Jeff Poor of Business & Media Institute spliced the audio of an Al Gore interview to turn a statement that Arctic melting was a consequence of global warming:
And we're seeing consequences that scientists have long predicted might be associated with continued global warming. The entire north polar ice cap, normally the size the lower 48 states, give or take an Arizona, is melting before our eyes. 40 percent melted in the last twenty years. And in the summer months, it could be completely gone, in one scientific estimate, in as little as five years.
into a claim that Gore never made, that the cyclone that hit Burma was a consequence of global warming.
the death count in Myanmar from the cyclone that hit there yesterday has been rising from 15,000 to way on up there to much higher numbers now being speculated. And last year a catastrophic storm from last fall hit Bangladesh. The year before, the strongest cyclone in more than 50 years hit China - and we're seeing consequences that scientists have long predicted might be associated with continued global warming. It's also important to note that the emerging consensus among the climate scientists is although any individual storm can't be linked singularly to global warming - we've always had hurricanes. Nevertheless, the trend toward more Category 5 storms - the larger ones and trend toward stronger and more destructive storms appears to be linked to global warming and specifically to the impact of global warming on higher ocean temperatures in the top couple of hundred feet of the ocean, which drives convection energy and moisture into these storms and makes them more powerful.
After Poor's fraudulent story was linked by Drudge lots of Gore haters blogged about it. So how many of them have posted corrections?
As far as I can tell, none of them.
I have to give a special mention to Tim Blair here. After I noted that he had said that that Gore had linked the cylone to global warming, even though Gore had said that it couldn't be linked to global warming, Blair has come back with this blog post:
Then Gore proceeded to [link the cyclone to global warming]:
And as we're talking today, Terry, the death count in Myanmar from the cyclone that hit there yesterday has been rising from 15,000 to way on up there to much higher numbers now being speculated. And last year a catastrophic storm from last fall hit Bangladesh. The year before, the strongest cyclone in more than 50 years hit China - and we're seeing consequences that scientists have long predicted might be associated with continued global warming.
To be fair, Gore isn't linking an individual storm to global warming. He's linking three of them, including the Burma cyclone.
No, he was saying that Arctic melting was a consequence of global warming.
Come to think of it, this is really a case of life imitating parody:
ITEM! Cyclone Nargis ravaged through Burma, causing 100,000 deaths and affecting the lives of millions of others. The main question now, of course, is this: How will this help Al Gore promote the agenda of climate change legislation? Will the global warming skeptics turn this cyclone to their advantage by exposing Gore's Evil Plan for a New Dictatorial World Order? How will this affect people's support for the "gas tax holiday" plan from Clinton and McCain? Will Obama use this issue to resonate with black people? Stay tuned on Giblets World News for more updates!
We should number these individual incidents of mendacity for future reference. For example:
[Troll name here], do you realize your argument is similar to 2006-14, 2006-669, 2007-462, and 2008-901?
I'm sure a young person would like to be able to refer to this important work on their CV. Maybe in the Int J Inact?
Best,
D
Dano: Been done before... too bad.
Frank, I was thinking more along the lines of analyzing the frequency of use of the argument - the natural cycle of their rebirth, reuse, and recycling if you will. Thus the year first in the numbering.
Best,
D
Cue Andy Revkin and his team of sociologists?
Sean Hannity made this bogus claim, also, last night.
Ironically, in the previous segment he said that Gore caused the global food crisis by advocating for the development of biofuels.
Captain Dimwit failed to notice that Gore favors ethanol from cellulose over corn ethanol and that his hero George W. Bush is the person setting the national energy policy now that does favor corn ethanol.
http://dailydoubt.blogspot.com/2008/05/al-gore-caused-global-food-crisi…
TimB having a plastic turkey moment....
But Al Gore is fat. Just shows that your are trying to hide the truth. Al Gore is fat.
Dano:
That'll be quite a challenge. For one thing, Blair's particular argument here is a hybrid of two arguments, the "Al Gore is fat" argument and the "you can't prove hurricanes cause global warming" one. This is especially a problem with the "there's a conspiracy" argument, which changes its conspiracy faster than you can change your underwear.
Then again, yeah, maybe Revkin has done something like this before...
The Cyclone has not proven to be linked to AGW but the rice shortage in Myanmar has:
http://climatepatrol.net/?p=60
i.e. take any risks you like, there is no 100% certainty that this cyclone's damage would have been less without AGW.
climatepatrol,
Are you really suggesting that the Myanmar junta diverted crops to biofuels because of their concern about climate change? Or are you just a dishonest hack?
Climatepatrol,
did you even bother to read the original article. It does not say why the government of Myanmar decided to grow crops for biofuel. Profiting from increasing oil/energy prices might be an equality likely reason. Furthermore, the article notes that the real cause of the difficulties are the incompetence of the central planning by the Myanmar government:
Like Ann Coulter and her ilk, you show a dreadful tendency to rely on second hand sources without going to the original source.
Then again, yeah, maybe Revkin has done something like this before...
