Al Gore makes a Category 6 level blunder

UPDATE: 8/23/13 1:00PM PDT Its seems there’s blunders to go around. The Washington Post now says they “misquoted” Gore. Given his penchant for saying and doing dumb things in the past related to his views on climate, color me “skeptical”, especially when he makes ugly comparisons about people like he did below. It may be more of a case of some deal was worked out behind the scenes to salvage Gore’s waning credibility. I suppose we’ll never know, but I have asked WaPo to put the relevant audio of the tape recorded session online so we can verify that Gore was misquoted. – Anthony

From the WUWT story yesterday: Al Gore compares climate skeptics to anti abolitionists, racists, homophobes, and alcoholic families

Would there be hurricanes and floods and droughts without man-made global warming? Of course. But they’re stronger now. The extreme events are more extreme. The hurricane scale used to be 1-5 and now they’re adding a 6. The fingerprint of man-made global warming is all over these storms and extreme weather events.

We are used to such feckless bloviations, such as when Gore said on national television the temperature below the Earth’s crust is millions of degrees. or when he adds reverse rotation airbrushed hurricanes to his book to make the weather look scarier.

Today, the Capital Weather Gang at the Washington Post called out Gore for his nonsense.

Jason Samenow writes:

But Gore’s statement about this new breed of hurricanes is patently false. There’s no new  hurricane category in the works.

Just to be sure, I contacted Chris Vaccaro, director of the National Weather Service’s office of public affairs, and asked him whether the National Hurricane Center is about to unveil the doomsday Category 6.  In less than 10 minutes, he fired back this response:

No, we’re not pursuing any such change.  I’m also not sure who VP Gore means by “they.” I’d also point out that the top rating, Category 5, has no ceiling: it includes hurricanes with top sustained winds of 157mph and higher

He adds:

But with his penchant for overstatement, Gore will continue to be a divisive and less than credible voice in climate change discourse.

Read it all here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2013/08/22/the-category-6-hurricane-al-gores-science-fiction/

Good for him and kudos for calling out this nonsense. Every time I think of Gore and Cat6, I think of him as the Stay-Puft man in Ghostbusters rampaging on NYC. The only valid question remaining is, why does anybody still listen to him?

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Geoff Sherrington
August 22, 2013 8:03 pm

If you read VP Al’s book “Earth in the Balance” (1992) there are some equally good laughs. On pp 85-6 You can read that ” …. to protect against ultraviolet radiation. In Patagonia, hunters now report finding blind rabbits; fishermen catch blind salmon. Less well known are the effects of extra ultraviolet radiation on the normal functioning of the human immune system….”
One has to admire the prescience of the Man-B-P, because at the time I was unable to find any systematic, useful, long term measurements of trends of incoming ultraviolet flux at the surface of the Earth anywhere, let alone in remote Patagonia. The story is a fabrication. The immune system story does not appear to be a consideration in modern medical literature, so maybe it was a guess too.

Louis
August 22, 2013 8:36 pm

On the other hand, if they ever do add a Category 6, Al Gore will claim he invented it.

lurker, passing through laughing
August 22, 2013 8:38 pm

Geoff,
In fact the blinded animal story was based on a fabrication.
http://www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2007/09/ozone-the-hole-truth
It would be fun to deconstruct Al Sharpton- er, Al Gore’s- book from 1992 and test it against the reality of time.

Louis
August 22, 2013 8:55 pm

Txomin says:
What do you mean “listen”? I don’t listen to Al Gore. I pray to him.

So what kind of deity do you consider him to be? Is he the offspring of Zeus when he took the form of a boar and mated with a bear? Or is he Saint Gore, the patron saint of lost causes? Oops, Saint Jude has that one taken. Perhaps the patron saint of hypocrites?

August 22, 2013 8:59 pm

Talk about a change in climate.

Eugene WR Gallun
August 22, 2013 10:48 pm

Yes, there is a new category 6 — categories 1 to 5 handle all our minor storms and major hurricanes — but category 6 has been specifically created to handle such massive blowhards as Al Gore. He is a category 6 — no doubt about it.
Eugene WR Gallun

Brian H
August 23, 2013 1:02 am

I would worry if Gore ever happened to say anything that was probably true. Fortunately, it hasn’t happened yet.

Jeff
August 23, 2013 4:39 am

Cat 6: SHARKICANE!!

