Posted on 05/12/2008 9:18:13 AM PDT by cogitator
Excerpted below:
... On May 6, Jeff Poor wrote for the Business & Media Institute (BMI) a story entitled, "Al Gore Calls Myanmar Cyclone a 'Consequence' of Global Warming," which was subsequently linked on the Drudge Report. Poor claims:
"Using tragedy to advance an agenda has been a strategy for many global warming activists, and it was just a matter of time before someone found a way to tie the recent Myanmar cyclone to global warming."
Poor wrote that Gore said in an interview on National Public Radio, "The year before, the strongest cyclone in more than 50 years hit China -- and we're seeing consequences that scientists have long predicted might be associated with continued global warming."
In fact, the audio clip has been doctored and the conclusion that "Al Gore Calls Myanmar Cyclone a 'Consequence' of Global Warming" is false. Here are the facts:
# Gore Said Myanmar Cyclone Is Not A Consequence Of Global Warming. The BMI headline ignores that Gore says in the interview that "any individual storm can't be linked singularly to global warming -- we've always had hurricanes."
# Gore Properly Described Relationship Between Storms And Global Warming. In the interview, Gore discussed Nargis and the devastating storms that struck China in 2006 (Typhoon Saomai) and Bangladesh in 2007 (Cyclone Sidr). He goes on to say that "the emerging consensus" among climate scientists is that the "the trend toward stronger and more destructive storms appears to be linked to global warming, and specifically to the impact of global warming on higher ocean temperatures in the top couple of hundred feet of the ocean, which drives convection energy and moisture into these storms and makes them more powerful."
* Story Presents False Clip Of Interview. The audio clip included with the online story includes two segments that have been spliced together, out of order, to mislead the listener as to Gore's actual meaning. The actual transcript (see below) makes it clear Gore was saying that the "consequences" of global warming we're seeing was the melting of the polar ice cap, which is unequivocally due to anthropogenic climate change.
* Business & Media Institute Is Part Of Right-Wing Message Machine. BMI is a right-wing "free-enterprise" front group that is part of Brent Bozell's conservative media machine, the Media Research Center.
The actual transcript reveals that Gore was speaking in response to a question about conservative pastor John Hagee's claim in a 2006 interview with Terry Gross that "Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans."
Thank you. I will do that as well.
Also note that reduced sea ice cover feeds back negatively, because open ocean waters absorb sunlight and will subsquently warm due to that effect.
Beam me to Planet Gore
Well, I'm a patient man. I expect -- though I can't predict -- that in 5 years or so, a lot more people here will realize how good my knowledge actually is/was. I have a very good awareness of what I know, why I know it, and how good my knowledge support base is. I also have a pretty good awareness of how good the knowledge support base of the skeptical side is.
As a note, there are some actual scientific experts who expect that Arctic sea ice summer minimum to get close to, or surpass, the 2007 minimum, despite the cool La Nina year conditions thus far. The reason is the marked loss of multi-year ice that happened last year. The refreeze is all "vulnerable" first-year ice.
See you in September (on that particular subject).
I think what gets me the angriest in the whole terminology used department is how you accurately described that web site as liberal, yet the main stream media (by this I mean ABC/CBS/CNN/MSNBC/NBC/PBS/NYT/WP/LAT/Time/Newsweek etc) NEVER use the terms liberal, leftwing, socialist, communist, etc, but always ensures to identify the right wing, conservative media outlets, web sites, blogs, etc.
So when I see right-wing media machine, etc, etc, half a dozen times my eyes glaze over and my give-a-$hit meter is pegged at about zero.
Shaken, not stirred.
Doing Little Is Doing Right, or You'll Wreck Economy (are you listening, McCain???)
McCain urges free-market principles to reduce global warming
Global Warming on Free Republic
a.k.a. CARBONFIELD -- a J. J. Abrams film.
Yep - my reaction upon seeing that laugher was “sez who?”... The author assumes facts not in evidence...
When Algore’s lips are moving . . .
This thread is akin to discussing the boy who cried wolf - This time he did not say it. LOL.
The real test of the theories and of The Boring One’s alarm-ism will be decades from now when there is a consensus based on observable data that demonstrates what maroon’s the people were who believed the AGW politically motivated movement.
Cog,
I heard the quote and if I recall correctly it was on Hannity’s America program on FOX, on Sunday night, May 11. I could have sworn that his statement was just as the article states...unless Hanity aired a “doctored” feed.
Has anyone tried to get in touch with Al Gore to see what he really meant?
I thought there was something fishy about this post from the start, so I went to the “Grist” source and here is what I found:
The website that alleges Fox News and Drudge falsely claimed Al Gore blamed the storm on global warming does, in fact, itself blame the storm on global warming. It is nothing but a propaganda outlet for junk science blaming everything on global warming.
What was here posted was actually just a smear of Fox News and Drudge.
The most reasonable reading of what Gore said (and says all of the time anyway) is that he does blame today’s “big storms” on global warming. That would, of course, include Mynamar.
Her is the full transcript of Gore’s interview in context, if any one is interested:
Actual Transcript of Al Gores Interview with Terry Gross:
GROSS: What do you think about when you hear a reaction like that to Katrina?
GORE: My friends in New Orleans said, Well, if thats the case, how come God spared the French Quarter? Of course thats silly.
Its also important to note that the emerging consensus among the climate scientists is even though any individual storm cant be linked singularly to global warming weve always had hurricanes nevertheless, the trend toward more Category 5 storms, the larger ones, the trend toward stronger and more destructive storms appears to be linked to global warming. And specifically to the impact of global warming on higher ocean temperatures in the top couple hundred feet of the ocean, which drives convection, energy and moisture into these storms and makes them more powerful.
And as were talking today, Terry, the death count in Myanmar from the cyclone that hit there yesterday has been rising from 15,000 to way on up there to much higher numbers now being speculated.
And last year a catastrophic storm, last fall, hit Bangladesh. The year before, the strongest cyclone in more than 50 years hit China.
And were seeing consequences that scientists have long predicted might be associated with continued global warming. The entire north polar ice cap, normally the size the lower 48 states, give or take an Arizona, is melting before our eyes. 40 percent melted in the last twenty years. And in the summer months, it could be completely gone, in one scientific estimate, in as little as five years.
Your post # 20 is correct, and if you take a look at the ‘Grist” blog that makes these allegations as posted in this article, you will see it is just a propaganda site which villifies any conservative critic of global warming.
Will cogitator retract, or will he merely wave his arms a lot and filibuster?
Well, with more and more people populating "cyclone"-prone areas, that alone accounts for any increase in destruction.
Just to try and figure out what you and Brad Johnson are saying, I listened to the tape; Gore did twice attempt to convince the audience that even though other scientists have stated that no individual storm can be linked to GW that this storm, Nargis, follows many storms at a time when the IPCC believes that continuing GW is responsible so how can you say anything was “doctored?”
The report that the “right-wing” put out contained a verbatim quote that is part of Gore’s continuing context, his very raison d’etre.
If blacks, by definition, can’t be racist, then Al Gore, by definition, can’t be smeared.
Actually, it is not inaccurate. Gore does blame big storms on global warming. While he says you cannot "singularly" blame a particular storm on it, his over all meaning is clear. He says these storms are caused by global warming, which, of course, is horseshit.
Further, this "Grist" website blames the storm on global warming itself, citing as "proof" the water temp there was one degree over some bench mark or other.
A divinity school flunky becomes the world authority on climate?? Give me a break.
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