Posted on 02/11/2006 11:33:10 AM PST by presidio9
Editor's Note: Published on page A1 of the February 12, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
NOT everyone was pleased with the way former US Vice President Al Gore was given "celebrity" treatment when he spoke as a crusader against global warming in Manila.
Two scientists from the University of the Philippines yesterday lamented how Gore's "doomsday" pronouncements apparently received more attention than the more detailed analyses and solutions offered by Filipino environmental experts.
They also challenged and branded as "exaggerated" what the former US leader said about Manila Bay "overflowing" because of the greenhouse effect.
Too much use of ground water by typical households and establishments-not global warming-was the bigger reason the metropolis is sinking, said Dr. Carlo Arcilla and Dr. Fernando Siringan of the UP College of Science in Diliman, Quezon City.
"There we go again. A foreign celebrity coming over for a quick visit, giving a talk, and we are all in adulation, taking everything said as gospel truth," Arcilla said in a statement e-mailed to the Inquirer.
Arcilla is an associate professor of geosciences and coordinator of the college's Science and Society Program. He has a Ph D in geosciences and geotechnical engineering earned at the University of Illinois.
Siringan, a professor on marine geology, holds a Ph D from Rice University in Houston, Texas.
Exaggerated
In his first visit to the country, Gore delivered a lecture on global warming at a forum hosted last Thursday by Ambassador Alfonso Yuchengco.
The standing-room-only affair drew ranking politicians, business leaders and members of the diplomatic corps.
The former Vice President of the Clinton administration warned that up to two million Metro Manila residents may have to be evacuated from flooded communities as melting glaciers and the polar icecap raise sea levels worldwide.
Warning that the world will reach the "tipping point" toward an ecological catastrophe within the next 10 years, he urged international and local leaders to focus their efforts toward halting the phenomenon of global warming.
Doomsday scenarios
His computer-aided presentation earned a standing ovation.
"The problem with these exaggerated and very general pronouncements about environmental doomsday scenarios is that they distract us from the real local problems which we can really do something about," Arcilla said.
He conceded that global warming was "a serious threat to humanity, (but) it is certainly not in the terms that Gore presents."
As to Manila Bay overflowing, he noted that his peers at UP, like Siringan and Dr. Kelvin Rodolfo, along with their students, had conducted their own studies of the water level's rise.
Real story
"While it is true that global warming could contribute to the rise, this is only in the millimeters, but the centimeters' rise could be attributed more to heavy groundwater extraction which results in subsidence, which makes it appear that the sea is invading land," he explained.
"I am not saying that we should stop helping control greenhouse gas emissions, but very, very few really know the real story about flooding in Metro Manila," he said.
"We could cry all day about greenhouse gases but if we don't regulate carefully our use of groundwater, we could be flooding faster than whatever could come from global warming."
Reached by phone, Siringan observed: "We're falling over each other when it comes to foreign scientists. We don't listen to our very own. They have done more work but they are ignored."
He said this bias was evident in the hiring of expensive "foreign consultants" for projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways.
For the Camanava Flood Control Project, for example, the DPWH has tapped Japanese consultants who "earn in a month what Filipino scientists cannot earn in a year," said Siringan, who gets around P30,000 a month as a UP professor.
He said he shared Arcilla's "sentiments" about the Gore visit.
Listening to your own
"I am glad that former Vice President Al Gore visited Manila, but I am disturbed that we believe everything he says without filtering it through some scientific analysis," Arcilla said in his statement.
It's about time that the public-and the government-pay heed to "our own scientists, many of whom have sacrificed having a lucrative career abroad to study our own problems and propose solutions," he said.
"We do not have many scientists, but we do have a few good ones," Arcilla said, noting that as far as "credentials" were concerned, Gore "really does not have an advanced science degree, even if he is a good student of the environment."
"Let us listen to them (local scientists) also before we fall hook, line and sinker for foreigners," he said.
Someone save this for when Al comes back and spouts off here! Print it off, roll it up, then smack hi a good one.
Al Gore. Isn't he the fellow who flunked out of law school, flunked out of divinity school and finally managed to finish a degree in political science? Superb qualifications to make him an environmental expert, aren't they?
Warning that the world will reach the "tipping point" toward an ecological catastrophe within the next 10 years, he urged international and local leaders to focus their efforts toward halting the phenomenon of global warming.
Looks like ol' Al done reached his tipping point many years ago.
