“Al Gore won a Nobel Prize and an Oscar for his film, An Inconvenient Truth. But in the last three months, as global warming has gone from a scientific near-certitude to the subject of satire, Gore — the public face of global warming — has been silent on the topic,” Koprowski reports. “The former vice president apparently finds it inconvenient even to answer calls to testify before the U.S. Senate. You can call him Al… but he won’t call back.”
“On Tuesday, Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe — a prominent skeptic of global warming theory and the Republican leader of the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee — issued a request for Gore to come testify on global warming,” Koprowski reports. “In an interview with FoxNews.com, Inhofe said he wants Gore to appear because ‘it will be interesting to ask him on what science he based his movie,’ a film the senator considers ‘science fiction.'”
“Gore has yet to respond, but that didn’t prevent him from causing a stir at Apple’s shareholder meeting Thursday. According to CNET, Gore was seated in the first row while several stockholders bashed his high-profile views on climate change. One reportedly said Gore ‘has become a laughingstock. The glaciers have not melted,'” Koprowski reports. “Gore did not reply, and he has not commented on his blog or Twitter feed.”
“Since his appearance at the Copenhagen climate summit in December, Gore has been reluctant to talk to the media, making only a handful of public appearances,” Koprowski reports. “On Jan. 16, he spoke at the American Library Association conference at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, and he signed copies of his newest book, Our Choice: How We Can Solve the Climate Crisis. On Feb. 22, at the IBM Pulse Conference in Las Vegas, Gore commented on how the environment was a fantastic business opportunity.”
“The media, meanwhile, have started to ask why the world’s most famous advocate of all things green remains mute on the growing chorus of opposition,” Koprowski reports. “‘The godfather of climate hysteria is in hiding as another of his wild claims unravels — this one about global warming causing seas to swallow us up,’ the editors of Investors Business Daily wrote on Tuesday. ‘We’ve not seen or heard much of the former vice president, Oscar winner and Nobel Prize recipient recently as the case for disastrous man-made climate change collapses.'”
Full article here.
Erica Ogg reports for CNET, ” Apple’s attitude on environmental and sustainability issues was one of the main concerns of the stockholders present Thursday, followed closely by the company’s immense pile of cash. But early harsh comments about former Vice President Al Gore’s record set the tone.”
“Gore was seated in the first row, along with his six fellow board members, in Apple’s Town Hall auditorium as several stockholders took turns either bashing or praising his high-profile views on climate change,” Ogg reports. “At the first opportunity for audience participation just several minutes into the proceeding, a longtime and well-known Apple shareholder–some would say gadfly–who introduced himself as Shelton Ehrlich, stood at the microphone and urged against Gore’s re-election to the board. Gore ‘has become a laughingstock. The glaciers have not melted,’ Ehrlich said, referring to Gore’s views on global warming. ‘If his advice he gives to Apple is as faulty as his views on the environment then he doesn’t need to be re-elected.'”
“Another shareholder immediately got up to defend Gore and endorse his presence as an Apple director. And that wasn’t the end of it. Two different proposals from shareholders were presented in regard to Apple’s environmental impact,” Ogg reports. “Both proposals were ultimately rejected by shareholders.”
“Despite his apparently polarizing nature, Gore was re-elected with the rest of the slate in preliminary results. Proposals regarding changes to an employee stock plan, directors’ stock options, an advisory vote on executive compensation, and selection of Ernst & Young as Apple’s public accounting firm were all passed to complete the official business portion of the event,” Ogg reports. “One shareholder asked if Apple might consider investing in electric-car maker Tesla. To that, Jobs replied he was planning on throwing ‘a toga party’ with the money instead.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The results of a poll regarding Al Gore that we ran January 12-17, 2010 are below. We’ve put it up again fresh (top left column of the “big” (non-mobile) site) to see if there’s any appreciable difference now, six weeks later.
I’d prefer a warm sunny day rather than a cold dark dreary winter day. My food supply would like it, too. Go Global Warming!
