Greens Give Gore 2 Thumbs Down: Gore's climate 'reality' show faces strongly negative reviews from his fellow global warming activists

Environmental allies distance themselves from Gore: 'I actually avoided the Goreathon...Gore is now as much a hindrance as a help on climate...my heart immediately sank..most boring talk on climate, ever'

Friday, September 16, 2011By Marc Morano – Climate Depot

[Update - Sept. 18, 2011: Yet Another Key Claim of Gore Bites the Dust! NOAA lead author of U.S. Climate Science Assessment Report on Texas drought: 'This is not a climate change drought' -- For constant updates on Gore see here.]

Former Vice President Al Gore 24 hour climate “reality” show is surprisingly facing strongly negative reviews from Gore's fellow global warming activists and environmental allies. In addition, two German scientists ridiculed Gore for his "apocalyptic" tone and his "promise of salvation."

Climate activist Bob Ward was tepid about Gore's show. “One could complain that some of the presentations overstated the certainty and wrongly implied that individual weather events could be attributed to climate change,” lamented Ward. Ward is the Policy Director, for the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Mike Shanahan, of the International Institute for Environment and Development, bragged that he purposefully avoided watching Gore's climate telethon.

“I actually avoided the Goreathon, and I guess that says something in itself,” Shanahan wrote. He added that a journalist sent him a text declaring: “Gore gets gold for most boring and least galvanizing talk on climate, ever...That, and possibly damaging.”

Shanahan was blunt in his opinion of Gore: “Climate Change needs a Gandhi or a Martin Luther King or a Mandela, and Al Gore is none of those.”

Other global warming activists were just as wary of having anything to do with Gore's attempt to link al bad weather to man-made global warming.

“Overall, I don't think this (Gore's) initiative will do much good. For one thing, Al Gore is now as much a hindrance as a help on climate change advocacy, as he's been characterized (probably unfairly) as a highly partisan figure, and so immediately gets about half of all folks offside,” Barry W. Brook, the director of climate science at the Environment Institute at University of Adelaide in Australia, said.

“Gore is in the situation that certain X-wing fighter pilot was during the assault on the Death Star (in the film Star Wars), when Luke Skywalker called out over the intercom: 'Pull out Wedge, you can't do any more good back there!'"

Brook went even further, declaring the entire man-made global warming debate to be futile.

“I think the climate change debate is over. It's like a snow mobile slipping on slush -- it isn't moving forward any time soon.”

The UK Guardian's Leo Hickman, a prominent media activist for man-made global warming, was embarrassed by Gore's extreme weather link to man-made global warming linkage.

“I was a little nervous this morning logging into Climate Reality...And, I have to say, my heart immediately sank,” when viewing it, Hickman wrote. Hickman asked: “Is Gore now a help or hindrance to global warming cause?” See: Hickman on Gore's 'Death by PowerPoint'-- “I have suffered this torture too many times over the years...[Gore's show had] slide after slide of extreme weather events...& linking everyone, it seemed, to rise in [man-made] emissions...that is a very contentious peg on which to hang your hat...That kind of talk traditionally requires lots of caveats and careful explaining. Done with abandon and raw emotion – as this presenter seemed to be doing – and you are quickly labeled in some quarters as a climate 'alarmist.'”

[Update: 9-19-11: New Scientist warmist Catherine Brahic pans Goreathon as 'cringe-worthy' and suggests 'Gore's time is over' -- 'Underwhelming 24 hours' Brahic: 'It was cringe-worthy, quite dull, and sadly not very compelling...I'm still left with the overwhelming feeling that Gore's time is over' -- 'Presenting climate change as an irrefutable, global scientific consensus does not work. People do not want to hear from a former US V.P. with a briefcase full of academic honours and a clear agenda'

TIME Mag; 'Gore made the scientific consensus seem stronger than it really is' ]

Professor Judith Curry, the chair, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta echoed these sentiments.

“If the intent of Al Gore's telethon is to garner broad support for climate and energy policies such as proposed by the UNFCCC (e.g. the Kyoto protocol), I anticipate that this effort will backfire and energize the opposition to such policies,” Curry, who has shifted her views more towards the skeptical view of global warming in recent years, wrote on her blog.

“As a scientist I find the mantra 'remove the doubt, reveal the deniers' to be objectionable and antithetical to the scientific process. Gore's effort will further polarize an already inflamed and politicized debate surrounding the science and policy response to climate change,” Curry explained. She also noted that Gore's tactics will lead to more scientists declaring their dissent from man-made global warming. “Just today, Physics Nobel Laureate Ivar Giaever explains his resignation from APS,” Curry noted.

