Al Gore and 'Global Warming'

[rain_gryphon]

Nobody is interested in solutions if they don't think there's a problem. Given that starting point, I believe it is appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presentations on how dangerous (global warming) is, as a predicate for opening up the audience to listen to what the solutions are... -Al Gore

So, even Al Gore admits that his movie about 'global warming' is untrue. He just needed to scare people so he could sell 'solutions'. It's interesting to see politics reduced to its most basic, cynical form: a would-be Gore administration, sold just like some new miracle product to solve a problem the advertiser made up.

*****

Who said it: Al Gore or the Unabomber? I got 25% correct.

*****

Ah, Vengeance... :)

Comments

[oliver-otter.livejournal.com]

You gotta admire his honesty about his dishonesty. Well, on second thought, maybe you don't gotta.

I got 58% on the quiz myself but I suspect 58% of that 58% was luck. ;-)

[xolo.livejournal.com]

You gotta admire his honesty about his dishonesty.

That's what just completely wrecks my brain. He's admitting flat-out that there's no real problem, so he has to exaggerate because otherwise no-one will be interested in solving the non-problem. I don't think he sees anything dishonest or cynical about it, either. He wants us to follow the One True Path, and to him that's self-justifying. He's fine with saying that, because it seems to him a perfectly good, rational strategy that anyone should understand.

[barberio.livejournal.com]

"He's admitting flat-out that there's no real problem"
Er... Unless you read a different quote where he *actualy said that*, then he isn't.

He's saying there is a problem, and you need to keep over-representing the side that say there is a problem to get past inertia and those who foster it. This is, in fact, the way that it's *always* been done, he's just saying so.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

This is, in fact, the way that it's *always* been done, he's just saying so.

No disagreement from me there! :D

[barberio.livejournal.com]

It's a bug bear with me that the people who are actualy honest about how things get done are more likely to be pounded on than those who do it the same way but lie.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

Like Oliver said, you gotta give Gore some strange sort of credit for saying up front that he's lying to promote his agenda.

[gedrean.livejournal.com]

Just like Iraq, wait did I just go there?

[barberio.livejournal.com]

You really should pay more attention to what he's saying. Since people do *love* to take Al Gore's quotes out of context. (The infamaous 'I was important in congress in creating an internet' turned into 'I invented the internet').

Here he's saying that if you have a magazine, and get ten articles on global warming, and twenty on kudzu vines, then you should over-represent the global warming articles. He's *not* saying you should fudge the figures *in* those articles.

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

I would prefer an over-representation of factual presentations on how dangerous (global warming) is, as opposed to the alternative: an over-representation of non-factual presentations about it. Those would be ones that simultaneously deny that the world is getting warmer while asserting that it is a good thing that the world is getting warmer.

You're living in that bubble of unreality he mentioned.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

So... How'd you do on the quiz?

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

Meep?
Actually, same as you. 25% ;-)
Neither one sounds like I'd expect them to, though I haven't read much from either.

[loganberrybunny.livejournal.com]

Reading Gore's words in context, I think what he's saying is that he believes people need to be scared first of all into understanding that there is a problem - which is accomplished by having more presentations than one might think necessary - because you can't discuss possible solutions to a problem unless there's agreement that said problem exists. Nowhere does he say, or even imply, that the movie is untrue.

I haven't seen the film, so can't make a detailed assessment of my own... but I think, as do frankly the great (and still growing) majority of climate scientists outside your own country's increasingly bizarre "bubble", that this is the single most important threat to our planet and way of life, far more so even than terrorism - and that yes, it is mostly human-induced.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

I think the reason our 'bubble' exists is that we don't earmark government funds for global warming research. You can't make a career out of finding evidence for global warming here. Where there's money to be made identifying a problem, a problem's going to be found.

[maxgoof.livejournal.com]

You all got it wrong.

What Al Gore is saying is propaganda is good!

Oh, and I got 67% correct.

[maxgoof.livejournal.com]

The real problem I have with Al Gore's statement is that you have to believe that there is a problem, and once you do, then its okay to exaggerate the problem in order to get others to believe there is a problem, so you can work on solving the problem.

In other words, its okay to make a mountain out of a molehill if you believe it's actually a mountain.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

Well-put. That's exactly what bothers me about the ongoing efforts to create a sense of panic over this.