“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.
chris f: science? what is this so-called “science” you speak of? please educate me! haha
Seems like a mostly lost cause from your utterings so far.
chris f: I do you the favor of informing you of your pretentiousness and you STILL make the mistake of assuming your own superiority,
I have nowhere claimed any “superiority”. I just see very little merit in the already debunked (well, here in Europe) claims of the oil industry.
chris f: 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”.
You have clearly exhibited a lack of understanding of how science works. Granted, that there are either self-appointed or regular scientists who fail their grades is the entire point of the current debate, is it not?
kent: 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.
I’ve indeed changed my lifestyle so I could ditch my own car without losing any quality of life (actually the opposite!), I have last flown sometime in the early 1990s, I use the relatively efficient natural gas for heating (this building is an old one and not efficient enough to fully avoid it yet) and I have switched to 100% renewable electricity.
It doesn’t take any fanaticism nor am I a recluse or a technophobe – quite the opposite, in fact.
These are simply pragmatic and very much affordable steps to improve my quality of life and to make a reasonable contribution to the general progress of our species at the same time.
Why should I do less than I easily can?
And why are you insisting that the large-scale wasting of resources is the only way you can live your own life?
kent: 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?
Even if I or Al Gore were what you insinuate, how would that make the energy independence of your own country and the reduction of wasting of precious resources any less pressing?
Climate change deniers. Not surprising from the country that coddles politicians who believe the Earth is 6000 years old and made in 6 days. Same mentality: I don’t understand it, therefore it is not true. Anyone still repeating those claims that completely misunderstood emails means climate change is a wash is willfully ignorant. but when a frighteningly large minority of the US thinks Sarah Palin would make a good President, the problem becomes obvious.
@dogadoga
read more into that story. It broke off because of a stronger current this season, not because of warming.
I also recommend for reading: “Intellectuals and Society” by Thomas Sowell. We have a number “intellectuals” on board here today.
Again:
It’s not about whether the earth’s average global temperatures are warming, it’s about the cause (see: Sun activity) and whether or not we should flush billions of dollars down the drain and into the pockets of people like Gore while changing nothing.
The whole anthropological global warming movement is designed to separate cash from the gullible. That’s why the data was faked, lost, and/or massaged beyond recognition.
Read and learn: http://www.kusi.com/weather/colemanscorner/38574742.html
Perhaps you all missed today’s news about the 965 sq mile iceberg that broke off? We might have also missed the huge high pressure area above Greenland that pushed the freezing air south. These are issues associated with global warming weather patters. No let’s get back to the Macintosh in a non-political way.
Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Hey, we’ve got a tradition to uphold. If the human race doesn’t have enough brains to take the global climate crisis seriously, maybe it doesn’t deserve to survive.
@ european person
yes, clearly i have hahaha, i have “failed in my grades”? there you go again! man, you are dense! you do realize that you have not provided one coherent argument that did not cite a conspiracy theory dont you? oh, i forgot, im supposed to just accept it as true.
you loony leftists are so predictable. you cant make any of your ‘science-based’ arguments without a condescending remark about ‘right wingers’ or the US, or wring your hands about how ‘horrible’ humans are. your psychology is transparent, and predictable, and is clearly the source of your bias/delusion.
your punishment for being al gores tool is that you will put so much effort and sacrifice into making such a small impact on CO2, which, incidentally, has no, or negligible, impact on the environment. how about you spend some energy conserving rainforrest instead of making everyone’s life miserable?
King of All Scientists (yeah, sure): It’s not about whether the earth’s average global temperatures are warming, it’s about the cause (see: Sun activity) and whether or not we should flush billions of dollars down the drain and into the pockets of people like Gore while changing nothing.
You are flushing billions down the drain now, by paying through the nose to countries whose population largely agrees that you should all be killed, just for buying up ever-larger amounts of actually finite resources merely to fuel your outrageously inefficient lifestyle which actually gives you less quality of life than you would get for the same amount of money if you actually managed to rethink some of your assumptions.
Apple is all about thinking forwards and not taking “conventional wisdom” for granted even when the rest of the world yells “Madness!!!” at the top of its lungs — it is most definitely not by accident that Al Gore, of all people, sits on its board.
Way to go betting against Apple — but I’m sure this time Jobs will be wrong after all…
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chris f: yes, clearly i have hahaha, i have “failed in my grades”? there you go again! man, you are dense! you do realize that you have not provided one coherent argument that did not cite a conspiracy theory dont you? oh, i forgot, im supposed to just accept it as true.
I cannot help but bow to your impeccably coherent, obviously highly educated and objective argumentation.
@concerned European
You say
“And why are you insisting that the large-scale wasting of resources is the only way you can live your own life?”
“Even if I or Al Gore were what you insinuate, how would that make the energy independence of your own country and the reduction of wasting of precious resources any less pressing?”
My country can easily be energy independent just by using the resources we have. We have sealed off the vast majority of the country from being available for oil and gas exploration. This is stupid. We should take care of our own needs.
And I don’t waste large scale resources. I pay for what I use and we have plenty. I use what I choose to use. But I don’t have the belief system that natural resources are not to be used. Why do you still travel using cars, buses and trains? These all use energy forms that according to you are destructive. You should stop using them entirely. And you should not use any products that are derived from oil. I don’t have these loony beliefs so I don’t need to live according to your strange eco-religion. But you should, since it is your religion.