Gore's 'promise of salvation'

A pair of German scientists noted the religious overtones of Gore's 24 hour climate telethon. “There was only one message, an apocalyptic one, with the respective promise of salvation; sometimes the discourse almost switched into a religious sermon: once we behave climate friendly, there won't be any storms or other natural disasters anymore,” wrote German scientists Hans von Storch & Werner Krauss of the Helmholtz Centre for Materials and Coastal Research in Geesthacht, Germany.

Storch and Krauss chided Gore for seemingly linking every bad thing to man-made global warming. “Highly speculative (and deterministic) assertions such as the interpretation of the Arab upheavals as a result of global warming were made repeatedly, sold as scientific knowledge and without being challenged,” the scientists noted. Also see: DudGate! Gore's Last Gasp – German Media Completely Ignores His Bitter Slur-athon

Skeptics of man-made climate change fears were also brutal on Gore's latest climate science effort.

Canada's Sun TV commentator with Charles Adler compared Gore to scandal ridden U.S. televangelist Jimmy Swaggart and warned of a “dangerous cult of personality” surrounding Gore. Adler mocked Gore as a prophet who was “going to hold back droughts.”

Physicist Dr. Lubos Motl also ridiculed Gore for being a “prophet.” “Gore had to personally train about 3,000 random people from the whole globe. The idea is that he is the prophet so anyone who ever touches him immediately gets the status of a priest in his community, a kind of medium religious rank,” Motl wrote.

“The media almost totally ignored the non-event in this case. Well, in fact, even a huge majority of the alarmist blogosphere (not just Real Climate) remained silent about this bummer,” Motl noted.

Meteorologist Anthony Watts noted how boring Gore's climate telethon was becoming four hours into it. See: Gore's 24 hour show a flop!? 'After hour 4 it is starting to look like a massive dud'

Watts also unloaded on Gore for comparing global warming skeptics to tobacco company propaganda. See: Meteorologist Watts Tells Gore to shove his tobacco analogy up his A@* -- 'For the record, Mr. Gore, both of my parents died of smoking related illnesses. As a result, I abhor everything about tobacco. Therefore Mr. Gore, you can take that comparison and forcefully insert it into the bodily orifice of your choice'

Watts also noted that Gore brought on a former Miss Rhode Island contestant 'to talk about sea level rise -- while warmist Paul Higgins of AMS sputters to non-answers'

Steve Milloy of Junk Science, called Gore a “tobacco hypocrite.” “Gore & his family were quite content to profit from tobacco users for more than 20 years after 1964 publication of first Surgeon General report on smoking.” Milloy wrote.

The skeptical website Real Science mocked the timing of Gore's 24 hour climate telethon. Scientist Steve Goddard, the publisher of the website noted the massive cold spell in the U.S. and the inconvenient climate data that coincided with Gore's event. See: Breaking: Sea Level Continues Its Historic Decline -- 'Envisat shows that the 2 year long decline is continuing, at a rate of 5mm per year' -- The 'Gore Effect' extends to sea level! 'No doubt Gore will pass this good news on to all his viewers'

Goddard also noted that during Gore's 24 hour show, Arctic ice made impressive gains in size. See: 'Arctic Gained A New Manhattan Of Ice Every Two Minutes Yesterday -- '16 city blocks of new ice forming every second!' & The 'Gore Effect' Hits Arctic Ice! 2,200 Manhattans Of New Arctic Ice Growing In The Last 5 Days -- 'A new Manhattan of ice is being born every 3 minutes!'

The skeptical website Tom Nelson, also noted the so-called “Gore Effect.” See: 'Gore Effect' strikes again: During Gore's 24-hour climate show, and while it's still summer in the N. Hemisphere, 16 new city blocks of Arctic ice formed every second!'

CFACT (the parent company of Climate Depot) mocked Gore for “jumping the shark.” See: 'Note to Al Gore: You've jumped the shark' Skeptics at CFACT react to Gore's 24 show: 'We tuned in. What we found exceeded our worst expectations' -- 'Speaker after speaker showed slide after slide of tragedy. Flooded houses, parched crops, starving kids. Shameless...Not only is human progress not responsible for severe weather, it is the best chance we have to meet these children's nutritional needs in the future'

Climatologist Dr. Roy Spencer pulled no punches in evaluating Gore's scientific claims. See: Gore's 24 Hour Climate Astrology Show Slammed: Gore's beliefs are 'matters of faith, not observable scientific reality' -- Current weather is NOT 'outside realm of natural climate variability'

News Round Up of Gore's 24 Hours of Climate 'Reality': (for continuous updates, please go here)

