Gore wins Nobel Prize

After a message from a Judge earlier this week giving hope to climate sceptics, Al Gore has won the Nobel Peace Prize along with the IPCC. He also won an oscar for it earlier this year. So good news for those interested in the environment.

It has sparked interest in getting Gore to stand for President again, as he had it taken from him by Bush's friends in 2000. The other candidates have lots of money pouring into their campaigns, but not so much popular support.




From Wired.com, an analysis of the Judges statements. http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/10/too-convenien-2.html
Claim: [Of] Mr Gore's claims that a sea-level rise of up to 20ft would be caused by melting in either west Antarctica or Greenland "in the near future" [...] the judge said [that] "This is distinctly alarmist and part of Mr Gore's 'wake-up call'." He accepted that melting of the ice would release this amount of water - "but only after, and over, millennia."

WiSci response: The judge was way too conservative. Lots of climate scientists are worried that polar ice sheets could melt and collapse within the next century or two, causing a 20-foot sea level rise.

Claim: ""Mr Gore also referred to a study showing that polar bears were being found that had drowned "swimming long distances to find the ice". The judge said: "The only scientific study that either side before me can find is one which indicates that four polar bears have recently been found drowned because of a storm.""

WiSci response: That probably wasn't the best study for Gore to cite. But does the judge really have any idea how hard it is to find a drowned polar bear? Like finding a needle in a haystack in a whole field of haystacks. It's the population counts that matter, and if the supporting materials contain these, the kids will cry even more.

Claim: "The film said that coral reefs all over the world were bleaching because of global warming and other factors. The judge said separating the impacts of stresses due to climate change from other stresses, such as over-fishing, and pollution, was difficult.

WiSci response: Lots of things are killing coral reefs. But scientists who study them don't hesitate to say that climate change is a big problem getting bigger.

Looking at the last of these criticisms, I wonder if the judge isn't secretly on Al Gore's side. Any honest supplementary materials intended to account for Gore's so-called errors are bound to make the situation look even worse than he described it.

The man who bought the case against the film belongs to the New Party. See their version of events at www.newparty.co.uk/articles/inaccuracies-gore.html
Ive been looking the their website to see what they are about, it seems to be similar to the three main parties. They talk about sustainability, but want to build lots of nuclear power stations. They forget that they use a limited resource that will run out so cannot be called sustainable. They also want to increase our use of Coal! www.newparty.co.uk/manifesto/facing-energy.html. Not so much New Party as same old party.