The Assault on Candor

Just in time for the launch of his new book, The Assault on Reason, Al Gordo talks with NPR and asserts that global warming is to blame for the cyclone that devastated Myanmar.  Shameless.  What's more is that in an excerpt from the book-atribe, Al is quoted as saying:

"It is well documented that humans are especially fearful of threats that can be easily pictured or imagined."

Only, he's referring to the Bush Administration's campaign against Saddam.  Which is a quite a change of heart given his take 16 years ago.  Nonetheless, I find it to be the height of hypocrisy that he can accuse others of fear-mongering while his incredibly lucrative fear-based global warming campaign chugs onward.  And anyone that dares to disagree is accused of being a "flat-worlder."  So open debate is great so long as it doesn't interfere with the marketing of your cause du jour, Al?   

Clown.

Comments

[Dr. Tim Whatley]

I love your takes on this "clown" Klompus. And I have to admit, I might be the least political-minded person around, so my frame of reference for all things politics come from here.

Screw CNN.

[Art Vandelay]

Good stuff, Klompus. Assault on Reason indeed. Was there really never a cyclone prior to hairspray being invented?

[TMan]

I have actually read somewhere that some climatologists have posited that the increase in violent weather is due to the increase in the atmospheric temperature. I have no backup for that, but it was over a year ago and Al was not involved that I saw.

Based on that, however, I don't think you can mail OPEC the bill for the Myanmar damage.

[Dr. Strangejazz]

Klompus are we to assume that there's no difference between Al Gore's fear mongering and GW Bush's fear mongering?

GOL....Priceless. Screw it by the time global warming starts to affect us (in America) most of us will be dead but our grandkids are gonna have a bitch of a time dealing with it but who cares? Right?

[Dr. Strangejazz]

Al Gore won a Nobel Peace Prize and an Oscar for his "Fear Mongering". While GW Bush gets a 71% disapproval rating.

GOL...It's not fair I tells ya. It's just not fair. GOL!!!!!

[Rich]

I'm sure his book deal included a clause concerning not harming those woody,leafy thingies they use to make paper and books.
He invented the Internet, shouldn't he promote his invention by offering the book as a download?
Thinking locally, acting globally.

[Mr. Kruger]

Nonetheless, I find it to be the height of hypocrisy that he can accuse others of fear-mongering while his incredibly lucrative fear-based global warming campaign chugs onward.

Right, because we all know that just because 99.9% of the worlds scientists and climatologists have been warning us about this problem continuously over the last thirty years it all adds up to nothing more than senseless fear mongering.

Klompus, I'm in total agreement with your rub on Gore. He's another megalomaniac looking to play God and this has not been lost on ordinary people who are concerned about the environment, like myself- it's just an obvious observation.

That said, anyone who doesn't think the planets climate is getting warmer and that it's affecting the weather should check out what's left of the beaches in RI. Parts of the coastline have eroded up to forty feet in just the last 10 years. That's 12 times as much as what was lost over the previous 80. It's freaking scary.

[DFS]

well put Kruger

[soupnazi]

global warming is a fact, mans effect on gobal warming is a fact, but the level of that effect is still open to debate. One thing that is not open to debate is the fact that ALL career politicians are liars and thieves, and will use any situation to further their personal cause. Anyone that supports these scumbags, regardless of party affiliation is a fool.

[phil]

"One thing that is not open to debate is the fact that ALL career politicians are liars and thieves..."

Well, anything is open to debate, but it would be difficult to disprove soupnazi's point in at least this case, if not others. I am sure everyone is aware of how eco-UNfriendly Mr. Gore's home is. Whatever are his words, he does not walk the talk.

[Jack Klompus]

@Strangejazz
"Screw it by the time global warming starts to affect us (in America) most of us will be dead but our grandkids are gonna have a bitch of a time dealing with it but who cares? Right?"

You have grandkids?

"Al Gore won a Nobel Peace Prize and an Oscar for his "Fear Mongering"."

Great point. Yasser Arafat also won a Nobel Peace Prize. And Halle Berry won an Oscar -- but only because she did a graphic sex scene with whitey.

@Kruger
"because 99.9% of the worlds scientists and climatologists have been warning us about this problem continuously over the last thirty years"

Misleading. That's a statement straight outta Gore's brochure. The only consensus agreements among the world's scientists are that global temperature has increased about 1 degree over the past century and that CO2 has incresed by 30% over the past 200 years. How dire the situation is, as well as how much impact man has on climate change is not universally agreed upon. Not to mention about 30 years ago there was a community of climatologists that screamed we were headed for an Ice Age by 2001.

I'm all for conserving and using resources responsibly. It's a no-brainer. The amount of waste that goes on in the world drives me crazy. However, I don't need lessons on conservation and carbon footprints from a guy that flies around on a private jet and has HVAC in his pool house.

