Excerpt: "'... When you go and talk to any audience about climate, you hear them washing back at you the same crap over and over and over again,' he continued. 'There's no longer a shared reality on an issue like climate even though the very existence of our civilization is threatened.'"
'The very existence of our civilization is threatened. People have no idea!' said Al Gore. (photo: AP)
Al Gore: 'Media Spin on Climate Is Bullshit'
10 August 11
l Gore is pissed.
The former vice president dropped in on an Aspen Institute media forum titled "Networks an Citizenship" on Thursday and railed against corporate evildoers who put profit above society.
Gore referenced the book "Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming" by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, which tells of how petroleum, steel, utilities and other industries enlisted lobbyists to cloud the climate debate.
The vice president recalled how not long ago tobacco giants "succeeded in delaying the implementation of the surgeon general's report for 40 years - 40 years! In every one of those 40 years the average number of Americans killed by cigarettes each year exceeded the total number of Americans killed in all of World War II : 450,000 per year. My sister was one of them. ... It was evil, evil, evil."
That same model of media manipulation, Gore said, "was transported whole cloth into the climate debate. And some of the exact same people - I can go down a list of their names - are involved in this. And so what do they do? They pay pseudo scientists to pretend to be scientists to put out the message: 'This climate thing, it's nonsense. Man-made CO2 doesn't trap heat. It may be volcanoes.' Bullshit! 'It may be sun spots.' Bullshit! 'It's not getting warmer.' Bullshit!
"... When you go and talk to any audience about climate, you hear them washing back at you the same crap over and over and over again," he continued. "There's no longer a shared reality on an issue like climate even though the very existence of our civilization is threatened. People have no idea! It's no longer acceptable in mixed company, meaning bipartisan company, to use the goddamn word climate. They have polluted it to the point where we cannot possibly come to an agreement on it."
Gore lamented the diminished role that reason and fact-based analysis play in modern US politics.
During the debt-ceiling debate, American Crossroads, Americans for Prosperity and a collection of smaller groups followed tobacco's blueprint for bombarding the media with their own self-serving messages, he said.
"Unnoticed in Washington and New York as the debt-ceiling debate was going on, the ratio of television advertisements was nine to one on the 'Don't-lift-the-debt-ceiling debate. Spending is the problem.' And now we're going to tip the country back into recession. It's absolutely insane," Gore said. "Mark my words on this we became the greatest country on earth because we made better decisions than any other nation. And we made better decisions because we used shared consciousness-shared reality rule of reason best evidence democratic discourse free debate to figure out what's more likely than not to be the best decision here. It didn't always work but it worked a hell of a lot better. Since we adopted this new system we are making catastrophic decisions that have massive consequences. The Iraq invasion. What just happened with macro-economic policy. It really is extremely difficult."
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Comments
We are concerned about a recent drift towards vitriol in the RSN Reader comments section. There is a fine line between moderation and censorship. No one likes a harsh or confrontational forum atmosphere. At the same time everyone wants to be able to express themselves freely. We'll start by encouraging good judgment. If that doesn't work we'll have to ramp up the moderation.
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Remember that making the world better begins with responsible action.
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When floods are destroying homes, fields, factories, etc., something has to be the culprit - and we know what it is!
What will it take to awaken the citizenry? Please speak to our President!
These are all things that exist independently of my beliefs. That is to say, they exist... there's no need to "believe" in them.
The idiots who use faith-based beliefs to deny these things are denying reality.
As you say, "THEY EXIST!!!!"
I KNOW this is true, having taught high school biology for over 30 years. NEVER insist that students "believe" any scientific proposition. Sometime my students were shocked to learn that I did not "believe" in the atomic-molecular theory of matter or the plate tectonic theory of geology, or as a biology teacher, Darwin's theory of evolution by means of natural selection. What I did require was that they would be able to describe these theories as a series of verifiable propositions and cite supporting evidence. What a relief not to have to argue nonsense with ignorant students and parents and get nowhere with it!
Believe you?...billy bob, do you have facts to support this or is it just a cynical opinion?
Now, let me ask you, do you understand what Logic is, as opposed to emotion?
What it's going to take for these people who believe the lies is for the liars to step forward and announce that they have been lying to us. The very same people whose faces appear on TV and say "there is no global warming" would have to appear on Tv and say "I lied to you - there IS global warming - I was paid to tell you lies" and then they'd have to show the pay stubs from the people who paid them to lie. How likely is that to happen? No, I'm afraid that some people are just never going to believe, no matter what happens. This is very sad but also, I think, very true.
