to adjust for more and more distortion,
because there IS no more heat up there.
Now if one of you has revoked the laws of light and heat then you explain how in all these years’ RAGING upward trajectory of manmade gases,
these fields have either come right out and SAID they find no “climbing atmospheric infra-red” like in the 14 year study most recently in the news finding atmospheric i.r. levels having FALLEN over time
or their utter silence tells a damning, final tale about this magical ‘effect’ being hypothetically alluded to and of course proven not to exist time after time by every instrument faiing to register the proper signatures mandatory to the magic effect’s existence.
It is enough, this pretense there’s no way to check on this hillbilly pseudo-science.
Enough.
We checked,
for YEARS.
It’s not there.
Period.
So Gore can ‘Count Down’ all he wants: Count down to explain why his Carbon Credits are worth effectively nothing
‘Count Down’ to when his wife finally puts out that tell-all book that’s going to have him “finding his spiritual roots” somewhere there’s not so much media freedom like Morocco or Paris, or ANYWHERE except where we know just what to say to him to make him want to throw up at the thought of his now utterly bankrupted legacy,
he can ‘Count Down’ all he WANTS
But he’s not going to intimidate those stars twinkling over his, and his gushing followers’ ill-educated heads into twinkling harder and harder till the Magic Gas Effect shuts down Optical and Infra-Red Telescopy a third or half the time.
That’s not going to be happening.
Not once, not ever. Which is why like I said, the entire field of infra-red and optical telescopy’s deafening silence, is a whole lot louder than those sky-is-falling Bush-like climate ‘terror’ alerts and ‘countdowns’.
Oh Lord this video was cringeworthy. I had hoped for some thought provoking material, but it was really awful. As some one who is a skeptic who believes the climate is warming this was a desperately disappointing film. It’s also going to be so embarrassing when nothing, or very little happens on the day.
When it comes to Doomsday clocks there is one that reflects a very real “reality” and a doom that dwarfs anything the global climate can possibly inflict.
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
We had best hope that “reality” never does break through the world’s gladly shared delusion that dollars, euros, and most of the other fiat currencies out there actually have any intrinsic value. The only difference between those currencies and Zimbabwe dollars is a matter of public perception, or more accurately misperception. The reality is that we are one “Emperor has no clothes” moment away from complete meltdown. All it will take is for one small clear voice to ring out from those watching the passing parade to say ” Wake up people these clowns are asking us to lend them money to pay us back the vig on the money we lent them last month.” Fortunately the human capacity for self delusion is very strong because those voices have already spoken, but the world has, so far, succeeded in ignoring them. Reality is far to grim to intrude.
The Left has for many years now been extolling the virtues of “speaking truth to power” but what we have really needed are political leaders who are willing to speak truth to the people. Sadly any pol who has ventured anywhere near that concept has had a career half life approximately equal to the lifespan of a mayfly. The world is overflowing with organizations dedicated to hectoring us about how unsustainable our lifestyles are, all focused on aspects of our habits which could actually be easily sustained by fairly typical human adaptations, all the while completely ignoring the one aspect of our lives that has proven itself repeatedly to be absolutely unsustainable. That is the notion of a society which provides cradle to grave coddling for those unwilling act on their own behalf on the backs of those who are.
Almost everyone in the world admits that government entitlement programs are completely unsustainable. Such admissions are immediately followed by declarations that, of course, we can’t possibly do anything to change them. Thomas Sowell had a column recently where he suggested the government’s deficit could be seriously reduced if we just quit sending checks to millionaires and billionaires. Social Security and Medicare are the most regressive systems it would be possible to design. Despite all the hype about old folks on fixed incomes, of which I happen to be one, the age demographic of recipients is among the wealthiest in the country. Because the payroll tax is capped, the rich end up paying it at a much smaller rate than all those burger flippers out there who pay the full rate on every nickel they earn. Despite these fairly obvious facts Democrat politicians treat every suggestion that these programs need immediate reform with voluminous declarations that every old crock in the country will end up starving to death under a bridge when they lose the strength to open their last can of dog food, if such a thing is even contemplated
Virtually every other one of the government’s nearly uncountable subsidy programs functions in the same regressive manner. Despite being touted as great benefits for the common man when they were enacted, the real money always ends up flowing to the richest individuals and corporations.
If you go to the Debt Clock site I linked above and do some simple arithmetic, you’ll find that government at all levels will spend $22,000+ for each and every person in the country this year. Is their anyone out there who believes that you and your family derive $22,000 of benefits from government for each of you. And as to the rich not paying their fair share, if you multiple that $22K times the number of members in your household and you’re not paying that amount in taxes, you’re not paying your share and someone else is picking up your tab.
