Al Gore and "The Flat Earth Society"

NOTE
I was asked why I use the term "The Flat Earth Society" to label my Skeptics/Realist list of scientist, which I might add is not nearly complete. I do this based on my first post on the subject some time ago on the Weather Underground Site. I will re post it here as a way of explanation and put a link to this post with the list. In no way is the term meant to be despairing to any of these fine individuals. It was some comments of the late Reid Bryson that first caused me to seriously question the science behind AGW. If a man of such obvious stature could so assuredly discount the theory, then it well deserved looking into. The scientist of "the Flat Earth Society" and the many more I have yet to add to my list, are in my opinion true historical heroes.

Recently interviewed on morning television, former Vice President Al Gore stated that those who do not accept that humans are to blame for global warming are equivalent to those that belong to the Flat Earth Society, and the media should not seek to interview these global-warming deniers. A pretty strong statement from a man who on several occasions has sworn to uphold the constitution of The United States, which is pretty explicit about the freedom of speech. Frightening to think that a Nobel Peace (?) prize winner would want to stifle scientific discussion if you think about it.

But then again who is Al Gore anyway? Of course we all know who Al Gore was.

Al Gore was a former presidential candidate who won the "popular vote but lost the election on a technicality, or if you're so inclined Jeb Bush stole it for his brother. Either way he is not president of the United States.

Al Gore was Vice President of the United States, where is biggest claim to fame was saving The Kyoto Treaty and bringing it home for the dreaded George Bush to ignore. Which of course ignores the fact that his administration never sent it to the Senate for confirmation. Of course who can really blame him and old Bill for not sending it up, since a sense of the senate vote basically said, not on your life we are not going to approve such nonsense. well they didn't exactly say that but made it pretty clear they would not pass it by a narrow margin 97-0.

Al Gore was also a former senator known for his strong environmental positions, some very enviable. Al Gore was a four term congressman. Al Gore was a newspaper reporter, Viet Nam veteran and son of a former senator from Tennessee.

That briefly is what Al Gore was, but now what is Al Gore, the best way to find out, because Al Gore has become such an iconic figure, is to start with what Al Gore is not.

Al Gore is not a scientist. He may have more than laymans knowledge of certain aspects of science having been involved and studied certain scientific areas. A claim that many reading this could also make, but Al Gore is not a scientist.

Al Gore is not a public official. This may seem unimportant but since he was such a prominent one for so many years, it gets fuzzy in the mind. Being a public official either elected or appointed entails certain responsibilities and also restrictions. A public official is subject to the rules, regulations, procedures and even laws which dictate his conduct, actions and statements. In addition an elected public official such as Al Gore was, is also subject to the scrutiny of his constituency.

We have briefly looked at what Al Gore was and what Al Gore is not, Now let's look at what Al Gore is.

Al Gore is an advocate for a cause he strongly believes in, (we assume). Nothing wrong with that in the least. There are many people who believe in a variety of causes and advocate for them passionately. However it is important to remember that Al Gore despite his advocacy is not a scientist and Al Gore is not a public official.

Al Gore for the most part is a businessman and since he just picked up this profession in the past eight years, he has become a very successful one. In the past eight years Al Gore is estimated to have increased his wealth a hundred fold. His worth being around $100,000,000 . Nothing wrong with that, personally I'm all for the free market system and entrepreneurship, great stuff.

Now ask yourself a question, would Al Gore have increased his wealth a hundred fold if it wasn't for his advocacy? I think it is fair to say that Al Gore is now filthy rich primarily because of his advocacy of the theory of man made global warming. Oh I am sorry it is not a theory, it's a fact according to Al Gore, why would he say that, I wonder? In the brief article I linked from a very mainstream magazine, it states that Al Gore stands to make tens of millions a year, good for him. So why does he need to stifle the debate on man made global warming? I'll let you collect the dots, or not.

The one thing that has truly bothered me as I began to study the issue of global warming was the constant criticism of people who doubt any aspect of the theory, so I began to collect a list of these men and women who dared to challenge the so called established science. Although some do have some ties to oil and coal industries the vast majority do not. The fact that some of the IPCC scientists have long-term ties to environmental organizations does not seem to affect their credibility, such as Mike Oppenheimer . Two decades as chief scientist for the Environmental Defense (Fund) seems to be just as big a conflict as any tie that someone might have with a fossil fuel concern.

However as I said the vast majority of these men and women are simply scientist working away at public institutions whose only reward for sharing their doubts, is scorn and derision from people like Al Gore. You might ask yourself, why would any scientist speak out against the cause celeb of modern day science? Based on the cataclysmic claims being put forth by an ever increasing barrage of media blitz about global warming, why would so many scientist deny the conclusions of the IPCC, do they not care about the planet? Do they not have children and grandchildren that will be affected by this Apocalypse? They certainly are not making tens of millions of dollars as Al Gore is promoting it.

I thought it might be interesting, for those that are interested to see whom Mr. Al Gore wants to shut up. Below I will begin to post the people and resumes of some of the many whom Mr. Al Gore refers to as the equivalent of The Flat Earth Society. I will continue to add a few over the next few days as I have time, unfortunately the list I have compiled is well into the hundreds so I will not post them all, just a large sampling. Also there are many issues about global warming I wish to get into, but this particular blog, is an attempt to show there is no scientific consensus on this issue and there is still a debate raging, that you will probably never hear about on your nightly news.

Please feel free to compare these scientist's credentials with those of Al Gore or of any scientist that support the alarmist view of man made global warming. Also if you are interested in finding out what these so called deniers feel and think about global warming, educate yourself, follow up and learn. I fully understand that there are many, though not nearly as many as we are led to believe, that do believe in the alarmist view of man made global warming. That is great, then why try to stifle the debate? Of course I realize that some may come on here to discredit these gentleman, which speaks volumes, but feel free to try. One thing I am reasonably confident of, if you were to pick any twenty of these gentleman, their combined net worth probably would not equal Al Gore's.




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