Gore's Rolling Stone Denier Diatribe, June 23 2011

Watts Up With That?
This hasn’t hit the newstands yet, but thanks to the propaganda arm of Gore Inc. aka “Repower America” I’ve been given a link to the advance online copy which you too can read in full. First let’s start with the email. Like any good flock herder, there’s a big button where you can give to the cause:
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Dear [name deleted],

Our Chairman Al Gore just published a major article in a special summer issue of Rolling Stone.
The magazine hits the stands on Friday, June 24, but you can read it here:
http://acp.repoweramerica.org/rollingstone

Turn on the news or look out the window: Every day, we see the impacts of climate change in the form of historic droughts, floods, storms and other extreme weather events. Yet despite what scientists have been telling us for decades and what we can see with our own eyes, powerful interests continue to deny this crisis is even happening.

Vice President Gore’s essay is important — and I know it will be discussed far and wide.

Take a minute and read this article, then leave a comment on the piece and share it with your friends.

http://acp.repoweramerica.org/rollingstone

Thanks,

Maggie L. Fox
President and CEO
Alliance for Climate Protection

P.S. As you read this email, lies and misinformation are being spread about the climate crisis. We need you to change the conversation and speak up for reality. Leave a comment on Rolling Stone’s website here. Share this article on Twitter, and when you do, use the hashtag #reality. You are our voice.

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Gore has gone full bore on “deniers”, and starts off with comparisons to WWF (no not the NGO, yes, the wrestlers) with the piece entitled:

Climate of Denial

Can science and the truth withstand the merchants of poison?

By Al Gore

 

June 22, 2011 7:45 AM ET

 

The first time I remember hearing the question “is it real?” was when I went as a young boy to see a traveling show put on by “professional wrestlers” one summer evening in the gym of the Forks River Elementary School in Elmwood, Tennessee.

The evidence that it was real was palpable: “They’re really hurting each other! That’s real blood! Look a’there! They can’t fake that!” On the other hand, there was clearly a script (or in today’s language, a “narrative”), with good guys to cheer and bad guys to boo.

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Great stuff huh? It has the usual talking points, such as the long debunked climate to severe weather link which even NOAA says does not exist in the data. Even the Daily Kos is telling people to give up on that idea. But here we have the “weather is climate when we say it is” image gallery to bolster Gore’s weakest point:

Photo Gallery: 11 extreme-weather signs the climate crisis is real


Gore wants to take the battle to the streets, mainly because he’s losing the battle, big time. For example, here’s his advice on how to harass your hometown media:

Fourth, contact your local newspapers and television stations when they put out claptrap on climate — and let them know you’re fed up with their stubborn and cowardly resistance to reporting the facts of this issue. One of the main reasons they are so wimpy and irresponsible about global warming is that they’re frightened of the reaction they get from the deniers when they report the science objectively. So let them know that deniers are not the only ones in town with game. Stay on them! Don’t let up! It’s true that some media outlets are getting instructions from their owners on this issue, and that others are influenced by big advertisers, but many of them are surprisingly responsive to a genuine outpouring of opinion from their viewers and readers. It is way past time for the ref to do his job.

And there’s the other usual and expected talking points, like that oft cited “97% survey”.

This time, the scientific consensus is even stronger. It has been endorsed by every National Academy of science of every major country on the planet, every major professional scientific society related to the study of global warming and 98 percent of climate scientists throughout the world. In the latest and most authoritative study by 3,000 of the very best scientific experts in the world, the evidence was judged “unequivocal.”

Of course Gore never tells readers that only 5% of the original sample responses were climate scientists. See why here.

 The study/survey paper is behind a pay wall but there is a comprehensive summary here.

We find that they originally contacted 10,257 scientists, of whom 3,146 responded, less than a 31% response rate. “Impending Planetary Doom” was obviously not uppermost in the minds of over two thirds of their target population. Of that number, only 5% described themselves as climate scientists, numbering 157. The authors reduce that by half by only counting those who they classed as “specialists”.

“In our survey, the most specialized and knowledgeable respondents (with regard to climate change) are those who listed climate science as their area of expertise and who also have published more than 50% of their recent peer-reviewed papers on the subject of climate change (79 individuals in total). Of these specialists, 96.2% (76 of 79) answered “risen” to question 1 and 97.4% (75 of 77) answered yes to question 2.”

So just 75 climate scientists out of people 3000 surveyed, that works out to 2.5%. No mention of the OSI survey with 30,000 people that responded of course.

On the plus side, he disses Obama on his non-existent (but sensible) climate policy:

Yet President Obama has never presented to the American people the magnitude of the climate crisis,…
…
He has simply not made the case for action. He has not defended the science against the ongoing, withering and dishonest attacks. Nor has he provided a presidential venue for the scientific community — including our own National Academy — to bring the reality of the science before the public.

Here’s what Gore says about Climategate:

But wait! The good guys transgressed the rules of decorum, as evidenced in their private e-mails that were stolen and put on the Internet. The referee is all over it: Penalty! Go to your corner! And in their 3,000-page report, the scientists made some mistakes! Another penalty!

An alternate title for Gore’s piece might be Perp Fiction.