BTW, I think more people die from the cold rather than the heat so I wonder what the real motive is.
And sometimes my heating bill is higher than my electric bill (heating vs cooling).
@ effete european
youre ability to delude yourself is what is truly staggering my friend
you didn’t get the memo? anthropogenic global warming IS the new conventional wisdom. just ask your buddy al and, sadly, our President, who say that the debate is over and that you should just accept it. even their biggest promoters, e.g. al gore, refuse to have an open debate, and in fact actively stifle debate. why dont you do me a favor and go try to act important somewhere else. cheers!
Al Gore made a lot of money talking about climate change. He won some serious awards and made a ton of money in the process.
The science behind climate change is now under serious dispute. I hope Al brings his data to the forefront and lets his science speak for itself.
I’m more worried about Global COOLING. You read right. Global cooling. In the history of the earth’s formation and evolution, at one time or another, the Earth has been, in essential chronological order:
1. A large ball of molten lava
2. Frozen solid
3. Almost completely covered in water
4. Highly tropical with dense rain forests
5. Covered to a significant degree by vast sheets of ice (the Ice Age)
6. The world as we have known it for the past 2-3,000 years
Whether we suffer global warming or not, this current epoch is a mere short break between ice ages. Scientists agree on this. Whatever mess we make of the world at the moment (and we’re doing a spiffy job of it too, I might add), GLOBAL WARMING WON’T MATTER. Why? Because even if we can save the world, so to speak, in 10,000 years or so, the Earth will enter another Ice Age. That’s not a threat or conjecture. This WILL happen. And not because of Al Gore or any of the rest of us. It’s a simple scientific fact.
I don’t want to enter the fray over who is right or wrong on the question of global warming except to conjecture that everyone is probably wrong, pro and con. The data used completely sucks. But when looking at macro trends in the earth’s climate change long-term, my weather forecast calls for inhospitable cold of a duration that will wipe all human life away. So enjoy the relatively warm weather while you can.
“The glaciers have not melted,’ Ehrlich said”
What a load. Pictures of glaciers in Alaska and Greenland, going back many decades, show exactly that – and it has been accelerating. Not to mention the unprecedented seasonal shrinking of ice in the Arctic Circle, as well as the constant cleaving of record setting burgs in Antactica, and the disappearance of the snows of Kilimanjaro in Africa.
Anyone saying that the earths glaciers, everywhere on Earth, aren’t melting at rates never before seen in recorded history doesn’t know what he or she is talking about.
If you want to fall back on the “Yeah, but we don’t know it’s because of US” argument, the ice cores of those very same areas show what the atmosphere of our planet was like going back long before recorded history, as well as temperatures (indicated by less snowfall). The corollation between rising levels of CO2 being followed by rising temperatures is indisputable in those cores, as is the dramatic – and again, unprecedented – rise in both CO2 levels and temperatures after the Industrial Revolution.
So at some level, and regardless of whatever the Sun may or may not be doing, our best evidence strongly suggests that human industrial activity is affecting our climate.
I think what kills me the most – at least recently – about those who fervently want to believe either that our burning of fossil fuels is irrelevant to this change in climate, or that the change is not happening, is that they typically use the argument that 30 or 40-some years of obvious warming is not NEARLY enough time (geologically speaking) to prove it to be a trend, and yet this ONE WINTER of cold temperatures is more than enough to disprove it.
Truly and without doubt, the hardest of the hard core conservatives in this country are the most hypocritical and intellectually stupid part of the human race.
I guess it’s really global cooling… would that be about right for all you hot air blowing right wingers? That’s why the cherry trees bloomed in early February here in Oregon… right? That’s why it has reached 60F on Mt. Hood in January, right? And that’s why it was 60F up at Whistler during part of the Olympics and they had to truck all the snow in for the events… right? None of that really matters, right? Only thing that matters is the weather event right in your own back yard… oh yeah, we got snow in the Northeast during winter… holy shit! There ain’t no way global warming could be anything but an Al Gore scam…right??
