Joe Bastardi: Unbelievable Al Gore
31 03 2008Joe Bastardi, long-range forecast expert at Accuweather.com, responds to Al Gore’s statements on CBS’s 60 Minutes that people skeptical of AGW are “almost like the ones who still believe that the moon landing was staged in a movie lot in Arizona and those who believe the world is flat“:
I am absolutely astounded that someone who refuses to publicly debate anyone on this matter and has no training in the field narrated a movie where frames of nuclear explosions were interspersed in a subliminal way in scenes of droughts and flood, among other major gaffes, can say these things and then have them accepted… by anyone.
[...] What gets me most is he goes on unchallenged one-on-one on this. Never in all my years of competition have I seen someone elevated to a level that he is, in any thing, without any face-to-face competition to establish credibility.
[...] anyone that believes he knows absolutely what is going to happen with the climate in the future, well you be the judge as to who is the card carrying member of the flat Earth society, that person, or the skeptic.
Would Al Gore get the media protection he gets if he were a Republican?
Of course not.
He’d get media protection no matter what his politics were so long as he espoused global warming. The media prefers certain issues, not certain political parties.
How does Bastardi explain the collapse of glaciers on all continents? Gore is right — only geocentrist-like Luddites can deny global warming.
One can fairly question the extent of human contribution to the warming — but it takes a complete idiot, or amazing ideologue, to note that the entire planet is warming and has been for some time, and then claim otherwise.
Does Bastardi note the warming and make a call to action? No, like an ideologue, he goes after Gore.
How does some clown who has never debated anyone except the cameraman in the weather studio think he has the arguments to hold water against Al Gore? Bastardi is really loaded with hubris on this one.
Does Bastardi want us to chip in on a violin for him? Nero fiddled while Rome burned, and that appears to be what Bastardi recommends here. Can Bastardi really make the case that starvation in the Sahel is not caused by warming? Let him make it — but let him, like a man instead of a snake, stand up and do something to end the starvation.
The issue isn’t that Al Gore gets the publicity Bastardi craves. The issue is people are at risk. Bastardi and other denialists argue we shouldn’t do anything because it isn’t our fault — as if that were a good excuse for inaction.
Nuts.
Ed
I do not think there is definite evidence of glaciers collapsing “on all continents”. Even the IPCC could not find global evidence of “warming”, and the overwhelming bulk (96%) comes from Europe alone (3% more from North America. So just 1% from Asia, Africa, Oceania, Antarctica, South America…).
I do not know if Bastardi is a clown. I do know he gets a living from making weather forecasts, so even if the cameramen may be silent, the Accuweather paying customers would be up in arms were Bastardi a total moron or incompetent.
Concerning the Sahel, there are good news of late, with rains returning. How does that correlate with “global warming”, you tell me.
Finally, the issue is not as much the risk people are at, but the risk some people think to be at.
So yours and Bastardi’s predictions are that the Sahel will nevah be hungry again? Even tomorrow, at Tara?
If you’re sure there’s no starvation problem, great. I haven’t seen those figures. I’ve been looking at malaria, though, and I note that the range of the vectors is spreading both north and south latitudinally to previously too-cold areas, and up in elevation, to previously too-cold highlands. IPCC couldn’t find evidence of warming? No, I think you’re reading the scientific cool, even-handedness with way too much optimism. Almost every glacier on Earth is in decline — Kiliminjaro notwithstanding, the only places ice is being added are those places where lake-effect snows contribute to the glaciers. In those two or three places on Earth, the lake effect is caused by warmer atmosphere that warms local lakes or local ocean currents, putting more water into the atmosphere that returns as snow.
Yes, I know Bastardi makes his living as a weatherman. So he has no ground whatsoever to claim Gore doesn’t debate, whether his camaraman debates him on air or not.
Al Gore is one of the more compassionate, scientifically-literate and brilliant people I’ve ever met. He was right about organ transplants, and our current system of donor designations on drivers licenses is as tribute to Gore’s legislative acumen and scientific foresight. He was right about computer-based communication, and his saving ARPANET means you can have a blog today. He was right about orphan drugs. He was right about toxic wastes.
With a stellar record like that, your cheap shots at him probably don’t bother him at all. Nor do Bastardi’s.
And I gotta wonder: What has Bastardi done for the world lately? I don’t see him giving up his Emmys to move poor people out of storm harm’s way in Bengla Desh, or anywhere else.
Cheap shots at a great man don’t make the case. Living organisms are better predictors of long-term trends than instrument measurements. We’ve recently changed the climate zones for plants in North America, again, reflecting the march of earlier-than-previous-year springs (spring comes 8 hours earlier each year, at least a 30-year trend). Read about it here:
http://timpanogos.wordpress.com/2008/03/22/plants-refuse-to-listen-to-climate-change-skeptics/
Birds, glaciers, plants, grizzlies, weeds and gophers: Will it require the stones to cry out before the skeptics listen?
Ed
If you don’t read the IPCC documents, and create your own reality, you’ll be right 100% of the time
Remember the Green Alps:
http://motls.blogspot.com/2006/08/green-alps-in-roman-empire.html
[...] Is this “science”? Looks more like long-term guaranteed employment to me… No wonder Anthropogenic Climate Change has important detractors in the metereological community. [...]