Al
Gore receives the Nobel Peace Prize - for what?
Misrepresenting the facts about “Global Warming,” that’s what.
I
am amazed that this man, who claimed to have invented the Internet, would win a
coveted Peace Prize for what amounts to a PowerPoint presentation that is
riddled with inaccuracies, misstatements and outright misrepresentations. So much so, that a “British court recently
found his film, An Inconvenient Truth,
to be politically biased and ruled teachers must warn students of that bias
before showing the film.” (Source: Gore’s price: A fraud on the people, Union Leader, October 14, 2007).
British
High Court Rules “An Inconvenient Truth” Partisan Politics
James M. Taylor, senior fellow for
environment policy at The Heartland Institute, elaborating on factual errors in
the film that were identified by the court, noted: "Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth, represents 'partisan political views' and must be treated as
such by teachers in British schools, a British High Court judge has indicated. The British court was swayed by numerous
factual inaccuracies portrayed in the movie,” which Mr. Taylor listed as
follows:
-- “The film claims global warming is
responsible for the gradual retreat of the alpine glacier atop Africa's Mount
Kilimanjaro. Scientists have conclusively demonstrated no such link exists.”
--“The film presents graphs indicating
that fluctuating carbon dioxide levels have always preceded and caused global
temperature fluctuations. In fact, temperature changes have always preceded
carbon dioxide changes.”
-- “The film suggests global warming
caused Hurricane Katrina. Few hurricane experts believe this, and substantial
scientific evidence indicates global warming is having no impact on hurricane
frequency or intensity.”
-- “The film asserts global warming is
causing Central Africa's Lake Chad to dry up. In fact, land use practices are
causing the drying up of Lake Chad, and Central Africa is in an unusual and
prolonged wet period.”
-- “The film asserts global warming is
leading to polar bear deaths by drowning. Yet the only documented drowning
deaths occurred due to a freak storm, and polar bear numbers are growing
substantially.”
-- “The film claims global warming
threatens to halt the Gulf Stream and initiate a new ice age. The vast majority
of scientists who have studied the issue have determined such a scenario is
implausible.”
-- “The film asserts global warming is
causing the destruction of coral reefs through bleaching. Scientists have
identified other causes for coral bleaching and have additionally noted
bleaching is a natural process by which coral continually selects ideal
symbiotic algae.”
--“The film asserts Greenland is in
danger of rapid ice melt that will raise sea levels by 20 feet or more. The
scientific consensus is that any foreseeable Greenland ice melt will be gradual
and will take centuries to substantially raise sea levels.”
-- “The film asserts the Antarctic ice
shelf is melting. In fact, only a small portion of Antarctica is getting warmer
and losing ice mass, while the vast majority of Antarctica is in a prolonged
cold spell and is accumulating ice mass.”
"Also highlighted in court
arguments was Al Gore's admission in Grist Magazine that 'I believe it is
appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presentations on how
dangerous it [global warming] is.'”
The British High Court’s ruling also
stated, "As a result of the partisan political nature of Gore's film,
school teachers will not be allowed to show the movie without telling their
students the film is scientifically controversial.”
Mr. Taylor further observed, "The
British High Court properly recognized that Al
Gore's movie is nine parts political propaganda and one part science (Emphasis
added). Virtually every assertion that Gore makes in the movie has been
strongly contradicted by sound science…The British court decision should guide
teachers in the U.S. to similarly treat Gore's movie as the inaccurate and
misleading propaganda tool that it is."
Leading Meteorologist Calls Al Gore
Award “Ridiculous”
In
addition, The Sydney Morning Herald
reported on October 14, 2007 that Dr. William Gray, one of the world's foremost
meteorologists, has called the theory that was the basis for Al Gore’s sharing
the Nobel Peace Prize "ridiculous,” stating that it is being promulgated
by "people who don't understand how the atmosphere works". On the very day the Nobel Committee honored
Al Gore, Dr. Gray, who is a pioneer in the science of seasonal hurricane forecasts,
told a packed lecture hall that humans are not responsible for the warming of
the earth. "We're brainwashing our
children," he said, adding, "They're going to the Gore movie [An
Inconvenient Truth] and being fed all this. It's ridiculous."
At
his first appearance since the award was announced in Oslo, Mr. Gore said,
"We have to quickly find a way to change the world's consciousness about
exactly what we're facing," while Dr. Gray said that a natural cycle of
ocean water temperatures - related to the amount of salt in ocean water - is
responsible for the global warming. He also said that the same cycle meant a
period of cooling would begin soon and last for several years. "We'll look back on all of this in 10 or
15 years and realize how foolish it was," Dr Gray added.
During
his speech to a crowd that included a host of professional meteorologists, Dr.
Gray further said that those who had linked global warming to the increased
number of hurricanes in recent years were in error, citing statistics that show
there were 101 hurricanes from 1900 to 1949, in a period of cooler global
temperatures, compared to 83 from 1957 to 2006 when the earth warmed. "The
human impact on the atmosphere is simply too small to have a major effect on global
temperatures," he noted.
Dr.
Gray also commented, "It bothers me that my fellow scientists are not
speaking out against something they know is wrong…But they also know that
they'd never get any grants if they spoke out. I don't care about grants."
Cycles of Global Warming and Cooling
In
an article titled, “Gored,” Harry Jackson, Jr. noted that thirty years ago the
earth was thought to be moving into another ice age, but “we are now told the
world is on the verge of unprecedented global warming...there have been four
climate change scares; a concern over global cooling beginning in 1895,
followed by fears of global warming in 1929, only to be replaced by alarm over
global cooling; now we are back to global warming.” (Townhall.com, October 15, 2007).
The Nobel Peace Prize and Politics
Perhaps
the most troubling aspect of the Nobel Peace Prize award to Al Gore is the
blatant political nature of the process.
How is it possible that the Nobel Committee could honor a man whose work
is challenged as nothing more than political hype and not award the prize to a
retired Roman Catholic Polish woman who saved 2,500 Jewish children from the
“ovens,” providing them with false documents and hiding them from the Nazis at
the risk of her own life?
This
is the same Committee, incidentally, that nominated Benito Mussolini, Joseph
Stalin and Adolf Hitler – and awarded the Peace Prize to Yasser Arafat, a
founder of modern terrorism and suicide bombing. (glennbeck.com, October 12, 2007).
For
my vantage point, awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Al Gore not only further
diminishes the stature of the award itself but reveals that it is politically
motivated as well.
© 2007 Harris
R. Sherline, All Rights Reserved