USA who have the Insight, LIFE experience and education in ALL world matters that you NOW have and OUR World AND USA are CRYING OUT IN OUR HEARTS for You to be Guided from within to RUN FOR 2012 PRESIDENT FOR OUR 'COMMON GOOD'.
Please !
With the SINCERE Love of Gratitude,
Sally E. Nave
Korean War Era Medic
Great Grandmother
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, but apparently most Americans don't consider becoming well informed before they vote part of their responsibility.
We are a people of blissfully unaware sheep being led to slaughter by the wealthy and selfish corporate interests.
We used to learn by observing, remembering and applying the obtained knowledge with the result of the survival of the best informed about the reality of the environment in which it lived.
That is why religion is intrinsically dangerous.
The media are owned by corporate interests who are intent on keeping us "blissfully unaware."
Until we awaken and vote their flacks out of office, we will continue to get the government we deserve.
Can anybody - please - tell me where, in the Bible, that "rapture" is stated?
"Who cares if the planet is trashed. I'm outta here when Jesus returns...which is any day now."
I think we need to take a slightly longer-term view.
It just might be that Jesus ain't gonna show up for awhile, so we better take care of this place.
Can anybody explain how the word "rapture" became part of the fundamentalist Christian lexicon ??
I doubt that the word exists in the Bible and I suspect that some republican - since all fundamentalists seem to be republican - made the whole thing up.
and this is not a serious answer.
Anyone who has thoroughly studied the Bible KNOWS that God commanded man to TAKE CARE OF the Earth, NOT TRASH IT! Read Genesis Chapters 1 & 2, and you will see that. For those who DO NOT believe that climate change is real, has ANYONE noticed that nearly 75% of the South American Rain Forests' trees have been harvested?
And God said unto them: Be fruitful and multiply,
and replenish the earth, and subdue it. Genesis 1:28
Oh, Lord, from the first time you spoke
we have happily obeyed, have done exactly
as you asked--willingly, gratefully, urgently--
increasing for all our worth, oh, Lord, like fleas
in a carpet, like rats in a corn bin, and still we carry
on--joyously, thoughtlessly, endlessly--fanning and quenching
the flames: copulating, connecting, conjuncting, consorting,
doing what it takes to ever more rapidly multiply him made
in your image, oh Lord, following your edict at every
opportunity, filling the earth and doing our utmost to thwart
those godless who would hinder the process. And,
trust me, oh, Lord, we will not rest until our world is utterly
subdued, teeming chock-a-block and cheek-to-jowl with sacred
human life, oh, Lord, and what could be better than that?
To my non-theological mind, this constitutes an extreme blasphemy against the Creator and a lack of respect for His creation.
“On the Misdiagnosis Of Surface Temperature Feedbacks From Variations In Earth’s Radiant Energy Balance”
By Spencer and Braswell 2011
There is a new paper published which raises further questions on the robustness of multi-decadal global climate predictions. It is
Spencer, R.W.; Braswell, W.D. On the Misdiagnosis of Surface Temperature Feedbacks from Variations in Earth’s Radiant Energy Balance. Remote Sens. 2011, 3, 1603-1613.
Climate models get energy balance wrong, make too hot forecasts of global warming
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (July 26, 2011) — Data from NASA’s Terra satellite shows that when the climate warms, Earth’s atmosphere is apparently more efficient at releasing energy to space than models used to forecast climate change have been programmed to “believe.”
In short they (Spencer and Braswell) developed a model that gave the results they wanted. Spencer is on record as being a fervent anti-environmentalis t and laissez-faire apologists. He is the very epitome of the bullshit artists Gore is describing.
http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/personfactsheet.php?id=19
This is not meant to be a leading question!
But there apparently are questions about Spencer.
Enough more that global warming isn't a problem? Not according top anything I've seen. This strikes me as a cross-your-fingers-and-hope argument.
If you're hoping that Spencer and Braswell claim here that global climate predictions are false, you're out of luck! They and many
others working with software models of global climate are struggling with many different phenomena (especially water vapor and clouds)
which aren't perfectly described in the model equations. The net effect of these imperfections is uncertainty in the effective
imbalance in the model, between solar energy arriving at the top of the atmosphere, and heat energy radiated upward at the top of the
atmosphere -- the "radiative balance". In their words, "In simple terms, radiative changes resulting from temperature change (feedback) cannot be easily disentangled from those causing a temperature change (forcing)."
