Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 11/18/2009 8:10:10 AM PST by Sub-Driver
Al Gore: Earth's Interior 'Extremely Hot, Several Million Degrees' By Noel Sheppard Created 2009-11-18 10:27
For several years as uneducated sycophants in the media gushed and fawned over every utterance from former Vice President Al Gore, NewsBusters has informed readers of just how absurd the junk science he's peddling really is.
Last Thursday, NBC "Tonight Show" viewers got a perfect example of how the Nobel Laureate basically makes things up, and that his poor grades in college [0] were quite an indicator of just how little he understands about science.
So egregious was his departure from reality that the following clip should be mandatory viewing for all his fans in the media who seem to be just as scientifically-challenged (video embedded below the fold with partial transcript, h/t Hot Air [1]):
CONAN O'BRIEN, HOST: Now, what about ... you talk in the book about geothermal energy...
AL GORE, NOBEL LAUREATE: Yeah, yeah.
O'BRIEN: ...and that is, as I understand it, using the heat that's generated from the core of the earth ...
GORE: Yeah.
O'BRIEN: ...to create energy, and it sounds to me like an evil plan by Lex Luthor to defeat Superman. Can you, can you tell me, is this a viable solution, geothermal energy?
GORE: It definitely is, and it's a relatively new one. People think about geothermal energy - when they think about it at all - in terms of the hot water bubbling up in some places, but two kilometers or so down in most places there are these incredibly hot rocks, 'cause the interior of the earth is extremely hot, several million degrees, and the crust of the earth is hot ...
On Tuesday, National Review's John Derbyshire noted [2]:
The geothermal gradient [3] is usually quoted as 25-50 degrees Celsius per mile of depth in normal terrain (not, e.g., in the crater of Kilauea [4]). Two kilometers down, therefore, (that's a mile and a quarter if you're not as science-y as Al) you'll have an average gain of 30-60 degrees - exploitable for things like home heating [5], though not hot enough to make a nice pot of tea. The temperature at the earth's core, 4,000 miles down, is usually quoted as 5,000 degrees Celsius, though these guys [6] claim it's much less, while some contrarian geophysicists have posted claims up to 9,000 degrees. The temperature at the surface of the Sun is around 6,000 degrees Celsius, while at the center, where nuclear fusion is going on bigtime, things get up over 10 million degrees.
If the temperature anywhere inside the earth was "several million degrees," we'd be a star.
The physics and astronomy website Physlink also contests [7] Gore's absurd claim:
It is approximately 4000°C at the centre of the Earth. To put this in context:
1. The centre of the Sun is approximately 15 million°C 2. The surface of the Sun is 5500°C 3. Iron melts at 1535°C (when at atmospheric pressure) 4. Water boils at 100°C (when at atmospheric pressure) 5. Human skin is comfortable with temperatures up to about 60°C 6. The highest temperature recorded on the Earth's surface is 58°C (Libya 1922)
It is not possible to directly measure the temperature at the centre of the Earth and four thousand degrees is nothing more than our most well-established piece of guesswork to date. Most modern calculations rely on the fact that we believe the inner core to be made up of iron and nickel that is just about at melting point. It is under a lot of pressure, which prevents it from melting, even at such high temperatures. There is also a lot of evidence regarding how the outer core of the Earth convects and that helps to establish the temperature. However, recently British scientists have suggested that the temperature of the Earth's core may in fact be as high as the surface of the Sun, so the question is still open.
As such, whether it's 4,000 or 6,000 degrees, Gore's claim of "several million" is absurdly preposterous and not based on ANY scientific fact.
As Ed Morrissey observed [8] Wednesday:
[A]nyone who followed the controversy over Gore's piece of cinematic fantasy An Inconvenient Truth knows that Gore tells a lot of very convenient untruths in his quest to create a market for his carbon-trading company. However, this is just flat-out ignorance that with any other person in any other context would destroy their credibility. This is worse than Tom Cruise telling Matt Lauer that he can debunk the entire psychiatric field because he's read a few books. If Gore can't get this rather basic fact right, why should he be believed on anything else in the energy field?