James Evans says:
July 13, 2011 at 9:38 am
Please stop quoting the village idiot 🙂
I wonder how many errors there might be in Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project web site. I just glanced at the page on French Polynesia and learned that “Black pearl exports are responsible for 62 percent of the country’s GDP.” Wikipedia (on a page not yet edited by William Connolley) suggests that the real number is about 4 percent (US$ 0.2 billion in pearl exports from a country with a GDP of about US$ 5.6). Could it be that “climate reality” is an alternative reality?
With Al Gores luck, this will be a PR disaster. I can’t wait!
Sometimes I can’t help but feel a little sorry for the poor bastard. But in a few seconds the feeling passes.
You forgot Andrew Simms, who does a monthly report in the Guardian:
The funny thing is that he is backing away in recent months from the countdown. Funny that. ;>)
We are dealing with a bunch of public opinion manipulating scam artists. FAIL!
Religion, Global Warming and Doomsday go together like straberries, cream and a light sprinkling of sugar.
The ignorance of the average alarmist is amazing to me.
They don’t know that:
1) The amount of warming from a doubling of CO2 is only .4 ° C according to the British Royal society.
“29)
Application of established physical principles shows that, even in the absence of
processes that amplify or reduce climate change (see paragraphs 12 & 13), the climate
sensitivity would be around 1° C, for a doubling of CO2 concentrations. A climate forcing
of 1.6 Wm-2 (see previous paragraph) would, in this hypothetical case, lead to a globally averaged surface warming of about 0.4oC.”
2) Any additional warming theoretically would be caused by increased water vapor but since 1950 water vapor has gone down. So where is the Catastophyegoing to come from
http://climate4you.com/ [greenhouse gasses]
Moreover many peer reviewed studies show the feedback may be negative.
3) The warming of CO2 is logarithmic so each molecule of CO2 causes less warming.
The less people know about science the easier it is for the alarmists to fool them.
4) The oceans are rising at less than 3 MM per year or 1 cigarette length in 30 years.
http://sealevel.colorado.edu/
Since about 2008 the rise has decreased markedly.
nihilism, thy name is Gore…
the world is wonderful…
Interactive: The Night Sky As You Have Never Seen It Before (Must See To Believe)
http://www.norcalblogs.com/gate/2011/07/the-night-sky-as-you-have-never-seen-it-before.php
Dave Wendt says:
July 13, 2011 at 2:22 pm
I assume you are aware of Obama’s latest threat regarding SS payments, but do you know he also implied the same fate for Veterans benefits and military retirement, and implied even military payroll may not be met unless he gets his way? I wonder if he’s been in touch with the BATF lately and been informed of who owns the biggest and most guns in this country? You guessed it – old guys(and gals ) military retiree’s, and active duty military.
What they meant to say (I guess) was, “62 percent of the country’s exports.”
It’s a typo… should have read: Al Gore – Chews Reality.
Andrew Harding says:
As well as Doomsday predictions we have been subjected to the following “predictions”
Upto 60,000 deaths from Swine Flu last winter in UK
AIDS will kill millions
Mad Cow Disease will kill thousands
Well, there were “up to” that many deaths. People grossly underestimate the flu. In 1919 and 1920 the “Spanish flu” killed more than WWI did. We have to take it seriously every time, because eventually a bad strain will re-emerge.
AIDS has killed millions. Or have you not noticed?
Mad Cow has a long incubation time. We have not seen all the deaths yet. In any case if the authorities had not cracked down it would have killed many more. Are you suggesting that they should have just laughed it off?
The international medical community are not alarmists, and should not be connected to the AGW zealots. They are dealing with things that do kill, and that left to their own devices will kill millions. Mocking them is a very foolish thing to do, because it encourages people to get sloppy about public health. Yes, they tend to see danger. But their reaction is not to panic and suggest radical changes in our economies on the “precaution principle”, like the AGW zealots. Instead they suggest firm but limited action and, most important, prepardness (i.e. mitigation).
Al Gore if he does write anything should use an alias. He is so annoying and hypocritical i cant stand it. One day he might realize he is doing more harm than good for his “cause”
IAmdigitap;
Gore’s got his few hundred million$ buffer skimmed from suckers here and abroad; he can duck and cover in comfort when the feces hits the fan. If his ego lets him. As Ms. F. noted, “Al has some problems with blabber control.”
here’s a word for willis-
climate chiliasts!
Armageddon outa here!
Not if we keep encouraging him.
Nuclear doomsday clock: Scientists invent atom bomb then give us stern looks because they think we might use it. Hypocrites.
AGW Doomsday clock: Scientists invent the engine then give us stern looks because we have been using it. Hypocrites.
Scientists: only too happy to take the accolades of success whilst blaming the consequences of misuse on everybody but themselves.