[H.E. Pennypacker]

Wasn't The Assault On Reason out almost a year ago? I know this, because I bought it in the Albuquerque Airport, and the only time I was ever in New Mexico was in June, 2007.

Good book, incidentally.

[daveNYC]

Did anyone actually watch the video? Gore is talking about GHWB's behavior towards Iraq prior to the first Gulf War. That would be the period in time when Saddam did use gas weapons on both the Kurds and Iranians. When he did have active nuclear and super gun programs, both of which were dismantled after the first Gulf War. Gore isn't even talking about how Iraq is a current threat to the United States or the region. He's talking about how the previous administration allowed Saddam to get away with the actions he did.

To compare his speech to the actions of the GWB administration in the runup to the 2003 invasion is stupid and/or dishonest.

And on the complete distraction that is Gore's electric bill, a few minutes of Google-fu turns up the fact that Gore ponies up cash to ensure that the energy for his house comes from either clean sources, or is offset by other carbon sinks.

But yeah, Gore has put on some weight, so um, zing, I guess.

[Dr. Strangejazz]

@Klompus

No I don't have any grandkids. (eyeroll)

[Mr. Kruger]

That's a statement straight outta Gore's brochure. The only consensus agreements among the world's scientists are that global temperature has increased about 1 degree over the past century and that CO2 has incresed by 30% over the past 200 years.

I've never heard of the Gore brochure so I can't comment on that but you just told me there was a consensus so I'm not sure if we're debating or not. Obviously a 1 degree increase (and I'm taking your word here) is a huge problem when you consider that a 4 degree increase will scorch the earth. I suspect well over 90% of that 30% CO2 increase has occurred in the last 50 years considering the ridiculous population growth and industrialization that has taken place. There is no denying that the ice caps are melting faster than anyone would have suspected. The snow pack in the Rockies is in decline and that is not good news for people in the west. I think the bottom line is that you can't continue dumping billions of tons of emissions into the atmosphere and not expect there to be an effect.

[Jack Klompus]

@Pennypacker
"Wasn't The Assault On Reason out almost a year ago?"

Yes. My bad. I assumed by the way it was presented in the story that it was a new release. Which is good because now I can get it from the library instead of buying it.

@daveNYC
"Gore isn't even talking about how Iraq is a current threat to the United States or the region. He's talking about how the previous administration allowed Saddam to get away with the actions he did. To compare his speech to the actions of the GWB administration in the runup to the 2003 invasion is stupid and/or dishonest."

First of all, the post is not about Iraq. It's about Gore's hypocrisy. But since I brought it up, let's address your point: He's also talking about the presence of terrorists in Iraq and Saddam's support for them. Which, let me guess, was also dismantled while he was in office? To his credit, Gore was a bigger hawk than anyone on Saddam throughout the 90's. Even in 2002 his view was that Saddam would never give up the charade as long as he was in power. But since Gore was no longer in office, and Bush was running for re-election, Gore decided the problem was now about pre-emptive strikes. Yet, only 4 years prior he had no problem with the pre-emptive airstirkes on Saddam's pill factory. But that's not even the biggest part. Gore slams the Bush Administration for (paraphrasing) "rushing to judgment without exercising full discourse" on Iraq and "playing on our fears." Which is an entirely fair point. Only, when the subject is global warming, Gore says "the debate is over" and we must take strong action immediately or suffer severe consequences. How is that not both fear-mongering and prohibitive to full discourse?

"And on the complete distraction that is Gore's electric bill

How is that a distraction? I'd say it's pretty relevant to a discussion about him being a hypocrite.

"a few minutes of Google-fu turns up the fact that Gore ponies up cash to ensure that the energy for his house comes from either clean sources, or is offset by other carbon sinks."

Wrong. His house uses the same type of electricity and natural gas that most homes use. What he claims he does is invest in renewable energies as a way of making up for his exorbetent energy use. But that doesn't even account for his transportation -- which I'm sure prompted him to plant 5 billion trees in his spare time in order to maintain his "carbon neutrality."

[Dr. Strangejazz]

@Klompus

"Only, when the subject is global warming, Gore says "the debate is over" and we must take strong action immediately or suffer severe consequences. How is that not both fear-mongering and prohibitive to full discourse?"

So there's no such thing as global warming?

In some strange way I think we are comparing the GW Bush's approach to Iraq to Gore's approach to global warming? Is that where this is going????

