The Gore Effect kicks in, plus ça change …

Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach

… plus ça same old stuff. Thank goodness somethings never change. For example, the “Gore Effect”, which says that wherever His Nobelity Albert Gore III might hold a Climastravaganza to remind the world of the critical and imminent climate overheating that we can only avert by sending him some more money, it will be way below the average temperature for that location and time.

Heck, even Antarctica can’t resist the Gore effect. Case in point? Big Al, along with the failed serial doomcaster James Hansen and billionaire Richard Branson, are currently in the Weddell Sea, off the Antarctic Peninsula, just chillin’ with the penguins.

Figure 1. Global temperature anomalies, February 2, 2012. Scale is degrees C above or below historical averages for the day.

And when I say chillin’ … I do mean chillin’ …

Both Dick and Al are blah-gging about their trip. Al sez:

As the world warms, its waters are warming, too. Increased temperatures have already led to changes in ocean life. For example, on the other side of the Peninsula, king crabs have invaded an area previously considered far too cold for their survival. The impact of the arrival of these predators, for the first time in millions of years, could be catastrophic for the surrounding ecosystem, which has evolved exotic and unique life forms that have no defenses against crabs.

I know how Al feels, I had the crabs once myself and felt defenceless. Meanwhile, Dick sez:

The planet is changing before our eyes. We are heating it up.

From the sound of it you’d think that they were baking down there in Antarctica, like they’d seen all kinds of warmer than normal temperatures, penguins wearing sunhats, leopard seals changing their spots, or something warm and not all that fuzzy.

But if you look at Figure 1, you’ll see that the area right where they are is running about 15°C (27°F) colder than normal … and normal even in the summer is kinda cold to start with.

Thank goodness for the Gore effect. Just think of what rubbish those jokers would have written if it had been 27°F warmer than normal down there, or 54°F warmer than what they are actually experiencing … we’d never have heard the end of it. They would have blogged every drop of sweat running down the side of their iced drinks on the cruise ship. Glad to see that justice still can prevail.

Regards to everyone,

w.