This raises an obvious question: in a world where media fact-check a comedy skit [8] and a book written by a former governor [8], shouldn't they equally scrutinize statements being made by a man who's actively pushing for the passage of economically impactful legislation currently before Congress?
Or is that asking too much from so-called journalists?
Consider that if Gore was a Republican, his numerous departures from fact would have so discredited him years ago that he would now be considered a total joke.
By contrast, because he's a Democrat who preaches liberal gospel, he can say whatever he wants without any regard for its accuracy and not only receive media's praise for his inexcusable errance, but an Oscar and a Nobel Peace Prize to boot.
As the Russian comedian Yakov Smirnoff was famous for saying years ago, America -- what a country!
I am sure the media harped all over it and have been making fun of him and stuff. hah... I kill me, thats a funny joke.
We need to start making Al Gore jokes. Dan Quayle misspelled potato and we never heard the end of it. This guy is supposedly an expert on earth sciences, and doesn’t know his arse from his elbow.
That’s the Nobel Peace prize winner for ya. I fit Obama in the same category.
He should have just said “its way hot man.”
I can’t think of a single substance that would still be a solid or liquid at over 1 million degrees.
We wouldn't be needing the sun.
Idiot. Dangerous idiot to boot. That would be like living on the surface of the sun for crying out loud. And they call Sarah Palin stupid...
I bet its a brazilian degrees. Its hot in Rio so he’s probably right.
ALbore is the lamestream media’s golden boy...and they try to call Sarah Palin stupid???
Geothermal “new”?! PG&E has been exploiting geothermal for many decades just north of the Napa Valley.
Just another minor oversight from Big Gay Al.
And I’ll never forget the photo op where he had a river flooded (during a severe drought) so he could have a campaign photo shot of him paddling a canoe in his plaid shirt.
What a charlatan.
Yeah, I guess that means the Earth has a plasma core. Who would’ve thunk...?
George W. Bush has a geothermal system for his house in Crawford, which is very energy-efficient. AlGore lives in an energy-guzzling mansion.
But OwlGore is the one lecturing the rest of the world about saving energy. Go figure.
ping
That’s hot stuff!
I remember how VP Dan Quayle was treated as a buffoon by the media.
Quayle had said that we might find water on the surface of Mars and if there is water, we could establish colonies.
What a fool, that Dan Quayle! He certainly can’t compare with that genius Al Gore!
http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/526.html
LOL! I love it when Al really lets his “retard flag” fly.
In fact, the surface of the sun is only 6000 degrees F. So, he’s off even more than that.
Another hidden algorism: Iceland has been using geothermal to produce energy for a long time to produce one quarter of their energy needs.
To say nothing of Iceland...
Oh wait, according to der Spiegel, I'm not supposed to know anything beyond the borders of the USA. Never mind.
Make that roughly 6000 degrees Kelvin. I think that’s around 10,000 degrees F, but I haven’t looked it up.
Oh, come on......
He’s only off by several orders of magnitude....
Most of us who are at least halfway thoughtful know Al Gore is a buffoon.
But geothermal power is a very viable renewable energy so one would hope the criticism is on a somewhat higher level than dwelling on Al Gore's buffoonery.
The geothermal gradient up to thirty thousand feet into the Earth's crust is precisely known because oil is sometimes explored to those depths. It varies with location, but the gradient is approximately 1 - 1.5 degC per 100 ft. At twenty five thousand feet below the surface, say below MSL, that comes to 310 deg C or 590 deg F.
Such a gradient can be employed, with current technology, for energy conversion using a binary process. One of the biggest problems being the corrosive environment in which the downhole casings must reside. The jargon word for such energy availability is dryrock geothermal, as opposed to steam employment like in The Geysers plant in CA.
Dryrock binary geothermal power has immense potential (where located on the Earth's crust has a lot to do with it). Just don't let Al Gore the buffoon do the design.
Again, not suprising from an idiot who almost flunked the only bonehead science course he ever took.
re geothermal energy, he says
” It definitely is, and it’s a relatively new one...”
hmmm
according to the history of geothermic energy, geothermal heating is the direct use of geothermal power for heating applications. Humans have taken advantage of geothermal heat this way since the paleolithic era.