(http://asb.turi.org/~abrown/cci/gore.ff/remotesensing-03-01603.pdf)
They are NOT suggesting that the OBSERVED temperature change of the planet is incorrect; these authors have reported since 1997 that
satellite observation of atmospheric and surface temperature are correct -- and these observations show that "the Earth’s surface is
currently warming at a rate of about 0.29ºF/decade or 2.9°F/century."
(http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/science/recenttc.html)
There are many, many sources of clear information for the layman on these topics -- and readers shouldn't have to start with your arrival waving "a new science paper" which isn't typically available to the layman. This is very typical of the participation of contrarian hacks who pop up in these
discussions, doing the work of the lobbyists working for petroleum, steel, and utility industries, just as Gore is describing here.
Also, what you stated here is absurd. I don't know of anyone, other than what you reference, who denies the climate has actually warmed. They have only challenged the causes.
Second of all, science is not a religion. Some people have a religious zeal for FACTS. Some people have a religious zeal for avoiding them. Which side of the fence are you loyal to?
Why is the Greenhouse label a fail? simple test. Park two identical cars in a hot sunny parking lot - roll all the windows down on one - why is it cooler then the other? ..hint:: same reason the green house models fail.
Source: "Faith Based Evolution" by Roy Spencer"
with logic like that, who can argue with Roy Spencer and keep his head from exploding?
But it's not going to happen because the Democrats are just another wing of the Plutocratic Party that really calls all the shots.
But come on folks.
Are you serious? Please. As inept as Michelle Bachman? Give me a break.
EVERYTHING in your statement is a BULLSEYE, Angelfish! An EXCELLENT assessment, on BOTH POSTS! LET'S ALL GET OUT THE VOTE IN 2012!
Hilarious! They have been shipping jobs overseas as fast as they can since Reagan gave them the right to write off the expenses to do so - a tax break!
There are several types of republicans. The mean-spirited seem to be most abundant, but you, sir, seem to fall into the category - to your credit - of being merely naive.
(Oh, yeah, I left out another large subset, the "Rah-Rah" guys)
No stinking wonder they are corrupt.
Wait until people see Rick Perry's 2.0 GPA in his college transcript.
Don't we want our prez to be smarter than most of us?
The backlash is swift, however. The entire process is anti-business, thus revealing a GOP/teabagger truth: these bastards are either anti-business or know nothing about business!!! They don't realize that tourists and conventioneers and retirees do not want to live near lakes and beachfronts teeming with harmful algae and nasty, possibly deadly bacteria.
Let's keep pitching the truth. As Churchill said, "The truth is incontrovertibl e. Panic may resent it, ignorance may deny it, malice may distort it, but there it is."
Another powerful lesson to be learned about truth is no matter how much you deny it, it may just rise up and bite you on the ass.
Gore: "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the internet."
People say all sorts of things that are taken out of context , or excerpted - and they get misused. Most often, one can rest assured that the person in question, would love to explain that there was much larger view being expressed - or that, "oh, gosh - well, that wasn't exactly what I meant - and you folks know that damn good and well."
Partisans on both sides of the isle are just as guilty as the other side is.
Another good example would be how so many have jumped on a couple of statements lifted from Bush (from a lengthy discussion) regarding looking for Bin Laden, running with the absolute hysterical view that Bush wasn't really interested in finding him (or killing him) any longer - to actually suggesting the the reorganizing at the CIA of the Bin Laden unit into a much broader unit meant the same lack of interest; i.e, "Bush disbanded the Bin Laden Unit." Yes - they did. They made it bigger and better, and apparently it worked.
People bring up the bull - because people bring up the bull. Whether at a conservative site - or this liberal site - "bull" is the lead. Bull for - Bull against.
Fact: The tobacco industry lied for years.
Fact: 450,000 people DO die each year in the US from smoking related illnesses, whether or not THEY do the smoking.
Fact: Tobacco industry did hire scientists to hide the truth about the detriments to the environment and the health of people related to smoking US-blended tobacco products.
Fact: Exxon and other corporations hire the SAME scientists to deny those corporations culpability with regard to climate change.
Fact: ALL has been in the name of profit and money and at the expense of human and planetary lives.
Fact: Land on which tobacco is grown cannot be used for any other food growing purpose for more than 100 years.