Funny stuff, thanks for the laughs!
Fortunately he flunked out of the Electoral College too.
UP scientists dispute Gore's doomsday scenario
Well, I was thinking UP meant Upper Penninsula (Michigan), but those people pray for global warming.
Does anybody actually still listens to this moron?!?
Thankfully, liberals consider his strategic thinking as well informed, which explains their loss in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008.
As an example, Gore thought defending this guy was a good idea for the party.
"Indeed I did . . . think Al Gore was cool"
You are right... we should be thankful that so many on the other side keep drinking the Kool-aid.
Well said, and so true. It is ironic that a dilletante dopehead like Gore (I remember his type well), who has no earthly idea about the scientific method because he was too lazy to learn about it, cultivates his reputation by pushing junk science for personal political gain.
Gore long ago entered the democrat pantheon of phonies. And, like Kerry, he desperately wants to be seen as highly intelligent despite an obviously pedestrian intellect. Can you imagine how hard it must have been to flunk out of divinity school in the 70s, for goodness sake (if he did)? He should have been able to walk away in a dope cloud without ever getting a failing grade, just incompletes. I will give him this: at least he didn't hire someone to take exams for him like that other dim bulb Kennedy, or plagiarize like that ineffable moron Biden.
He and Clinton were visiting Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. And they go into the tea room were there are busts of the Founding Fathers. And says “ Who are these guys”.
Even Clinton had What a dumb ass look on his face.
Gore's just as big an ass when he does the same in his home country.
link to photo of tea room.
http://www.monticello.org/gallery/house/interior/tearoom.jpg
Gore making that kind of speech in the Philippines was stupid. Hardly the voice of diplomacy.
So, Paramount is gearing up to release an Al Gore documentary about global warming. But at least two scientists in the Philippines are rejecting Gore's hot air. The Philippine Daily Inquirer reports:
Not everyone was pleased with the way former US Vice President Al Gore was given "celebrity" treatment when he spoke as a crusader against global warming in Manila.Two scientists from the University of the Philippines yesterday lamented how Gore's "doomsday" pronouncements apparently received more attention than the more detailed analyses and solutions offered by Filipino environmental experts. They also challenged and branded as "exaggerated" what the former US leader said about Manila Bay "overflowing" because of the greenhouse effect.
Too much use of ground water by typical households and establishments-not global warming-was the bigger reason the metropolis is sinking, said Dr. Carlo Arcilla and Dr. Fernando Siringan of the UP College of Science in Diliman, Quezon City.
"There we go again. A foreign celebrity coming over for a quick visit, giving a talk, and we are all in adulation, taking everything said as gospel truth," Arcilla said in a statement e-mailed to the Inquirer.
Arcilla is an associate professor of geosciences and coordinator of the college's Science and Society Program. He has a Ph D in geosciences and geotechnical engineering earned at the University of Illinois. Siringan, a professor on marine geology, holds a Ph D from Rice University in Houston, Texas...
...The former Vice President of the Clinton administration warned that up to two million Metro Manila residents may have to be evacuated from flooded communities as melting glaciers and the polar icecap raise sea levels worldwide.
Warning that the world will reach the "tipping point" toward an ecological catastrophe within the next 10 years, he urged international and local leaders to focus their efforts toward halting the phenomenon of global warming.His computer-aided presentation earned a standing ovation.
"The problem with these exaggerated and very general pronouncements about environmental doomsday scenarios is that they distract us from the real local problems which we can really do something about," Arcilla said.
He conceded that global warming was "a serious threat to humanity, (but) it is certainly not in the terms that Gore presents." As to Manila Bay overflowing, he noted that his peers at UP, like Siringan and Dr. Kelvin Rodolfo, along with their students, had conducted their own studies of the water level's rise...
"I am not saying that we should stop helping control greenhouse gas emissions, but very, very few really know the real story about flooding in Metro Manila," he said. "We could cry all day about greenhouse gases but if we don't regulate carefully our use of groundwater, we could be flooding faster than whatever could come from global warming."
Unfortunately, warning about groundwater use won't get you a glitzy Hollywood movie contract or lucrative speaking engagements. I hope more scientists committed to the truth speak up about Gore's bloviations.
Michelle's take in post #19 "SCIENTISTS: GORE IS FULL OF IT."
Please FReepmail me if you would like to be added to, or removed from, the Michelle Malkin ping list...
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