Dumb asses. Seriously…!
chris f: you didn’t get the memo?
Oh, we got the “memo” from the oil corporations as well over here – we just stuck with our scientists instead.
As difficult, sometimes confusing and even partially contradictory science can be, it is what has given you the computer you’re reading this one, among many, many other things. And many parts of the foundation your computer has been created on are much less solid than the case for climate change.
Another random thought: With you and the oil corporations on one side, almost the entire scientific community, most of the global political community, Al Gore, Steve Jobs and Apple on the other – how far does your conviction go that it is actually the small minority of scientists (most of them from non-climate-research fields) and the oil industry, of all people, who have the more objective view on climate change?
It’s not the reason why I see things the way I see it, but I’m with Jobs, Gore and most of the rest of the world.
When has it last been a smart thing to bet on Steve Jobs being wrong when he seems to know what he’s doing while others keep ridiculing his position…?
I like this website a LOT LESS when the topic turns to politics.
@phredcat – excellent. One less libtard on this site.
“all you hot air blowing right wingers….Only thing that matters is the weather event right in your own back yard… oh yeah, we got snow in the Northeast during winter.”
I didn’t know the Northeast was a bastion of Conservatism.
If increased snowfall is a sign of global warming, then why were these Democrat senators saying that a *lack* of snow was also a sign of global warming just a few years ago?
http://blip.tv/play/hJNRgcS7EQI.m4v
THE EAST COAST IS FROZEN!!!
Hey idiots, it’s February!!
It might be pretty hot in Phoenix this summer too,
It’s like your girlfriend telling you she’s pregnant so you’ll marry her.
You do, trying to do the right thing, then you find out she lied to you.
You now hate her – even though she might have otherwise been a great wife. You now do nothing she wants, and you hate each other.
The GW debate being over is far from it. Algore uses the energy of 28 homes, he flies in private jets, and otherwise is full of shit.
The “scientists” and their “data” has been being shown as bogus, yet you huggers still hold onto it?
Why not just try to get people to do the good things that will indeed help us and the planet without bullshit?
You same haters of anyone not liberal complained about the scare-tactics used by the Bush administration. Look who are the purveyors of fear!
Global warming, health care, and now the trillions of dollars in debt.
You guys pick some funny heros to follow…
@ effete european
science? what is this so-called “science” you speak of? please educate me! haha
I do you the favor of informing you of your pretentiousness and you STILL make the mistake of assuming your own superiority, you assume i’m ‘on the oil corporations side’ and that i dont have two advanced degrees in science, and that i’m not capable of understanding the subtle nuances of this “partially contradictory science”.
i hope al gore appreciates the money youre contributing to him.
Really?…
Why just 3 hours ago, a glacier broke off as reported here:
“Antarctic Collision Snaps Rhode-Island-Sized Iceberg Off Glacier”
http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2010-02/antarctic-collision-snaps-rhode-island-sized-iceberg-glacier
– dogadoga
@ Concerned European
Are you concerned enough to stop driving and flying and used natural gas based heat and electricity (which comes from coal or nuclear both of which are highly destructive)? I assume you don’t use these deadly energy forms. Or do you just tell other people how to live – like Al Gore, who is one of the most gluttonous consumers of fossil fuels? Are you really concerned – or are you just a phony?
While global warming is a fact agreed upon every actual scientist who has studied the issue, a question of more cogency here is whether Gore brings anything to his role on Apple’s board. What I understand (from a solid second-hand source) is the other board members don’t think he adds anything of value to Apple.
Me In LA: The “scientists” and their “data” has been being shown as bogus
Yet another example of how clueless most of the rabid gorophobes are when it comes to science.
There are many thousands of researchers involved in the entire research effort, and science has always lived with and survived defective data and defective conclusions by the simple merit of being self-correcting on a purely factual basis, nder long-standing rules which have managed to provide you with the enormously successful technological civilization which allows you to bitch and moan about the invalidity of science on the scientist-created internet.
