Al Gore Tells Harvard Students ‘Assault On Science’ Threatens Humanity’s Survival

From The Daily Caller

9:54 AM 05/30/2019 | Energy

Michael Bastasch | Energy Editor

Former Vice President Al Gore said President Donald Trump’s “assault on science” threatens “the capacity of the human species to endure” on Earth.

Gore issued his warning in a speech to Harvard University students and faculty Wednesday, stressing “reason” and “rational debate,” indeed democracy itself, were under threat from the “ideology of authoritarianism.”

Science “is now being slandered as a conspiracy based on a hoax,” Gore said, likely referring to a 2012 Trump tweet where he called man-made global warming a “Chinese hoax.”

WATCH:

“The subordination of the best scientific evidence to the cynical greed of those buttressing the power of a would-be-autocrat is yet another strategy for controlling policy by distorting and suppressing the best available information,” Gore said.

“So the ideology of authoritarianism is not only a threat to democracy in America, now because of the attacks on climate science, it has become a threat to the survival of human civilization as we know it and even potentially to the capacity of the human species to endure,” Gore continued.

“In order to solve the climate crisis, we must solve the democracy crisis,” Gore said.

While Gore, a Harvard alumni and producer of two films of questionable accuracy on global warming, did not refer to Trump by name, the former vice president’s message was clear.

“The system of checks and balances that has protected the integrity of our American system for more than two centuries has already been dangerously eroded,” Gore said.

Gore, however, also went after social media, which he claimed is driven by “surveillance capitalism.” Gore said social media “enhances cynicism and magnifies divisions” that erode society. (RELATED: Supreme Court Asked To Hear Case Involving Leaked ‘Climategate’ Emails)

Former U.S. VP Gore at Nobel Peace Prize Forum in Oslo

Former U.S. Vice President and 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore speaks this year’s Nobel Peace Prize Forum, in Oslo, Norway December 11, 2018. NTB Scanpix/Heiko Junge via REUTERS.

Gore went on to blame rampant flooding and tornado sightings in the Midwest on man-made global warming, echoing recent attempts by Democratic presidential candidates to do the same in Iowa.

“Speaking of wind, the winds are increasingly destructive in our world,” Gore said. “Yesterday was the thirteenth day in a row when multiple tornadoes touched down in the United States — 500 this month.”

“Hurricanes have become much stronger. Today, the Arkansas River is four feet higher than the all-time record flood stage. The Mississippi River is setting records as the longest flood ever. Thirty-nine million Americans today are at risk from flooding,” Gore said.

Gore also implored Harvard to divest its endowment from fossil fuel holdings, comparing it to the 1980s campaigns to pull investments in South Africa during apartheid. Gore has often compared climate activism to the anti-apartheid, civil rights and abolition movements.

“It was immoral to continue investing in apartheid,” Gore said before going on to accuse fossil fuel companies of using the tobacco industry’s strategy to keep the American public ignorant of climate science — a narrative pushed by some liberal media outlets.

“The American people have been the targets of a massive, well-organized and lavishly-funded campaign of disinformation, designed to spread doubt and confusion and prevent the formation of a political consensus necessary to adopt new policies to save the future of human civilization,” Gore said.

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Spuds
May 31, 2019 10:07 am

Looks like Al (my family made a fortune in the coal industry) Gore never took an Earth Science or Geology course. How else could he explain the climate changes that went along with the 4 major Ice Ages?

KcTaz
Reply to  Spuds
May 31, 2019 11:23 am

If memory serves, he did take a course in Natural Science in which he got a D. He revealed his college grades when he ran for President. At the time, everyone laughed at his grades because they were below those of GWB who was alleged by the media to be stupid.

Joel Snider
Reply to  KcTaz
May 31, 2019 12:16 pm

Yeah – and this guy’s speaking to (supposedly) the best up and coming minds.

Irony abounds.

