Gore the Genius

Al Gore, brilliant scientist that he is, has been running a campaign accusing big oil companies of using bad science to misinform the public.  To emphasize his point in an interview with the BBC, he described "lavishly funded" attempts to create incorrect data and compared it to the campaigns of the cigarette companies that "payed actors to dress up as doctors" to misinform.  Although I know nothing about the facts behind his statements about the cigarette company campaigns of yore, but I was somewhat surprised to hear him claim that it was critics of anthropogenic global warming that were performing bad science.  After all, that is a rather hypocritical claim to say the least.  Case in point: a study was done of the weather stations that record temperatures all around the US.  This study found that not only were a large majority of stations located near heat producing areas, like AC units, parkinglots, and buildings, but that there is varience in the materials used to coat the boxes that are used to house the thermometers.  It also found that the supposed amount of warming that the earth has experienced is well within the range of uncertainty of the instruments.  Now don't get me wrong, I definitely believe that the earth has warmed an cooled in the past, I just don't see a strong correlation between warming and fossil fuels.

Furthermore, lets not get to carried away with the lavish funding of global warming skeptics compared to supportive researches.  First of all, if anthropogenic global warming is real, any test of it, whether intended to support or tear down the theory.  That's just how science works, if it's true the tests tend to show that and if it's false they tend not to.  Furthermore, we should also keep in mind that those while the oil companies may support researchers who are skeptical of global warming, the government and other groups have been throwing huge amounts of money at those who support it as well.  If there's something morally wrong with being well funded, as the esteemed philosopher Mr. Gore has implied, then I would say that those who believe in anthropogenic global warming, such as gore, should take the plank out of their own eyes before helping the others side with the speck in their own.

One last little point.  If you don't believe already that the great master of rhetoric, Al Gore was merely stringing lame tidbits of rhetoric together to make an emotional appeal just think about this.  If he's correct and the oil companies are coming up with hokey fake data, why do they need all that lavish funding?  (Speaking of his great rhetorical skills, I've heard he has an excellent vocabulary to get his point across.)

Now I know it's unfair to go after the anthropogenic global warming theory through Al Gore, I know I wouldn't like it if someone attacked me by showing that someone really dumb didn't believe in anthropogenic global warming, but the fact that Al Gore is supposed to be the figure head for the theory makes it very tempting.  (Oh, and the fact that he's always saying stupid stuff and making false claims.)