Al Gore’s “Climate Reality Project” was launched on July 12th with great media fanfare, lots of interviews, and press all over the planet. It is heralded by some of the faithful as Gore 2.0, the second coming.
Only one teensy little problem…on the week I cut back on blogging to work on my business, WUWT still beat Al in global daily reach on the day of the launch, and his trend has been downhill ever since.
It looks like Al is throwing a big expensive party, but nobody is staying beyond the first hour when the Hors d’oeuvre’s run out. Here’s another graph showing daily traffic rank.
Alexa doesn’t plot values below 100,000.
Reality bites manbearpig. My little blog with no big bucks funding from big green and a band of volunteers gets more traffic on the day of the great announcement from Al. Believe me, I was surprised as you are.
Yeah I know, defenders will chatter on about how Alexa is unreliable, blah, blah, but given the blip of press coverage we’ve seen and little follow on afterwards, the numbers do reflect what we see in practice.
Plot the data yourself here:
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/climaterealityproject.org+wattsupwiththat.com
Maybe people are just tired of countdowns to doomsdays that don’t seem to happen.
I’m sure Al got no help from the May 21st end of the world countdown stupidity that never materialized while the world at large uttered a collective “told ya so!”.
There were hundreds of doomsday countdowns all over the web for that. Al has one too:
Al’s countdown message and track record isn’t that different from Harold Camping’s.
In fact, they don’t look that different while delivering their message in these two photos:
With Camping’s failure, rather than admit he’s just whacked and nobody but the gullible believed him, the date is pushed into the future. Al has the same problem, skepticism is on the rise, book sales are down, bookings for $175,000 a pop lectures are drying up, the Chicago Climate Exchange is dead, and Kyoto is effectively dead. Time for Gore 2.0.
But, nobody seems to be buying it now except the faithful. Will anyone actually care on September 14th?
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Glycerin will do the same thing, but without any sting. Stops and reverses gum disease rapidly, too. Also psoriasis, sunburn, etc. It even tastes good. (Diabetic sweetener option; no impact on blood sugar or insulin.)
Wow. Sounds like a great candidate for a guest post. Is he up for it?
To add insult to injury, a lot of the traffic on Al Gore’s site was probably WUWT readers. I know I only checked it out after reading the announcement here.
I would agree there was an immediate curiosity with the poor saps rhetoric in confirmation of his gory lore. The media is sensationalistic. No drama, no viewer, no add support.
As others have commented, it is a message problem and only a few hard line believers are buying the message sold, no matter how the MSM continues to distort reporting.
In the UK, it has been trumpeted that we have had one of the driest Springs on record, and reported that we have had one of the warmest Junes on record. These have been prayed in aid of the manmade Global Warming thing.
There has been no analysis behind this. It is tue that June was statistixcally hot but this was only because we had a 4 or 5 exceptionally hot days. If those days were removed, June would have been average if not cooler than average. It is now more than half way through July and July has been cold and wet.
When the figures are in, I bet that this will turn out to be a wet summer (there are already comments in the newspapers that summer is over and that it may be wet for the next 40 days). This will balance out the very dry Spring. However, I doubt that the MSM will run with such a story to put some balance into the debate. However, people will remember that yet another BBQ summer has gone by in yet another washout.
Likewise, I bet this will turn out to be a below average July. Once again, I doubt that the MSM will run with that and will point out that the cold July balances out the warm June. However, poople will remember that the summer disappointed.
The real killer for the AGW crowd is the increasing cost of energy. Todate, the green agenda has been creeping up and people have not appreciated how much this is costing them nor what disastrous effects it has had on the economy. However, given the perilous state of the UK economy, the squeeze on wages and the ever increasing cost of energy, people are beginning to realise the costs of this green agenda. When this hits home, people will rebel against the mantra and this will be especially so, if another couple of cold winters follow.
If the Earth (for whatever reason) is in for a cooling spell when people canno longer afford to heat their homes as warm as they would like due to the escalating green taxes, very quickly people will flock away from the green mantra and the green message will become even harder to sell. I can see the prospects that within a few years few people will believe the type pf message being spun by AL Gore and his like.