Just thinking that there is a clear pattern to the recycle cycle. Tracing the origin of the new cycle of recycle might give some young person a resume bullet and an intrepid blogger a feather in the cap.
Best,
D
Dano:
That's a thought. As far as mutations in conspiracy theories go, I've not yet found any regular cycles in the appearance of mutations, but maybe someone can.
And if I can get this stuff published in one of those "sociology of science" proceedings, I'll be so happy.
You might consider backing up one step from cycles: when a meme appears or reappears, try back-tracking it through blogs to figure out who's reading what, sending email to whom, and spam-posting on other blogs.
Jatropha is a a dry land crop which does not require irrigation.
The idea that rice paddies (which make up less than 1% of Myanmar's land mass)were being displaced to make way for Jatropha shows how deeply divorced from reality Climepatrol is.
As recently as 2000, Myanmar's rice production was only 3.3 million tonnes
http://www.riceweb.org/science/cnyinfo/myanmar.asp
2009 production is expected to be 9-10 million tonnes AFTER the impact of Negris.
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/world/2008/05/09/cyclone-cuts-myanm…
So production increased 66% over the period when the Green Nazis were supposedly trampling their Myanmarese victims beneath their iron heel.
At the same time that the junta was pushing for Jatropha planting they were also pushing for higher rice production to take advantage of high export prices.
@ Chris O'Neill
I don't deny a long-term risk. Isn't it all a question of the average heat content of the tropical oceans, especially near continents? Roger Pielke Sr. has linked the Dommenget & Latif 2008 paper regarding hyper climate modes, which is according to the abstract
"A concept for "Global Hyper Climate Modes" is formulated: surface heat flux variability associated with regional atmospheric variability patterns is integrated by the large heat capacity of the extra-tropical oceans, leading to a continuous increase of SST variance towards longer timescales. Atmospheric teleconnections spread the extra-tropical signal to the tropical regions."
and a link to global warming is attempted in the discussion:
"Our analysis indicates that the presence of the hyper mode may make it very hard to detect anthropogenic climate change on a regional scale, as the global change signal and the internal climate variability on multidecadal time scales are not orthogonal."
Is there any study that specialises in the history of the heat content of the tropical or extra-tropical(?) regions where tropical storms thrive?
---
As to the other commenters:
Sure, I read the original article about Myanmar biofuel. A new market for biofuel products was very tempting for the Junta. Who or what created this market?
"Who or what created this market?"
Well that depends - who do you blame current oil prices on.
but obviously the answer that depicts people who disagree with you as baby-killing monsters is to be preferred.
try back-tracking it through blogs to figure out who's reading what, sending email to whom, and spam-posting on other blogs.
That's part of the reason for the Dano character, who did that at TCS for a number of years. I'm talking deeper than that. Sure there are the useful idiots and trolls they count on, but at TCS you could be guaranteed there was a vote coming on something when a column appeared on certain subjects. That's whut I'm sayin'.
Best,
D
Climatepatrol,
High oil prices?!
More importantly, nice of you to side step the main cause, namely despotic incompetence.
Climatepatrol,
This is typical of the nonsense I've seen from the trolls that come here. A despotic and incompetent government allows it's population to die, and whose to blame? Oh no, not the despots, can't possibly be them, no, it's the environmentalists. It's only a matter of time before Rachel Carson's blamed for the Aral sea, Exxon Valdez, and the Black Death.
Here's a clue as to why the Junta might have been keen to increase biodiesel production:
[link](http://www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/pdfs/afpr_jul_07.pdf)
As of January, B100 diodiesel was selling at a 39 cent premium to regular diesel in the US.
I wonder what's happened to the price of diesel since then?
For a developing country with no substantial oil reserves, at current prices promoting biodiesl is the rational thing to do. For the vicious, ignorant and deeply irrational thugs who run Myanmar it's surprisingly rational - and has little or nothing to do with putative environmental benefits.
Sorry that link is to an older report here's the January 2008 one:
[link](http://www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/pdfs/afpr_jan_08.pdf)
@Ian Gould
Yup. High oil prices, Kyoto and the "clean energy" image.
Thanks for the link. I don't want to throw rocks, neither can I change governments (and those who do technology transfer and trading with them), but a price driver for biofuels are those subsidized biofuel programs. It is a political decision to be made namely by the U.S. and the EU, not up to me to decide. But on a personal note, I would never put 1st generation biofuel in my tank, but your link shows other alternatives.
Climate Patrol, I hope that you will now edit the blog entry in question.
Climatepatrol,
I see your rule is to stick your fingers in your ears and shout "LA LA LA, I CAN'T HEAR YOU".
You just won't admit that the deaths in Myanmar (Burma) are due to the cyclone and the incompetence (or deliberate viciousness) of the government, and that environmentalists are not responsible for despotic rulers' attempts to cash in on every opportunity that comes their way.
cp:
In that case spare us the strawman.
John Mashey:
Well... on second thought, I think I'll leave that to you. For now I prefer to continue chasing mutations. :)