Watch Now: Climate Depot's Morano on Canadian TV: 'Gore is a desperate man. Gore has utterly and completely failed...Gore is promoting 'climate astrology' (Int. begins at 06:40) -- Morano: 'No matter the weather, it's just what global warmists would have expected. It is now akin to predictions of Mayan calendar or Nostradamus...But, the science is clear: Big tornadoes are on decline since 1970s, hurricane activity is near 40 year lows, sea level is dropping...polar bears (doing fine), Mt. Kilimanjaro gaining ice. From A-Z, Gore has egg on his face when it comes to man-made global warming'

MUST READ: In Anticipation Of The Gore 'Lie-A-Thon' - Severe Weather Reality From The 1950s, 1960s & 1970s

Paging Al Gore: Read this 'list of severe weather incidents that took place during the 50s, 60s and 70s. These terrible and destructive events occurred well before the current decade's hysteria about CO2 emissions. These events represent empirical evidence (reality) that refutes Al Gore's type of climate science'

'A study published in 2011 in Geophysical Research Letters on causes of the 2010 Russian heat wave deduced that it 'was due to internal atmospheric dynamical processes' -- Paging Al Gore: Peer-reviewed Study: 'It is unlikely that the warming attributable to increasing greenhouse gas concentrations contributed significantly to the magnitude of the [Russian] heat wave'

Climate Depot Response to Gore: “Gore has severely overreached in his 24 hour 'reality' show by claiming virtually every weather event to be a result of man-made global warming. Even global warming activists are cringing at Gore's unscientific climate astrology claims. Gore wants us to believe that our SUV's are weather machines -- will he blame witches for crop failures next? Memo to Al Gore from Climate Depot: The UN and Congress cannot legislate, tax or regulate the weather.”

Gore's spokesperson Maggie Fox ducks radio debate at last minute with skeptic! 'They know that their claims will not withstand critical scrutiny'
DudGate: Gore's Climate Reality Project: a massive dud – even warmists are panning it now

Gore brings on Miss Rhode Island to talk about sea level rise -- while warmist Paul Higgins of AMS sputters to non-answers

'Note to Al Gore: You've jumped the shark' Skeptics at CFACT react to Gore's 24 show: 'We tuned in. What we found exceeded our worst expectations' -- 'Speaker after speaker showed slide after slide of tragedy. Flooded houses, parched crops, starving kids. Shameless...Not only is human progress not responsible for severe weather, it is the best chance we have to meet these children's nutritional needs in the future'

Flashback: Watch Now: Climate Depot's Morano on Fox News Mocking Gore's 'Climate Astrology': 'This is now akin to the predictions of Nostradamus or the Mayan calendar' -- Morano: 'There is no way anyone can falsify the global warming theory now because any weather event that happens 'proves' their case...Man-made global warming has ceased to be a science, it is now the level of your daily horoscope' -- Gore [in 2006 film] did not warn us of extreme blizzards and record cold winters coming'

The 'Gore Effect' Hits Arctic Ice! 2,200 Manhattans Of New Arctic Ice Growing In The Last 5 Days -- 'A new Manhattan of ice is being born every 3 minutes!'

Arctic Ice fails to reach record low -- But Gore still claims record low!?

The 'Gore Effect' is Back! Early Freeze Could Severely Damage Minnesota Crop Production

It's official, NOAA shows the 'Gore Effect' hitting America tonight – Cold Wave Has Perfect Timing!

Surprise summer snow in Colorado

Climate Depot Factsheet on the 'Gore Effect' Phenomenon: 'Happens when global warming-related event, or appearance by Gore is marked by exceedingly cold weather'

Hour by Hour analysis: 24 Hours of Climate Reality: Gore-a-thon – Hour 6

Analysis: Gore's effort to 'expose' climate change skeptics will instead show that Gore is a charlatan'

'It is a mistake to blame human activities for current weather extremes. The NIPCC concluded that 'the data reveal there have not been any significant warming-induced increases in extreme weather events.' The report's authors showed that this was the case whether the phenomenon being studied was precipitation, floods, drought, storms, hurricanes, fire, or other weather-related events'

Wash. University's College Democrat student says paying well over $100k for Gore to speak on campus was a 'steal' -- 'Thank you Treasury for funding Al Gore'

'The University's treasury absolutely did the right thing by approving money for the purpose of bringing Al Gore to campus. Gore is a generational figure...Bringing Al Gore will up our 'going green' street cred in a big way...this is a steal...the cost to the students, because of the alternate funding, is substantially lower than it would normally be to bring Al Gore to campus'

Gore caught inflating viewer numbers for his Goreathon: Claimed 8.6 million -- But more like only 17,000 tuned in!