Bryan A
Reply to  KcTaz
May 31, 2019 12:27 pm

“The American people have been the targets of a massive, well-organized and lavishly-funded campaign of disinformation, designed to spread doubt and confusion and prevent the formation of a political consensus necessary to adopt new policies to save the future of human civilization,” Gore said.

Well I am gobsmacked…Al Baby is admitting the truth (with a slight spin to subvert the nature of it’s true culprit)

MarkW
Reply to  Bryan A
May 31, 2019 1:37 pm

I’m still trying to figure out how returning to the temperatures the world enjoyed during the Medieval Warm Period is supposed to end life on this planet.

Greg
Reply to  Bryan A
May 31, 2019 1:52 pm

stressing “reason” and “rational debate,” indeed democracy itself, were under threat from the “ideology of authoritarianism.”

Yes. Right with you on that one Al.

william Johnston
Reply to  Greg
May 31, 2019 4:10 pm

Darn, he is good. Stupid but good!

greg
Reply to  Bryan A
May 31, 2019 1:56 pm

“The American people have been the targets of a massive, well-organized and lavishly-funded campaign of disinformation”

I guess we are talking about the billions per year going into oxymoronic “consensus” science. Or maybe billionaires funding films full of lies and videos by incompetent TV clowns posing as scientists which have to be edited post-production because they don’t work.

Yep, lavishly-funded campaign of disinformation, to be sure.

Admad
Reply to  Bryan A
May 31, 2019 11:49 pm

Bryan A – plus several gazillion

TBeholder
Reply to  Bryan A
June 3, 2019 5:01 am

It’s the 3rd Law: SJWs Always Project.
More generally, whenever holier-than-thou types are hissing and shrieking about anything, it almost invariably turns out to be either exactly what they do, or within spitting range of that.

TDoyle
Reply to  KcTaz
May 31, 2019 2:59 pm

Gore took his single science course at Harvard when he was an undergrad. His professor was Russ Revelle who was the first scientist back in the 1950s to suggest that CO2 might have somthing to do with global warming. Gore became obsessed with the idea and ran with it. That’s how this whole thing got started. In later years, professor Ravelle repudiated his thery that CO2 might cause global warming, and he was appalled that global politicians were actually adopting policy based on his original discredited theory.

Walt D.
Reply to  Spuds
May 31, 2019 11:46 am

He did win the Nobel Prize for Hypocrisy

Santa
Reply to  Walt D.
May 31, 2019 12:24 pm

It was actually a price for promoting neomarxism/International socialism Agenda.

Reply to  Walt D.
May 31, 2019 4:47 pm

The amazing thing is, every word he said is exactly true, but it was all psychological projection of his own self, party, and belief mob.
I wonder how many layers deep in the psyche one has to plumb to find the place where he and his ilk know they are talking about themselves?

Tom
Reply to  Spuds
June 5, 2019 3:52 pm
BigT
Reply to  Spuds
June 5, 2019 4:06 pm

Isn’t it very inappropriate for him to advance his $$ agenda at a commencement address. He has no class.

Andrew Burnette
May 31, 2019 10:07 am

He probably said all of that with a straight face. What irony! The hypocrisy of that man is astounding.

rbabcock
Reply to  Andrew Burnette
May 31, 2019 11:21 am

He isn’t hypocritical, he is plain stupid. I worked with this guy back in the 80’s.

Dave Fair
Reply to  rbabcock
May 31, 2019 11:36 am

Gore is living proof that family money and political power can overcome stupidity.

Tom
Reply to  rbabcock
June 5, 2019 3:55 pm

You worked with Al back in the 80s? I can’t help but thinking that you could tell some interesting stories. I’ve heard nothing but bad about him.

Reply to  Andrew Burnette
May 31, 2019 11:37 am

Accomplished liars like Gore, the Clintons, and Obama are snakes. They lie with ease and comfort.

