Is Sarah Palin's Inconvenient Truth Vexing Al Gore?

- By Lisa Graas
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From the Times of London comes an intriguing report on Al Gore's latest falsehood in the debate surrounding climate change:

In his speech, Mr Gore told the [Copenhagen climate change] conference: “These figures are fresh. Some of the models suggest to Dr [Wieslav] Maslowski that there is a 75 per cent chance that the entire north polar ice cap, during the summer months, could be completely ice-free within five to seven years.”

Unfortunately for Mr. Gore, this was false. As noted by The Times:

[T]he climatologist whose work Mr Gore was relying upon dropped the former Vice-President in the water with an icy blast.

“It’s unclear to me how this figure was arrived at,” Dr Maslowski said. “I would never try to estimate likelihood at anything as exact as this.”

Mr Gore’s office later admitted that the 75 per cent figure was one used by Dr Maslowksi as a “ballpark figure” several years ago in a conversation with Mr Gore.

The embarrassing error cast another shadow over the conference after the controversy over the hacked e-mails from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit, which appeared to suggest that scientists had manipulated data to strengthen their argument that human activities were causing global warming.

Full tory here.

Mind you, Mr. Gore has been under a great deal of pressure these days to salvage his credibility. He's reportedly made at least $100 million dollars telling people that the North Pole will melt within five years because of global warming that, he says, is primarily anthropogenic (caused by man). His film "An Inconvenient Truth", which my teenager assures me is misnamed and should be called "WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE" has won a boatload of awards, none of which caused this concerned parent's eyebrow to raise more so than the fact that my son's science teacher showed the film in class. Meanwhile, climatologists and meteorologists whose research shows that solar activity, orbital variations, and volcanic activity contribute more to climate change than man's activity are discounted by Gore and others who, like Gore, stand to lose credibility, prestige and, in some cases, federal grant money.

Though some reasonable people from across the societal spectrum have long questioned why research refuting Gore's claims has been largely ignored even as Gore is rolling in dough, sporting a big carbon footprint and influencing legislation, the megaphones of these skeptics weren't quite loud enough...........until ClimateGate.

In her recent op-ed in the Washington Post, Sarah Palin used her mighty megaphone to point out the "inconvenient truth" we "common-sensers", if you will, call ClimateGate.

With the publication of damaging e-mails from a climate research center in Britain, the radical environmental movement appears to face a tipping point. The revelation of appalling actions by so-called climate change experts allows the American public to finally understand the concerns so many of us have articulated on this issue.

“Climate-gate,” as the e-mails and other documents from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia have become known, exposes a highly politicized scientific circle -- the same circle whose work underlies efforts at the Copenhagen climate change conference. The agenda-driven policies being pushed in Copenhagen won’t change the weather,but they would change our economy for the worse.

The e-mails reveal that leading climate “experts” deliberately destroyed records, manipulated data to “hide the decline” in global temperatures, and tried to silence their critics by preventing them from publishing in peer-reviewed journals.

Palin's full statement is here. If you have common sense, the above makes perfect sense to you. If you are Al Gore or one of his radical followers, apparently you have trouble getting your mind around it.

Though the left would have us believe that Governor Palin is irrelevant (an Obama supporter I was debating with the other day characterized Palin as an annoying "gnat"), even they sometimes have to admit her power.

Greg Sargent, editor of The Plum Line, wrote:

I’m told by the paper's insiders that her piece was one of the most-read WaPo opinion pieces of the year, coming in 21st in page views out of literally hundreds of opinion articles. An earlier Palin Op ed in the paper on the same topic was the third most read of the year.

Clearly, the hockey mom from Wasilla is an Alaska-sized burr under Gore's saddle. Andrea Mitchell to the rescue! In an interview with Mitchell on the heels of Palin's op-ed, Gore chose to lie about Palin's position by saying that she denies climate change. Are you paying attention, folks? Al Gore told a convenient lie designed to make you think Sarah Palin isn't as smart as he is. (Yawn.)

It's quite an inconvenient truth, at least for those who are benefactors of "Hoaxenhagen", that the science is not settled on the matter. The only ones who truly believe the science is settled are those who embrace the leftist principle of "economic justice" and who see Copenhagen as a grand opportunity to bring that about no matter how badly it may damage our economy. The end justifies the means in the leftist playbook and environmental study is no exception in that playbook. Is it a coincidence that the climate alarmist camp is saturated with believers in "economic justice"? I think not.

In response to Gore's lie, Palin responded by doing what she does best. She went all "common sense" on him again.

Via Sarah Palin on Facebook:

Steven Hayward has a great article in The Weekly Standard on the Climategate scandal. Be sure to check it out.

The response to my op-ed by global warming alarmists has been interesting. Former Vice President Al Gore has called me a “denier” and informs us that climate change is “a principle in physics. It’s like gravity. It exists.”

Perhaps he’s right. Climate change is like gravity – a naturally occurring phenomenon that existed long before, and will exist long after, any governmental attempts to affect it.

However, he’s wrong in calling me a “denier.” As I noted in my op-ed above and in my original Facebook post on Climategate, I have never denied the existence of climate change. I just don’t think we can primarily blame man’s activities for the earth’s cyclical weather changes.

Former Vice President Gore also claimed today that the scientific community has worked on this issue for 20 years, and therefore it is settled science. Well, the Climategate scandal involves the leading experts in this field, and if Climategate is proof of the larger method used over the past 20 years, then Vice President Gore seriously needs to consider that their findings are flawed, falsified, or inconclusive.

Vice President Gore, the Climategate scandal exists. You might even say that it’s sort of like gravity: you simply can’t deny it.

- Sarah Palin

Palin's common sense coupled with humor to highlight the error brought clarity to the national discussion and put some much-needed pressure on Gore to come clean on this hoax. The philosopher Epictetus once said: “If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct yourself, if it be a lie, laugh at it.” Did Gore correct himself when Palin laughed at his lie? No, he just came up with another lie. If we wait long enough, he'll lie again. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if he's telling another whopper as I write. Meanwhile, America watches.

All of this is strikingly reminiscent of what I wrote about just yesterday -- "Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton: Is Obfuscation Intellectual?" I do hope you'll consider reading it. As time goes on, it's becoming increasingly clear to me that one of the most important reasons for the Palin phenomenon is her style of communication in which she deftly integrates, like Ronald Reagan before her, three fundamental qualities -- genuineness, forthrightness and levity. You do remember what they called Reagan, don't you? The Great Communicator.

The genteel left, so adept at pulling the wool over the eyes of hapless American voters with their obfuscation since the end of Reagan's term, are being stopped in their tracks by "The Thrilla from Wasilla". Yes, Sarah Palin has vexed Al Gore. Obfuscation isn't working anymore for him. This is why he told a blatant lie to Andrea Mitchell to defend himself against the WaPo op-ed and why he told an even more embarrassing, blatant lie to the climate change conference in Hoaxenhagen after Palin's follow-up.

In the left corner? The King of Platitudes, Barack Obama, and his pretentious band of thieves, including Mr. Gore.

In the right corner? The Real Deal, Sarah Palin, and her "roguish" band of common sense conservatives.

Though some deny it, there's been a Palin Revolution going on for some time now, folks. Rogue is Vogue! If you haven't come to realize this yet, you will. In time, you will.

~ Lisa

Lisa Graas is editor of the Palin Twibe Blog