Fact: Bullshit is the mildest term to attribute to such atrocities.
Thank you Al Gore for your tireless work!
N.
This is what the people want from their President not passivity and cooperation with evil. Mr. Gore if you had spoken out this clearly and passionately you would have been president - the votes would have been so uneven that couldn't have "selected" Mr. Bush.
Each time I remind them that science is a process of ongoing discovery and learning, and thus is never "complete."
With are dealing with two types: Intentional liars and intentional idiots.
Gore's speech is excellent, but the excerpted quote is at the core of our political implosion, since we seem headed at warp speed back to the 19th century. If you take the time to read Ryan Lizza's exceptional in-depth piece on Bachmann in this week's New Yorker (just google it), you will recognize her for what she is, an evangelical fanatic, a hypocrite, a truly scary "Dominionist" pushing the NAR's "Seven Mountains" strategy for hard right evangelical Christian "dominion" (control) over ALL aspects of American life.
She has virtually no relevant business, leadership or executive experience or accomplishments in either local, state or national government, unless you count mouthing off on TV. Her world view and simplistic, authoritarian policy prescriptions might play well in Syria or Iran or certain red-state backwaters, but they're toxic to predominant U.S. values of science and reason. By implication Pawlenty, Santorum, Gingrich and certainly Perry and Palin are more or less in the same extreme mold, and the two Mormons, Huntsman and Romney, seem moderate by comparison.
Climate is NOT one of the "7 Mountains"; wonder why not?
S
Straight down the republican dirty tricks road.
That truth might be that it's already too late to do anything about it. What the story, only fools repeat the past?
Well, it's happening and they will have to face it sooner or later.
Also, when some troll posts the same ridiculous clichés you hear limb-blow spouting every day, we get plenty of practice showing their nonsense for what it is. Left unchecked, the internet could be the downfall of the conservative movement that started with nixon.
I had a hard time sifting through it all, but I think you left out a few, like:
-government isn't the solution, it's the problem... something about "political correctness"... why should you have to pay taxes... blah, blah, "climategate"... monica lewinsky... blah, blah the Kennedy's...
Keep working on it. It'll take a while, but you still might be able to compile a complete list before the Arctic Ocean melts completely.
Or Dallas this summer.
So - let's go a few miles W of Dallas, out in the sticks and look at the official NASA temp record:
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/gistemp_station.py?id=425722600020&data_set=1&num_neighbors=1
Gee -120 years of cooling.
The entire state of CA has been in a slight cooling trend for the past quarter century?
Look - the earth has been in a general warming trend for hundreds of years. Before that it was in a cooling trend for hundreds of years.
Sea level along the West Coast has been static or falling for a quarter century or so.
What is dump is not understanding why with Dallas, Chicago, etc . . the rural areas around the heat islands are doing something entirely different.
Most of the additional warming they shrill - is bogus very area specific in nature.
Cyclonic activity has not increased during the past 70 years - just the opposite. The Arctic ice cap is doing nothing unusual (just why do you think old - the oldest ice - in the Arctic cap is only 5-7 years old?
The drought in the US at current is minimal compared to a dozen other droughts since the great dust bowl in the 1930's.
And I was just up in central CA - no one can remember the last time the ripening of blackberries was running a month behind. I always pick buckets full up there in Aug. Got a handful this year -- tons of green ones, however. But if they're early just one year - everyone is out blaming it on global warming.
Now - that is dumb.
. Look at yet another official NASA historical chart, folks:
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/gistemp_station.py?id=425722290020&data_set=1&num_neighbors=1
Wow - and that is a huge metropolitan area. Even the "AGW" hasn't overtaken the cooling down since the 1930's.
But don't worry, Hansen and his cronies - have been busy at work, going back into the data and adjusting the old temperatures downward, so that it appears to get warming. Fortunately - there are those who have been capturing the data. It will come to bear.
The question here - and it's a common thing about fear mongering and conspiracy theories -- fredboy, and millions of others, actually think that Tuscaloosa has been rabidly warming up in recent years - and it scares them.
I'd be more concerned about the next move, which is rather do us -- the next 300-600 year cooling cycle is due - sometime between now - and roughly a hundred years from now. And that will produce major droughts worldwide.
Long time homesteading/DIY magazine Mother Earth published a great article in this month's issue outlining global warming effects. The zine is not political and avoids taking political positions, but they had it with the deniers. Climate change has dire consequences for victory gardens as well as industrial ag.