FOX NEWS PLEASE! MDN keep your right wing politics to you self! Its not charming at all!
@His Shadow
What hallucenogenics do you use? Please explain why your Climate Alarmist fabricate science to scare stupid people (like you)? Are they unfamiliar with real science that does not require fabricating data and smearing true scientists who disagree with your data. All these practices are part of the Global Warming Religion, of which you are a blind follower.
Hmm – It’s February. Dallas, TX has a foot of snow. Portland, Maine has no snow. If that’s not climate change, what is?
kent: My country can easily be energy independent just by using the resources we have.
No doubt.
kent: We have sealed off the vast majority of the country from being available for oil and gas exploration. This is stupid.
Fossil fuels are — by their very nature — limited and thus cannot provide any kind of sustainable independence.
kent: And I don’t waste large scale resources. I pay for what I use and we have plenty. I use what I choose to use.
Wasting with abandon just because you think the supply would never end (which is most certainly wrong) is still wasting.
kent: But I don’t have the belief system that natural resources are not to be used.
Same here. So why don’t you get your butt off the couch and start using the actually independent, infinite resources which you’ve thus far chosen to ignore? Why?
kent: Why do you still travel using cars, buses and trains? These all use energy forms that according to you are destructive. You should stop using them entirely.
I’ve drastically reduced the use of fossil fuels without losing any quality of life (actually the opposite).
By the way: Trains use (mostly renewably generated) electricity in most developed countries.
You are simply and completely wrong about going for efficiency being some mad religion – it is pure and unfettered pragmatism, top to bottom.
And the people who invest in efficiency technologies now are the same ones who you’ll be paying patent royalties to tomorrow.
I still don’t get the complacency, the pervasive “can’t do!” spirit which I would have thought to be entirely un-american just a few years ago.
It is just sad to watch, really.
At least your new administration seems be somewhat ahead of you at long last, as is Apple.
Why is it always assumed that being skeptical of the “generally accepted science” of man made global warming == not wanting to find and develop efficient alternate energy sources? Why does everyone make it out that it has to be one or the other? Just because I am somewhat skeptical of our ability to model such a vastly complex system in which certain “assumptions” have to be made to even be able to evaluate it, does not mean that I have to be an advocate of free-wheeling pollution or wasteful energy consumption. I just think we should focus our efforts and money on R&D;of the technologies to make alternate energy sources more efficient and affordable, not at developing policies designed to punish companies that may not currently be in favor with those promoting the AGW science.
As an Apple Share Holder I voted to get rid of Al Gore! He has zero credibility!!
Merry Prankster: Hmm – It’s February. Dallas, TX has a foot of snow. Portland, Maine has no snow. If that’s not climate change, what is?
It’s called weather.
You are welcome.
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Macdoc: As an Apple Share Holder I voted to get rid of Al Gore! He has zero credibility!!
And as usual, Steve Jobs knows a bit more than you do.
@asterix
I thought asterix was gallic (french)
Dear Concerned European
You are truly dense. There are no unlimited forms of energy. Most of the “alternative” energies promoted by eco-nuts require huge government subsidies to even be considered. Please explain the renewable energy source for your trains – are they solar or wind powered?
People have been saying we will run out of oil for the last 100 years. Our current known reserves are greater now than they were 10 years ago. You don’t even know if they come from fossils. That is a theory. Can you name some natural resource vital for human life which has been exhausted by our use? Just name one. By now we should have run out of most natural resources, given the life of the planet and our extravagant use. So I am sure you can name one things which has been completely consumed.
Why are you fixated on the idea that we are capable of destroying the earth or changing the climate. We can’t even predict the weather a few days hence – and you think we can change the weather? And you go further, you think that once we have started a process of weather change, we can correct it? How do you know these brilliant actions you recommend won’t overcorrect and create an ice age? Of course, you are brilliant and capable of managing a global climate. Right. You probably can’t even set the clock on your VCR.
@macdoc
do he have zero credibility as a board member of the ressurected and mighty apple of now? I don’t think so. Remember he was part of the ressurection and good times that have become great times for Apple. His political views (quite possibly more reasoned than the majority of drivel slung about here) may be one thing, but as a boardmember of apple he has done a fantastic job. read: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2003/mar/19gore.html
When Gore suggested that the environment offered excellent business opportunities, I think he was referring to the business of going green. This is still relatively uncharted water, and any company that can produce clear, renewable energy is likely to make a fortune.
climate change aside, just tell me what the problem is with having clean air to breathe? Vehicles that aren’t noisy and a few trees here and there to have some shade? Why do I need to breathe this filthy air? It shortens my life and increases my risk of cancer and other fabulous illnessnes. Just so some fat, stupid ignoramus can drive around in a vehicle 3 times heavier and bigger than s/he needs? I’m talking about quality of life now. To me, cleaner and greener is about that and I’m quite happy to pay for it. The nice yellow-orange petrochemical haze that lingers over all our cities is digusting; I really appreciate it on hot days more than any other.
The GREEN industry movement is a complete sham. It is businesses that seek to profit from government subsidies by creating some product that is not economically viable on its own merits. The government has taken vast sums of public money and shoveled it into the GREEN industries and companies like GE, that are happy to be paid to make stupid products like compact flourescent light bulbs and windmill turbines, which are basically things that are not capable of competing in the marketplace without large government subsidies. And compact flourescents and windmills involve environmental damage at least equivalent to the older and more cost effective method they are designed to replace.