If Al Gore made an announcement that Jesus was the Messiah, somehow, some way, too many Christians would point out how he’s incorrect. Al can be an insufferable know it all, and he’s caught on to the best insufferable know-it-all issue ever. But, you know the thing about insufferable know it alls, is they actually usually KNOW quite a bit.
Only 37k friends on Facebook? Heck, “The One” has 22 mil or so. Al has millions to spend on ads. One of his young FB fiends/friends should be able to get some of those bucks and get Al set up with FB ads and skyrocket that piddly 37k number.
Also keep in mind that anytime Al’s team posts anything on his page that all 37k “friends” get a note on their feeds. Better than email, by far.
Beliefs? Al’s lifestyle makes him an easy target for those of us who wonder what his beliefs really are, though I think Al believes much of what he preaches, I think he’s a pretty good preacher and knows how to inject plenty of fire and brimstone into his talks.
Roger Carr,
I’ve had a recent experience that I think that may partly substantiate the validity of your Uncle Mandy’s coal mine byproduct sales pitch. I was getting my hair cut last week and the barber noticed I had some scalp flaking. He recommended I buy TGel shampoo, rub it in good into the scalp, and do this twice a week for a couple weeks. So I traipse off to CVS, notice they have a CVS generic brand and I read the TGel and CVS contents to make sure I’m buying the same thing. The shampoos contain Coal Tar (0.5% – 1.0%) and that’s their main selling point! It’s recommended for psoriasis, seborrheic dermatitis and dandruff. The shampoo has a very strong chemical stench and stings your eyes if you’re not careful.
Small world.
Unfortunately, mentioning his pasty little site is probably gonna add a nice spike to his Alexa numbers.
It would be fun to organize something like that, for an hour or so. But then we would make the news as some sort of “denial of service attack”.
Forgot quotes around Alexia’s text…sorry.
He will reappear hardcore this year. Like every good profiteer. He clung to Katrina, and now he will cling to the heatwave.
ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GRAPHS THAT I HAVE EVER SEEN! Finally the common man through blogs, love for truth and the marvelous availability of the information of the Internet are getting more audience than the traditional corrupted by politics mainstream media and academia! WONDERFUL! There is hope when one sees such a beautiful thing! Congratulations to Mr. Watts, to the WUWT team and, of course, to the people that comment on WUWT!
Re: what Jeremy says:
July 18, 2011 at 7:14 am
“That has some ring of truth to it. However, if people are not reading your content but simply friending you… well how meaningful is that? Friending/Following just isn’t as telling as visits and clickthroughs in terms of how much your content is appreciated.”
We know by now that everything he says isn’t so much about the content as it is a call to action to be part of a kewl happenin’ movement, “choose reality!”, and “save the world zomg!” Never underestimate the power of a social movement. From the looks of this campaign, he’s planning to time this with what he thinks will be a new arctic ice minimum as a big dramatic attention grabber to regain moral high-ground, and then use that occasion to “expose’ the evil deniers. This is all about marketing and politics. But it also is shaping up to be a very divisive and destructive ginning up of well-meaning people.
amoorhouse says:
July 18, 2011 at 7:54 am
“However he is up against the whole class, gets shouted down a lot and (get this) gets accused of being a communist. The teacher noted that WUWT must be “one of those web sites that fakes their data”.”
Your son is to be commended for his courage in speaking truth to power. Please send him my best wishes. Please let him know that this may not be the last time he has to stand up to bullys and fools and that life can be tough.
anderlan says:
July 18, 2011 at 10:04 am
“If Al Gore made an announcement that Jesus was the Messiah, somehow, some way, too many Christians would point out how he’s incorrect. Al can be an insufferable know it all, and he’s caught on to the best insufferable know-it-all issue ever. But, you know the thing about insufferable know it alls, is they actually usually KNOW quite a bit.”
Never happen as he obviously thinks he’s the Messiah.
Of course it would suffer a fall in visitor numbers. The Science is settled after all, and has been for a long time and the world is adapting to its new climate. New York City just recently accommodated its 10th batch of 4 million climate refugees, with room for plenty more.