Bryan A
Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
May 31, 2019 12:28 pm

Easy enough to tell when they’re lying too, thier lips are moving

Goldrider
Reply to  Andrew Burnette
May 31, 2019 12:17 pm

This guy is waaaaay past his sell-by date. Hope there’s SOMEONE up thayah in Hahvahd Yahd with more brains than he has. Just embarassing.

commieBob
Reply to  Andrew Burnette
May 31, 2019 12:24 pm

The statement, that the assault on science is a grave danger to humanity, is absolutely correct!

Think about it. I leave it to you as an exercise. 🙂

Tom Halla
May 31, 2019 10:08 am

I am so grateful that Gore lost when he ran for president.

Dave Miller
Reply to  Tom Halla
May 31, 2019 11:27 am

I recall with mirth how Gore tried to invade GWB’s personal space, in a very threatening manner, during a televised debate.

GWB chuckled at him, and Gore’s bravado collapsed.

Reply to  Tom Halla
May 31, 2019 11:53 am

Democrats shot themselves in the foot on that one. As they usually do. Despite their claims to the contrary, history tells us Democrats never can muster the moral courage to do the right thing when politics of their ideology gets in the way.

Had they not defended the Sexual Predator in the White House‘s behavior toward a young female intern there, and had they pressured him to resign instead of rallying around him when it was discovered he lied straight into the cameras to all Americans in denial of that sexual harassment, then Vice President Al Gore would have been President Al Gore for the final 2 years or so –1998-2000.

An incumbent President Al Gore likely would have easily defeated the GOP challenger then in November 2000, and the history of the first decade of 21st Century would have played out very differently.

But when it comes down to it, Democrats never can do the the right thing. And Al Gore lost in 2000 because of that. Just as they could never bring themselves to tell Crooked Hillary to bow out in 2016 and let someone else try to defeat the GOP challenger.

In the Liberal mind, politics of their ideology and pursuit of power overrides integrity. And it costs them election after election. But that is their nature.

R Shearer
Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
May 31, 2019 3:15 pm

Someone blew it in other words.

Reply to  R Shearer
May 31, 2019 6:45 pm

Yeah, Monica. 🙂

Roger Knights
Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
May 31, 2019 4:03 pm

“the Sexual Predator in the White House‘s behavior toward a young female intern there”

Triumph of the Willie.

BallBounces
May 31, 2019 10:17 am

I have vowed to keep my climate footprint below that of Al Gore’s, so I’m good.

iflyjetzzz
Reply to  BallBounces
May 31, 2019 11:22 am

ROTFLMAO!

Serous question: Who has a ‘smaller’ CO2 footprint – Al or Leo? I’d love to see someone post the numbers on that contest.

Reply to  iflyjetzzz
May 31, 2019 12:15 pm

Who has a ‘smaller’ CO2 footprint- Al or Sierra Leone?

Reply to  iflyjetzzz
May 31, 2019 12:18 pm

Leo has to keep his physique for his acting, and Leo doesn’t have fat US government pension. Big Al obviously never passed up a free meal. So I’d guess Leo’s carbon footprint is smaller.

Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
June 3, 2019 8:03 am

Leo is a bit of a little wad.

Even with personal chefs & trainers … a bit of a small wad.

Walt D.
Reply to  BallBounces
May 31, 2019 11:48 am

Good idea. Perhaps I ought to sell 10 of my houses, 5 of my cars, 2 of my jets, and 2 of my boats. /Sarc

Earthling2
May 31, 2019 10:20 am

Quote: “Gore issued his warning in a speech to Harvard University students and faculty Wednesday, stressing “reason” and “rational debate,” indeed democracy itself, were under threat from the “ideology of authoritarianism.”

Wow…the headline should have read “Assault on Truth Threatens Humanity’s Survival”. This is real rich from a guy who supposedly represents the CAGW industry.