You apparently suffer from the misconception that any single questionable step by any researcher will immediately invalidate the entire globally investigated research of thousands of scientists, but probably to your surprise, that is not the case and never has been.
Yes, it is difficult and time-consuming to really survey the validity of scientific claims and conclusions. But there simply is no other way, and merely echoing self-serving propaganda fed to you by corporate and political lobbyists is not cutting it — not by a long shot.
I would like to suggest to anyone truly interested in this subject to watch this presentation by Lord Christopher Monckton. It’s 1-1/2 hours long, but well worth the watch. If you are vested in the global warming/climate change position you need to see this very reasoned and rational refutation. If you can pick it apart, you are better than I. If you are a skeptic of this “crisis” and plans to “remedy” it, then you should also watch so you have more cogent arguments besides, “hey, there’s a lot of snow outside my door.”
I agree, we are between ice ages, as mentioned above… but usually the trigger for the onset of an ice age takes more than 100 years– but this time it’s happening in a relative blink of an eye. But in order for the ice age to decend, warming has to occur first, huge quantities of fresh water have to impede the flow of the Gulf Stream and other major climate controlling ocean currents. That’s beginning to happen. Massive ice melts are occurring in Greenland, and the rates of change are greater than any expected models, so the data has to continuously be adjusted. The whole thing has a snowball effect, and before long the entire process just takes off. We may already be past that point, and there’ not really anything we can do about it, most likely. But this time when the next ice age hits, it will probably take only a few decades… and that would make living in Northern Europe and Canada, the northern US or Russia just a bit more exciting… and there will be a mad rush to the tropics… imagine Mexico trying to keep illegal American immigrants out… there’s an irony for you.
So, maybe humans won’t technically “cause” the next ice age through adding to the global warming of the atmosphere, but humans will simply pull the trigger, or the pin on the grenade a bit sooner than nature might have done down the road.
Do I really care what political opinions people have about a scientific phenomenon none of us have ever experienced before? Not one bit. It’s actually hilarious to hear all the “science” being argued based on party lines…. now that’s stupid. Imagine if airline pilots argued about the best way to fly an airplane based on their politics… and no one bothered to fly the plane… Now that would be cause for an uproar, right? Faux News would be all over it…
This is not my field but I am a geologist. A group in my department researches “global warming” and the evidence for its existence is strong. It is unfortunate that this phenomenon was called “Global warming” only because that sounded more urgent than “Climate change” (which is more accurate).
The fact remains that more anthropomorphic CO2 in the atmosphere adds more energy to the atmosphere, which adds to the instability (what we are seeing now).
A consequence of “Global warming” for us in the UK could be the stoppage of the Gulf Stream. If this occurred the irony would be that northern Europe would freeze.
I have worked for some years in Greenland, and the shrinkage of the inland ice is very apparent.
Many of those complaining that “Global warming” is a farce, are like to be cursing the government in the future for not being farsighted enough to deal with problem when we could.
You cannot have it both ways and for heavens sake don’t get your science information from FOX news (or any news for that matter).
Atmospheric Science cannot be explained in sound bites or on bumper stickers; nor does the fact that it snowed some place negate decades of record keeping.
I’m an Apple shareholder and I voted to re-elect the entire board *EXCEPT* Gore.
My science says “Follow the Money!”
There is more money in denying Climate Change, than there is in supporting Climate Change. Thus, I follow the money!
Besides, the real science proves that it exists, and has a very good explanation for it’s happening. Why should we not believe that we are responsible. We’ve buggered up everything we’ve ever touched, why not the Climate too?
@ Spark – thanks, I was looking for that. I have heard him numerous times on Dennis MIller, and he’s fantastic.
@ pdxflint
that’s an interesting theory. is it anything but? i dont think there have been any similar situations in recorded history. the last time i took an ocean and atmospherics class the theory was that the currents were driven by the downward push of saline water as the northern ice formed every year. as far as i know that is not stopping, and if it does, it is on a 1000 year cycle, not decades.