Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Climate Alarmism and Al Gore


The more the position of the IPCC and their belief that humans are responsible for warming the globe up to 1998 and beyond is challenged, the more personnel associated with the IPCC, as well as environmental activists, have resorted to alarmist scares and tactics. Tactics designed to throw maximum doubt on the credibility of any person challenging their assertions. Their statements are also often designed to create a maximum impact emotional response rather than a logical one.

Former US Vice President Al Gore (pictured above) is famous not only for his Oscar winning movie “An Inconvenient Truth" (discussed soon) but for delivering some of the more famous alarmist quotes, that are choc-full of scares. Scares that are often found to be proven false once examined. A small cross-section is shown below: (My emphasis added.)

Some of the leading scientists are now saying we may have as little as 10 years before we cross a kind of point-of-no-return, beyond which it’s much more difficult to save the habitability of the planet in the future,”

It’s (Temperature) way off the charts compared to what those natural fluctuations are,”

Of the thousand largest glaciers on every continent, 997 of them are receding.” “And it’s not seasonal.”

The North Pole is melting.”

The Arctic is warming at an unprecedented rate.

..the entire Arctic ice cap may totally disappear in summer in as little as five years if nothing is done to curb emissions of greenhouse gas pollution.

False: From a low in 2007, two years later the melt is normalising again as seen via the IARC -JAXA satellite sea ice extent data. Also visible on the Cryosphere Today sea ice comparison shot between 2007 and today in 2009.

Melting of the Greenland ice sheet has reached a new record.

Glacial earthquakes have been increasing as the meltwater tunnels down through the ice to the bedrock below.

False:

“Temperature increases are taking place all over the world, including in the oceans.”

False: As seen here by the data recorded from the 30,000 Argo buoys on the worlds oceans.

On the topic of Hurricanes:

“people should expect more Category 4 and 5 hurricanes if the ocean waters continue to warm.”
- A number of new studies continue to show that climate change is increasing the intensity of hurricanes. Although we cannot attribute any particular storm to global warming, we can certainly look at the trend.
False: As per this data from NOAA:


And this from the article: Are Rising CO2 Levels And The Increase InAtlantic Major Hurricanes Since 1995Related?



Al Gore of course did attribute Hurricane Katrina to global warming directly as he used it on the cover of his movie "An Inconvenient Truth." as seen below. Where he stated Hurricane Katrina, that devastated New Orleans in 2005, was caused by “global warming.”


Also, I'm sure he never intended to stand in front of a picture of Hurricane Katrina as he spoke about impending disasters, to maximise the imprinting from the still raw memories. Remember that imagery and linkage to sound bytes are all important in garnering the public attention to alarmists.

On Global Warming:

“…our world faces a true planetary emergency.”

“With dryer vegetation and a warmer world and more dead vegetation because of the pests and beetles that are no longer held back by frost, the fires are out of control at record levels on every continent; the strength of the storms, the depth of the drought, the movement of tropical diseases into areas that never experienced them before. This is the result of a dysfunctional, INSANE global system, pattern that we have to change.”

“Since we met here last year, the world has lost ground to the climate crisis. This is a route. We are losing badly.”

"If you're a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration,"

"At stake is the survival of our civilization and the habitability of the Earth."


"Each one of us is a cause of global warming..."

On the topic of drought:

"The map to the left shows (map not shown here) what is projected to happen to soil moisture in the United States with the doubling of CO2, which would happen in less than 50 years if we continue business as usual. According to scientists, it will lead, among other things, to a loss in soil moisture of up to 35% in vast growing areas of our country. And of course, drier soils mean drier vegetables, less productive agriculture, and more fires. Moreover, scientists are now telling us that if we do not act quickly to contain global warming pollution, we will soon barrel right through a doubling of CO2 and move toward a quadrupling, in which case, scientists tell us, most of the United States would lose up to 60% of its soil moisture. [ At the time this was written, beside this paragraph is a full page image of a Texas farmer standing in a sea of dried and dying crops].”

Again imagery is of key importance to the alarmists in getting a maximum visual impact as well as audio impact, thus getting maximum scare for their effort.

On disease:

"Algae is just one of the disease vectors that have been increasing in range because of global warming. And when these vectors - whether algae, mosquitoes, ticks, or other germ-carrying life forms - start to show up in new areas and cover a wider range, they are more likely to interact with people, and the diseases they carry become more serious threats... To cite one important example of this phenomenon, mosquitoes are profoundly affected by global warming. There are cities that were originally located just above the mosquito line, which used to mark the altitude above which mosquitoes would not venture. Nairobi, Kenya, and Harare, Zimbabwe, are two such cities. Now, with global warming, the mosquitoes are climbing to higher altitudes."

"Some 30 so-called new diseases have emerged over the last 25 to 30 years. And some old diseases that had been under control are now surging again. [included are scarey black-and-white pictures (under a microscope) of Hantavirus, Machupo Virus, Arenaviridae, Coronavirus, Dengue Fever, Borrelia Burgdorferi (Lyme Disease), E. Coli, Marburg Hemorrhagic Fever, Legionnaires Disease, Influenza Virus, Nipahvirus, and Tuberculosis.]... West Nile virus"

False: As described in this paper by Professor Paul Reiter of the Institut Pasteur; Paris (a specialist in the natural history and biology of mosquitoes, the epidemiology of the diseases they transmit, and strategies for their control. )

On topic of the Oceans:

-Carbon dioxide pollution is changing the very chemistry of our oceans. Ocean acidification is already underway and is accelerating. A recent paper published in the journal Science described how the seawater off the coast of Northern California has become so acidic from CO2 that it is now corrosive. To give some sense of perspective, for the last 44 million years, the average pH of the water has been 8.2. The scientists at Scripps measured levels off the north coast of California and Oregon at a pH of 7.75. Coral polyps that make reefs and everything that makes a shell are now beginning to suffer from a kind of osteoporosis because of the 25 million tons of CO2 absorbed the oceans every 24 hours.

False: As proved here, here, here, here and here

What he neglects to mention here is that Oceans naturally store CO2 anyway. Also, they are in fact alkaline in nature and even at a PH of 7.75 they are still alkaline not acidic. Therefore they cannot be corrosive by acid in the way he is implying.

On the topic of the Stock Market:

"I believe for a carbon company to spend money convincing the stock-buying public that the risk from the global climate crisis is not that great represents a form of stock fraud because they are misrepresenting a material fact," he said. "I hope these state attorney generals around the country will take some action on that."

science was not going to intrude on policy ...When Gore sacked physicist William Happer as director of energy research at the U.S. Department of Energy in 1993 for not supporting Gores alarmist views on the ozone layer.

Scare after scare after scare. Each of these issues will be examined in more detail in “The Inconvenient Truth” portion of this blog. Then we will see how Mr. Gores predictions relate to the observed environment.

Richard A. Muller (Author and Physicist and AGW believer) commenting on Al Gore:

If [Al Gore] reaches more people and convinces the world that global warming is real, even if he does it through exaggeration and distortion — which he does, but he’s very effective at it — then let him fly any plane he wants.

So even Al Gore's friends and allies believe that he uses over the top alarmist language when advocating his point. Also, given his former status as a Vice President of the USA people will listen to him regardless of what he says so he often has a captive audience.


As you can see I have placed links on this page to show some of the difference between the hype of Gore's statements and the reality of the pysical world. I will cover more of his alarmism when I address the 35 errors in his movie in a later post.

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