Al..if you say reason and debate are under threat in our liberal democracy, then let’s have an honest and truthful debate about the science and facts of climate change and what is really going on. I will take all this and you a little more seriously when real discussion and rational debate are indeed upheld. Until then, it is you and your ilk who are the real authoritarians with the way you are lying about the science of climate understanding.

Reply to  Earthling2
May 31, 2019 11:58 am

Considering he made a substantial piece of his $200 million net worth from selling his failing media network to Al Jezeera, which is owned by Qatari government and thus is oil money, the hypocrisy is even richer. Most reports gave it as Al Gore netted $100 Million for his 20% share from that sale.

Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
May 31, 2019 12:20 pm

As I vaguely recall, and I might be wrong on this, I seem to remember watching an interview with him where he was asked about his tobacco farming future.

He stated that he would be giving it up as his sister tragically dies from lung cancer; but not until he found another income.

Climate change seemed to happen along quite conveniently, something few of us would imagine would provide anyone an income, I mean it’s a global disaster so who can make money from that?

Not that any of us would have even thought about carbon credits. And again, forgive me if I’m wrong, but Al Gore seems to have done rather well from carbon credit trading, or something similar.

Funny how things work out.

Reply to  Earthling2
June 1, 2019 6:40 pm

Earthling: there were a number of debates in the early years, all of them won handily by sceptics. The warming proponents, to the last individual, now obey a centralized consensus ordinance to never debate a sceptic. This was the beginning of the warmist canard “the science is settled” therefore debate is a waste of time.

Bill Powers
May 31, 2019 10:23 am

It is actually stomach turning to listen to Alarmists, who are the ones actually assaulting science with their corrupt politics, projecting their crime onto others.

DocSiders
Reply to  Bill Powers
June 1, 2019 4:23 am

Silencing debate? What debate? Reflexive name calling (that ends every attempt at debate) is not debate.

David Irons
May 31, 2019 10:24 am

Like his book, Al Gore’s speech should be labeled science fiction. At least in his book, “State of Fear”, Michael Crighton uses facts to make his case against radical environmental groups. I wonder how many of those Harvard students know that a judge in Great Britain ordered Gore’s film not be shown in schools without disclaimers pointing out the many untruths and exaggerations.

Reply to  David Irons
May 31, 2019 2:11 pm

The storyline of the movie ‘The Blob’ is far better than Gore’s fairy tail!

Dave Fair
May 31, 2019 10:27 am

A practiced liar. It is only wild, speculative coming climate disasters being accepted by the masses that threatens humanity.

Reply to  Dave Fair
May 31, 2019 12:02 pm

The energy and re-distributive policies that are claimed to address that wild speculation are the real disaster-in-waiting for humanity.

The wild speculative claims of coming climate disaster are having real pathological psychological impacts on the younger generations as well. It is just difficult to determine how that will play out over the next few decades.

Dave Fair
Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
May 31, 2019 3:22 pm

I assume rage, Joel, when today’s children realize the price they will have paid in money and lost opportunities.

Loydo
Reply to  Dave Fair
June 1, 2019 12:24 am

Still obsessed with Al Gore? Like a pack of old, angry white men shaking yer fists at clouds. The atmosphere has warmed 0.3 C in the 13 years since 2006 when An inconvenient truth was released. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming#/media/File:Global_Temperature_Anomaly.svg

Bah, humbug.

Earthling2
Reply to  Loydo
June 2, 2019 5:04 pm

You are funny Loydo. From February 2016 to February 2018, “global average temperatures dropped by 0.56 degrees Celsius.”
https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/climate-change-global-warming-earth-cooling-media-bias/

Berndt Koch
May 31, 2019 10:28 am

The projection is strong in this one..

Rod Evans
May 31, 2019 10:29 am

“The American people have been the targets of a massive, well-organized and lavishly-funded campaign of disinformation, designed to spread doubt and confusion and prevent the formation of a political consensus necessary to adopt new policies to save the future of human civilization,”

I wonder if he had Michael E Mann and the other alarmists in mind when he said this?
Perhaps he didn’t realise he was uttering the truth for once.