History of:
“In the first century AD, Romans conquered Aquae Sulis and used the hot springs there to feed public baths and underfloor heating.[11] The admission fees for these baths probably represents the first commercial use of geothermal power. The world’s oldest geothermal district heating system in Chaudes-Aigues, France, has been operating since the 14th century.[3] The earliest industrial exploitation began in 1827 with the use of geyser steam to extract boric acid from volcanic mud in Larderello, Italy.
In 1892, America’s first district heating system in Boise, Idaho was powered directly by geothermal energy, and was soon copied in Klamath Falls, Oregon in 1900. A deep geothermal well was used to heat greenhouses in Boise in 1926, and geysers were used to heat greenhouses in Iceland and Tuscany at about the same time.[12] Charlie Lieb developed the first downhole heat exchanger in 1930 to heat his house. Steam and hot water from the geysers began to be used to heat homes in Iceland in 1943.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_heating#History
alGora doesn’t even have the smarts to learn about the subjects he lies about. Most con-men are at least slick enough to strudy up on the subject they are going to conduct their scam on.
With alGora, I suspicion its a combination of his inherent ignorance and his lib-tard arrogance that looks down his nose at the little people as ignorant - so they won’t catch on...and if they do sound the alarm, shut them up.
Someone should post the video of He and Clintoon touring Monticello (I think). Lead up to taking office.
He was unable to recognize Busts of Founding Fathers.
“Who are those guys?” was his comment. what a dolt.
And all this time I thought it was billions & billions...
[[Idiot. Dangerous idiot to boot.]]
And to think- the world is about set to mandate policies based on htis idiot’s ‘research’- doesn’t make a very good statement about the world’s intellect either I’m afraid, if they’re moronic enough to believe this inept dolt
[[And they call Sarah Palin stupid...]]
Can’t wait for Tina Fey to rip Al Gore a new butthole on SNL- waiting, waiting, waiting....
F = (C x 9/5) + 32.
6,000 C = 10,832 F.
It used to be, but the recession came. It hit everything hard.
No, it indicates the fraud hasn’t a clue and is too stupid to know the facts and coordinate them in coherent arguments.
subdriver- send htis article to Fox News (Geln Beck, Shawn Hannity, and others- hopefulyl they will pick the story up and air it so that people wil lbegin to see how idiotic Al Gore really is, and that we’re apparently goign to ruin the lives of billions of people based on that idiot’s recomendations- also send a note along with it about how hte media crucified Sarah Palin for a minor gaff, but is allowing Al Gore to get away scott free?
Ah, an equation from my junior high school days. ¡Gracias!
[[When other celebrities like Sheryl Crow, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner learn about this, they’re going to be very very upset with George Bush and Sarah Palin since Republicans and their ilk have been responsible for global warming for thousands of millions of years and now the Earth is as HOT AS THE SUN!!!
]]
Much longer than that- it’s been like a Brazilian years or so
Yes, Gore may be a complete ignoramus, especially when it comes to science. He may also be a dumb looking, clumsy, knuckle-dragging, drug-addled, Frankenstein-looking manbearpig, but he is a beltway intellectual, and therefore an authority on hot air.
Incidentally, the temperature of solar flares shooting out of the surface have interior temperatures of tens of millions of degrees Kelvin.
Yeah, but it's got a big surface, so if ya measure enough of it, you'd eventually get millions of degrees, right? :)
[[Al Gore is of course a buffoon, nothing more.]]
True- he is a buffoon, but he is much much m,ore than that- He’s the ‘leading voice’ of ‘man-caused’ global warming who will bankrupt the world. He’s a VERY dangerous buffoon!
[[But geothermal power is a very viable renewable energy so one would hope the criticism is on a somewhat higher level than dwelling on Al Gore’s buffoonery.]]
The reason he is getting away with his buffoonery is precisely because peopel are NOT criticising him, and exposing his ineptness- the mainstream media is silent, and he continues to scam the world without narry a refutaiton to his assinine ‘science’, and we’re all goign to pay a hguge price for his idiotic agenda
I’ll never forget when Gore was asked if he would support the execution of a pregant woman. Gore hemmed and hawed and finally said he would have to get back to the interviewer the next day. Gore probably never ran across the word ‘postpone’.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.