Is it really a valid or even mature way of prosecuting the debate on climate disingenuously to present – even if in jest – Gore’s clock as counting down to some kind of doomsday (a la Camping or 2012) when it’s a countdown to an event ABOUT global warming? Come on. Really.
RockyRoad says:
mrdarcy_pemberley says:
“Many scientists are now warning that we are moving closer to several ‘tipping points’ that could – within as little as 10 years – make it impossible for us to avoid irretrievable damage to the planet’s habitability for human civilization.” –
As a geologist, one thing I’m absolutely sure is that Earth will experience another Ice Age in the not so distant future–and it will happen with devastating consequences–a true “tipping point” if ever there was one. To counter the above AlGorian pronouncement, it is likely that abundant anthropogenic CO2 is forestalling the next Ice Age, so their “irretrievable damage” meme is unjustifiable; indeed, it is possible that they’re trying to destroy the one thing that will delay, nay, might even save the world from the next 100,000-yr deep freeze.
RockyRoad – they’re already hedging their bets on that one.
Earlier this week, I saw a program on History International called “Mega Disasters”, episode title “Mega Freeze”. They started off the program discussing Ice Ages, LIA, MWP, and such, and the societal devastation the LIA caused.
They then proceeded, about halfway through the program, to clearly and explicitly claim that “Global Warming” (They actually used those words) was likely to cause a new Ice Age.
This is a good story and be sure to read the comments.
http://dailybail.com/home/chart-energy-costs-and-recessions-1973-2009.html#comments
Also if you like R&B this gem is priceless. Even moreso the research material contained in the comments…
http://dailybail.com/home/song-green-energy-blues.html
Wind Costs: Connecting Some Dots
http://www.masterresource.org/2011/07/connecting-dots-wind-costs/
What’s all this obsession with doom?
RoHa;
It’s the only game with real stakes.
Gore’s clock isn’t about doom; it’s counting down to a day of activism. The comparisons with doomsday predictions are completely irrelevant and dishonest.
Thanks for your comments Mooloo.
I re-read my post and I did not make it clear that I was talking about the UK.
Liam Donaldson our Chief Medical Officer stated there could be 60,000 deaths due to swine flu in the UK last winter. There were (sadly) 580, ie less than 1% of Donaldson’s estimate.
AIDS has killed 20,000 UK citizens, which is a tragedy but nothing on the scale that was predicted in the 1980’s with TV advertisements showing tombstones and predictions of the end of the human race.
There have been 168 deaths from vCJD not the thousands predicted and the rate at which these deaths is occurring is slowing down.
I agree with you with regard to public health messages ( I am a dentist), but I mock these messages when they mock my intelligence. I agree that smoking is bad, but to claim bartenders are dropping like flies due to second hand tobacco smoke, that 100,000 hospital admissions a year are alcohol related, defy common sense and observation. People just switch off and like the boy who cried wolf, ignore the serious messages. I agree that the 1918 Spanish Flu was a terrible mutation but as far as I am aware there has never been anything like it before or since.
Some of the health scares are actually counter productive, for instance; exposure to the sun.
Parents are sending their children out to play in the summer wiith full bodysuits and hats with a flap to cover the neck after giving them a covering of white suncream for good measure. The child does not want to go out to play because he/she is too hot, feels sweaty and greasy, and looks ridiculous. Less exercise and running about means more obesity, less exposure to sunshine means less vitamin D, leading to rickets (on the increase in UK) in children and osteomalacia in adults. Vitamin D deficiency has been linked with breast cancer and MS which are both on the increase. A health message intended to prevent malignant melanoma leads to increased risk from other health problems.
I disagree with you about about health researchers and climate researchers, they both have self interests and ignore research and results that would jeopardise those self interests. The anti-smoking reseachers could not find a statistical link between ill health in non-smokers and exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke so they manipulated the data by producing metadata, which showed that secondhand smoke was dangerous. The climate warmists do exactly the same thing, they only publicise the data they want us to see or that they have manipulated without being found out.
They also try to create panic and therefore justification of their own existence by exaggerating their claims (the Costa del Sol should now be a desert, the UK will have heatwaves and snow will be a thing of the past, tobacco smoke causes 100,000 deaths a year).
With scienctific research nothing has changed in the 500 years since epicycles (an orbit within an orbit) were postulated to occur in planetary movement because the circle was divine and the planets had to orbit in circular paths not ellipses. As observational technique became better, more epicycles had to be added to planetary movements to account for their movements. No-one dared to say that observed planetary motion could be explained by elliptical orbits, if they did they would be burned at the stake.
Move on 500 years; “global temperatures are increasing and it is a travesty we cannot measure it”. “It is heresy to say that Man Made Global Warming is not occurring”. I cannot see any difference between then and now, apart from the research grants got bigger, disbelievers get ridiculed instead of burned and the general public are treated like overtaxed and over-regulated fools.