Is Al Gore a paleoclimatologist? Or an azz?

Question

Appearing before the Commons Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development last year, Carleton University paleoclimatologist Professor Tim Patterson testified, "There is no meaningful correlation between CO2 levels and Earth's temperature over this [geologic] time frame. In fact, when CO2 levels were over ten times higher than they are now, about 450 million years ago, the planet was in the depths of the absolute coldest period in the last half billion years." Patterson asked the committee, "On the basis of this evidence, how could anyone still believe that the recent relatively small increase in CO2 levels would be the major cause of the past century's modest warming?"

Answer 1

Al Gore is first and foremost a politician who got rich from inheriting the oil business from his father.  Now he goes around the world spouting pseudoscientific nonsense as a way to keep himself rich and in the public eye.  

Science does not operate by "consensus", it operates by observable and replicable facts, none of which his "global warming" hysteria has.   At one time there was "consensus" that the world was flat and that the sun rotated around the earth.   So, the argument that "most scientists" agree means nothing.  

Not that long ago, many of these same "scientists" were worried about civilization disappearing from the coming Ice Age.  The planet has been experiencing these changes since it appeared, as far as we know.  And the idea that mankind is causing the Earth to heat up certainly doesn't explain why Mars is heating up also.   Or is there an SUV dealership on Mars I don't know about?

Answer 2

Al Gore is not a paleoclimatologist - he served in the Army, became a journalist, then a U.S. Representative, then Senator, then VP.  He's a "recovering politician".  But he went to college and heard the lectures of Roger Revelle, a distinguished atmospheric scientist.  And, like you or I, he can read what the mainstream of scientific consensus says.

Rather than implying that Al Gore is an *** and quoting Tim Patterson, I suggest you read what a lot of scientists say.  And dig further into the data that Patterson cites to support his conclusions.  If Patterson looks a CO2 levels over geological history, does this help us predict what is happening today?  How does Patterson explain the melting of glaciers, the breakup of ice shelves in Antarctica and the Arctic?  There is always room for dissent in science, and sometimes dissenting voices are vindicated in the end.  But this is an issue of utmost importance to human civilization, and it really doesn't help to call somebody an ***.

Answer 3

Say what you will about Gore, he would have made a better president than Bush.

Answer 4

HE IS RIGHT ON TRACK . TIME WILL PROVE HIM AND OTHERS LIKE HIM RIGHT. I ONLY HOPE IT'S NOT TO LATE BY  THEN.

Answer 5

He's neither.