DocSiders
Reply to  Rod Evans
June 1, 2019 4:38 am

And even thus is a lie…the Petrol Industry has not heavily financed any campaign against the $Trillion Climate Catastrophe Industry.

For the most part, big oil has climbed aboard.

Meanwhile…the government hands out roughly $500,000 annually to EVERY (and mostly new) government climate scientist…who would lose that funding if their “studies” failed to confirm CAGW/Climate Change.

Lies upon lies…the common currency of Socialists (who are the only authoritarians in the room).

xenomoly
May 31, 2019 10:29 am

It’s good to see he is still collecting speaking fees for bullshit.

May 31, 2019 10:32 am

Has he been taking fugly pills?

Reply to  beng135
May 31, 2019 12:13 pm

Only if they are high calories. What poundage he has put on in his dotage!
The guy can get a part-time job as a mo-ai sculpture on Easter Island.
I guess when you are a billionaire you don’t miss too many meals.

xenomoly
May 31, 2019 10:32 am

I have a really hard time accepting the claims of catastrophe given that the planet has had more than 1000 ppm of CO2 for most of the history of the planet and there does not seem to be a causal correlation between CO2 and temperature anywhere in the geologic record.

Moderately Cross of East Anglia
May 31, 2019 10:36 am

If the top picture of Gore really represents the severity of the involuntary nervous tic he seems to have developed then he clearly has more urgent things to worry about than alleged slow motion warming, which is merely cyclical on the balance of evidence so far.

Robert W Turner
May 31, 2019 10:37 am

These neo-Lysenkoists just can’t stop projecting. They are mentally ill.

Bruce Cobb
May 31, 2019 10:38 am

At least he got one thing right: that “reason” and “rational debate,” indeed democracy itself, were under threat from the “ideology of authoritarianism.” You can’t get much more authoritarian than the Green Blob which, in Orwellian fashion continues in its efforts to impose a world government based on lies and pseudoscience, to the detriment of humanity.

Laurence Zensinger
May 31, 2019 10:38 am

And what about the fact that none of his climate predictions, zero. zilch, nada have come remotely close to being accurate. Why should anyone believe anything he says on this subject?

Terry Harvey
May 31, 2019 10:39 am

The American people have been the targets of a massive, well-organised and lavishly-funded campaign of disinformation, designed to spread doubt and confusion and prevent the formation of a political consensus necessary to disrupt new policies to “save the future of human civilization “. There, fixed it.

Joe Crawford
May 31, 2019 10:39 am

Well… as my dad use to say: “Just consider the source.”

laurence Zensinger
May 31, 2019 10:40 am

..and what about the fact that none of his previous climate related predictions have been remotely accurate? Why should anyone believe anything he says on this subject?

John
May 31, 2019 10:41 am

Rational debate? Gore refuses to debate anyone.

May 31, 2019 10:44 am

“The American people have been the targets of a massive, well-organized and lavishly-funded campaign of disinformation, designed to spread doubt and confusion and prevent the formation of a political consensus necessary to adopt new policies to save the future of human civilization,” Gore said.

Yes, and Al Gore is one of the people promoting the misinformation. He is part of the threat.

mark from the midwest
May 31, 2019 10:47 am

I’m still hoping for the day when a major endowment divests fossil fuel holdings, I’d love to pick up some Exxon at 58 bucks a share

Juan Slayton
Reply to  mark from the midwest
May 31, 2019 11:15 am

I’d love to pick up some Exxon at 58 bucks a share

You’ll have to get in line… :>)

Bob boder
May 31, 2019 10:48 am

Was he talking about his assault on science, if so I agree completely with him

May 31, 2019 10:50 am

The irony of his rhetoric is that while he lacks the scientific chops to assault the science himself, he’s certainly one of the biggest enablers of that assault which is led by the IPCC and the false consensus surround its horribly flawed scientific assessments.

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