[Jack Klompus]

@Kruger
"Obviously a 1 degree increase (and I'm taking your word here)"

Well, that's what the records show. In fairness, measuring Earth's temperature has advanced technologically in the last 100 years (satellite wasn't around until the 60's). So I am sure there's a significant margin of error on that figure. Still, one thing 99.9% of scientists agree on is that the Earth is a couple billion years old. And it wasn't always a perfect combination of ice, land, and sea until we came along and melted everything.

"is a huge problem when you consider that a 4 degree increase will scorch the earth."

4 degrees F? You sure about that?

"I suspect well over 90% of that 30% CO2 increase has occurred in the last 50 years considering the ridiculous population growth and industrialization that has taken place.

Which is interesting, given that most of the recorded temperature increase occurred before 1940. That doesn't mesh too well with the theory that increased CO2 means increased global temp.

"There is no denying that the ice caps are melting faster than anyone would have suspected. The snow pack in the Rockies is in decline and that is not good news for people in the west.

Again, you have to put it in perspective of time frames. Relatively speaking to our ability to record these things you're right. But it doesn't necessarily mean it's signaling the beginning of the end.

"I think the bottom line is that you can't continue dumping billions of tons of emissions into the atmosphere and not expect there to be an effect."

As a matter of principle, I couldn't agree more. What I'm not ready to subscribe to just yet is the fever pitch -- especially given the money trail running through it. Why does Gore think we should stop debating it?

[Jack Klompus]

@myself
"Wrong. His house uses the same type of electricity and natural gas that most homes use."

Update in the interest of fairness: Gore has since installed solar panels on the roof and geothermal walls in the ground. While he doesn't get most of his electricity from solar energy, his house is now certified as energy-efficient by the U.S. Green Building Council.

[Crazy Joe Davalo]

How much money did it cost him not to be a hypocrite?

[Mr. Kruger]

4 degrees F? You sure about that?

Wrong choice of words on my part since any increase will obviously not be uniform and the change will bring extremely different results dependent on the region (i.e. mountainous areas will become arid while arid areas will become uninhabitable). Also, it's the rate at which the change is occurring that is going to bring a lot of negative impacts.

Still, one thing 99.9% of scientists agree on is that the Earth is a couple billion years old. And it wasn't always a perfect combination of ice, land, and sea until we came along and melted everything.

The earth is actually over 4 billion years old and has been covered in flames, covered in ice, torn apart and fused back together countless times- but how does this have anything to do with the fact that humans are destroying the environment they depend on to survive.

Why does Gore think we should stop debating it?

Probably so we can focus on the solutions and not the politics.

[soupnazi]

"Update in the interest of fairness: Gore has since installed solar panels on the roof and geothermal walls in the ground. While he doesn't get most of his electricity from solar energy, his house is now certified as energy-efficient by the U.S. Green Building Council."
Once again, the greener-than-thou crowd chows down on their latest "free lunch"--fact--most solar panels available in the U.S. are made outside the U.S. due to the caustic chemicals used in their manufacture. China, of course, makes most of them, happily dumping these chemicals directly into the water supply and pumping pollutants into the air-but as long as those idiot tree-huggers can sleep at night, thats all that mattares!!

[Mr. Kruger]

but as long as those idiot tree-huggers can sleep at night, thats all that mattares!!

I can tell you're endowed with vastly superior intelligence.

[Dr. Strangejazz]

@Crazy Joe Davalo

"How much money did it cost him not to be a hypocrite?"

Amazing question. What does that have to do with anything??

@soupnazi

"Once again, the greener-than-thou crowd chows down on their latest "free lunch"--fact--most solar panels available in the U.S. are made outside the U.S. due to the caustic chemicals used in their manufacture. China, of course, makes most of them, happily dumping these chemicals directly into the water supply and pumping pollutants into the air-but as long as those idiot tree-huggers can sleep at night, thats all that mattares!!"

Spectacular. So if he didn't have the solar panels he'd be a hypocrite. So he gets the solar panels and you find a way to make him liable for the damage done to the environment. I guess Gore can't win for loosing with you guys.

[Jack Klompus]

"The earth is actually over 4 billion years old and has been covered in flames, covered in ice, torn apart and fused back together countless times- but how does this have anything to do with the fact that humans are destroying the environment they depend on to survive"

That's exactly the point. The fact that it has done it on it's own billions of years before we ever came to be should cast even a little doubt as to whether humans really have the kind of impact that Gore and his ilk claim we do. Not saying we don't, just saying the debate shouldn't be over. We have less than 50 years of satellite measurement of global temperature. You mean to tell me we can tell with all certainty from 50 years of data what's our fault and what's just part of nature's cycle? Meanwhile, it's only natural to question Gore's motivations in all of this as he rakes in obscene amounts of money.

"Why does Gore think we should stop debating it?

Probably so we can focus on the solutions and not the politics. "

Judging from your smirk, I'll assume that was a joke.