Too many catastrophic weather phenomena people were simply not prepared for. This is the new normal. We have to face it to deal with it.
Right-wing trolls on RSN are like political speed bags.
Most of us know this climate change is manmade but to those who argue it is not cannot still escape the fact that it is getting hotter. That is the trend and no matter the real cause it spells real disaster down the road if we do not prepare for it.
The rich don't care because they figure they can afford to control their environment or move to any place they chose. Good luck with that!
Corporate America Republicans and the T Parties. Targeting and raping all Senior Citizens to give more of their 2 years of frozen meager monthly income. By the way, we SENIORS invested and paid into this government program known as Social Security.
I am tired of seeing my fellow working class citizens and their families being raped and forced to work two part-time jobs without any health care benefits to sustain their families.
I am tired of seeing our Unemployed Citizens being raped with no creation of new jobs and watching existing jobs being outsourced into foreign countries.
I am tired being raped and targeted to give MORE when Corporate America and the T Party continue to exempt the RICH and Wealthy of this nation from paying their fair share!!
We the vulnearable of America are not DEAD!! We will not lay down as if we were!!
My personal view is that indeed man has done great harm to the environment, and that man-made global warming is 90-99% a hoax.
Showing such intolerance - name calling - toward an entire group of people is known as bigotry, by the way.
YOURE DAMN RIGHT ITS GETTING WARMER. I MOVED FROM A KANSAS FARM TO WYOMING 51 YEARS AGO TO SKII, TEACH SCHOOL AND HAVE GORGEOUS SCENERY! I REMEMBER INSECTS ON THE FARM IN KANSAS THAT DID NOT EXIST IN MY GARDENS & DIRT IN WYOMING. HOUSE FLIES WERE RARE...NO SCREEN DOORS NEEDED!!WINTER -30/40 DEGREES COMMON IN WINTER THEN. NOT NOW!!!!WARMER, MORE RAIN, FLOODS, WET HEAVY SNOW AND "KANSAS INSECTS" NOW...I AM JUST AN ARTIST/FORMER ART TEACHER. TEACHING CAREFUL OBSERVATION OF ONE'S SURROUNDINGS...AND SCIENCE!!!!WE ARE STUPID TO NOT BELIEVE REAL RESEARCHED SCIENCE. READ: "CLIMATE CHANGERS" BY TIM FLANNERY....AUSTRAILIAN MAMMOLOGIST THAT POOPOOED CLIMATE CHANGE TILL HE RETURNED TO EARLY RESEARCH LOCATIONS AND RECORDED OBSERVATINS ETC IN THIS BOOK. TJKANSAS
Here's Newcastle, WY (NE Cor):
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/gistemp_station.py?id=425726620020&data_set=1&num_neighbors=1
Riverton - just W of center:
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/gistemp_station.py?id=425726720000&data_set=1&num_neighbors=1
Laramie - SE Cor:
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/gistemp_station.py?id=425725640020&data_set=1&num_neighbors=1
Pathfinder Dam - S just E of center (now - if you live around here - you'd better be looking for warmer clothes):
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/gistemp_station.py?id=425725690010&data_set=1&num_neighbors=1
Damn near every time someone says what you say - I go look at the official record - and there is no evidence of warming..
Yes - if you go into the heart of major cities, like Chicago, you betcha, but if you go out about 50 miles N. E., S., and W. - it's a different story.
Cities are heat islands. Little is happening out in the sticks.
Even Greenland is not getting warmer:
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/gistemp_station.py?id=431042500000&data_set=1&num_neighbors=1
Have a cool day - and stop loosing sleep.
Meanwhile down under:
The polar blast that brought snow to downtown Auckland for the first time in 72 years - and created the city's coldest day on record - is set to worsen in many parts of the North and South Islands.
I going to guess that you missed the last several hundred (if not thousand) stories about the record cold and record snowfall - and all life in lakes being snuffed out - causing great human suffering and death - in other parts of the world.
So many mini - minor - major - and great climate cycles always going on.
From my 59 years - all seems rather normal.
And then if it starts cooling and refreezing (which will normally happen much much faster - the nature of ice - depending on drought conditions vs wet) - what will this all have been about?
Will people ever wake up?
On the lighter side, here's some humor.
Al Gore running for President in 2012.
Gore had hired a good and smart man - it turns out.
Besides, the liberal media's sponsored recounts showed that Gore lost anyway. What that pompous man put this country thru.
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