Chateau Gore, near the summit of Mount Whitney, recently had its sea walls increased at a cost to the taxpayer of 25 Billion dollars. Sea level is definitely going to rise by a further 146.731 metres by next Tuesday lunchtime and Al doesn’t want any repeat of when his favourite sneakers got wet while attending the offices of his carbon trading empire. Nor would like a repeat of when the periscope on his 16by16 Hummer was damaged by wind turbine blades as he attended the christening of his 4,273rd grandchild, Gorena the 53rd.
Meanwhile, at Gorical University, students continue their studies on computer models of polar bear cubs. Early indicators are that their survival inside test-tubes of soda pop at 47’C (the new average winter temperature of Greenland) is extremely limited. This is absolute proof the Exxon Mobil used 5 year olds inside treadmills mills to power their oil refineries – after the kids’ 3 year apprenticeship in the sludge pits of Alberta. Other research involving bits of coral and car battery acid conclusively prove that the Koch brothers really did have a spiky tails, horns and the brains of a lizard. (I only managed to glean that information by using the 10 million dollar inheritance from a recently expired relative of mine and wind turbine pioneer to breach the pay-wall at Gorical Uni – don’t tell anyone else OK?)
As the latest photos from the orbiting International Gore Station show coral atolls disappearing at such a rate even Google can’t keep count(the number itself isn’t big enough), word is spreading that the Great Big Gore himself will appear in a 10 day TV and internet spectacular to rename Tuvalu as Waterlu. Even sceptics around the world are clambering out of their gas chambers and getting their tattoos removed in a faint hope of being able to purchase the 12,500 dollar tickets for this great event.
Ha ha suckers, CO2 will change the world’s weather before that happens.
Inconvenient Al.
“Reveal the deniers!” Ha! We should have a similar slogan: “Expose the Deceivers!” “Reveal the Carbonazis” or what sounds best. Don’t let them do all the talking, ask all the questions, go on the attack! Let’s swamp these global “action points” with Gore’s volunteers with armies of Skeptics. We should be called “Science Believers” or REAL Scientists!” Call them “Science Deniers!” Never give in, never, never, never to deception coming from the likes of Globalists like Albert Gore!
They are so wrong.. We are up up for one hell of a winter i believe.. It is just a gut feeling, no science to back it up.. But the summer is so awfull here in Holland, like almost 5 degrees below normal for days now and so much rain.. Zoetermeer got pounded with 98.8 mm in one day (last thursday) wich is alot! Spring was dry, now mother Nature takes care of it.. I have never seen so much rain in summertime as this July 2011 in the Netherlands.
This is bad chakra.
Good post Mr. Watts. Really sums up what is important to you, using an issue to have high blog traffic.
REPLY: Good comment Mr. F. Really sums up what is important to you, being an anonymous, humorless troll with nothing to contribute except snark. – Anthony
This gets better and better.
Here is a screen grab from the Facebook Page.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/845/63910162.jpg/
They sent out 41,991 event invitations from a list of people who have liked or joined something previously, a very targeted event invite.
No’s are running 2 to 1 against accepts, or 3% acceptance rate. Which actually means just 1 in 30 of previous followers are willing to click a button and not actually having to do anything, except feel good about themselves.
Over 90% not responding, which is unlikely to change. Most responses occur in the first 24 hours.
Is that New Media enough for you Chris D.?
Didn’t you report on climaterealityproject.org the day it started? I’ll bet the peak was due to all your readers checking it out to see if there was anything scientific there.
How about a follow-up report to see if there is another bump in the graph due to his report today.
[snip – take it offline – email sent to Mr. Wiese so he can address you directly if he wishes ~mod]
jeez, I gave your screen cap a look and am wondering what how you arrived at: “No’s are running 2 to 1 against accepts”?
6,368 attending
1,333 maybe attending
37,995 awaiting reply
2,663 not attending
Anyway, thank you for the link! It will be interesting to see how well your prediction holds up as the event draws closer.