SasjaL
August 23, 2013 5:05 am

Janice Moore on August 22, 2013 at 5:13 pm
Thanks! But it isn’t difficult in a country that’s sometimes is referred as “The last outpost of Soviet” …

Tim Clark
August 23, 2013 7:23 am

{ Eli Rabett says:
August 22, 2013 at 7:16 pm
However, most storms which would be eligible for this category were from the western Pacific and are referred to as super typhoons, most notably Typhoon Ida in 1958 and Typhoon Nancy in 1961, both with sustained winds of 215 mph (346 km/h), and Typhoon Tip in 1979 with sustained winds of 190 mph (310 km/h).[16] }
So, none for 34 years. Looks like a climate shift. Maybe increasing CO2 is a good omen.

morganovich
August 23, 2013 9:02 am

perhaps he had it confused with the category 6 cables sometimes used for that internet thinkie he invented.

August 23, 2013 10:50 am

2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner.
6 years later, they realize the big goof up. The award should have been:
http://www.burlingtonliarsclub.com/pastLies.html

Gail Combs
August 23, 2013 11:41 am

Mike Bromley the Kurd says: August 22, 2013 at 11:44 am
Why indeed. Because he’s photogenic, I guess. (cough)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
That just has to be followed by THIS.

hunter
August 23, 2013 12:03 pm

Al Gore, the king of climate porn, must seek new frontiers to exploit. Cat. 6, million degrees of heat in the Earth, a global fever….just milestones on Gore’s climate porn highway.

Pamela Gray
August 23, 2013 2:30 pm

Gore says, “…4% more water vapor in the atmosphere compared to 30 years ago.”? More scienificity. Take two data points separated by 30 years and say that is a trend that demonstrates increased anthropogenic caused water vapor. Let me see a show of hands that say this is a valid and reliable method of calculating a linear trend.

August 23, 2013 5:26 pm

I keep hearing about manbearpig, but I never knew what it meant. Thanks to Janice Moore I goggled it and watched the whole episode of manbearpig on south-park, :
http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s10e06-manbearpig
Very funny. Worth watching. You may have to pause to view the whole thing uninterrupted.

August 23, 2013 5:26 pm

Googled it…

August 23, 2013 5:44 pm

I think that the treasure is the Grants that the CAGW scientists get.
Very clever

August 24, 2013 7:52 am

From the WaPo link:

The Gorbacle: “If you look at superstorm Sandy on October 29th, the ocean water east of New Jersey was nine degrees fahrenheit above average. That’s what put so much more energy into that storm. That’s what put so much more water vapor into that storm. Would there be a storm anyway? Maybe so. Would there be hurricanes and floods and droughts without man-made global warming? Of course. But they’re stronger now. The extreme events are more extreme. The hurricane scale used to be 1-5 and now they’re adding a 6. The fingerprint of man-made global warming is all over these storms and extreme weather events.”

But this was also a segment of the interview in which I remembered struggling to keep up with Gore, and when that happens, some nuance can get lost. (A note on methods: In most cases, including this one, I transcribe these interviews in real time, with a tape recorder as back-up. I also, as is always mentioned in the introduction to the interviews, lightly edit for length, clarity, and redundancy).
I’m out-of-town and so away from my tape recorder. So I asked Gore’s staff about the line and they have Gore saying:

“The scientists are now adding category six to the hurricane…some are proposing we add category 6 to the hurricane scale that used to be 1-5. “

=====================================================================
I don’t see much of a difference in the quote/misquote.
In one, he says they are adding category 6. In the other he says some are proposing adding category 6.
Who are the scientist that are “now” adding category 6? Adding it to what? Who are the “some” proposing 6 be added to the scale?
I think Al screwed up so bad even his paid spinners are having trouble making him sound less than clueless.

Potter Eaton
August 24, 2013 7:59 am

7:50 AM PDT
It doesn’t matter what Gore said exactly. The idea is ridiculous on its face. It reminds me of the movie “Spinal Tap” where the lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel brags about the dial on his amp going up to 11. “It’s one louder.”

Potter Eaton
August 24, 2013 8:04 am

I see a lot of people had the same observation long before I did. Serves me right for not reading the thread first.

August 24, 2013 8:28 am

Eli Rabett says: August 22, 2013 at 7:16 pm
2 points:
#1 – There has been a lot of discussion about Unicorns. I guess you are saying they are as real as al gore’s imagination and cat 6 hurricanes?
#2 – Your second grade teacher should have taught you that wikipedia is NOT a reliable source. She probably did, and you were absent that day. Your loss. But here is a freebie – in an adult discussion, try an adult source. Not a make believe one.

August 24, 2013 1:06 pm

Hey Al, I got your catagory 6 right here.

SasjaL
August 25, 2013 1:49 pm

DirkH!
Lost your tongue (keyboard) …?

Patrick
August 26, 2013 5:37 am

As soon as Al “I am wealthy because of fossil fuels” Gore opens his mouth he changes the foot that was there.