Thread: Al Gore's Doomsday Clock

Al Gore scares me more than anyone! He MUST be stopped at all cost!

Al Gore's Doomsday Clock
July 22, 2008; Page A17

Al Gore gave a speech last week "challenging" America to run "on 100% zero-carbon electricity in 10 years" -- though that's just the first step on his road to "ending our reliance on carbon-based fuels." Serious people understand this is absurd. Maybe other people will start drawing the same conclusion about the man proposing it.

The former vice president has also recently disavowed any intention of returning to politics. This is wise. As America's leading peddler of both doom and salvation, Mr. Gore has moved beyond the constraints and obligations of reality. His job is to serve as a Prophet of Truth.

Ken Fallin
In Mr. Gore's prophesy, a transition to carbon-free electricity generation in a decade is "achievable, affordable and transformative." He believes that the goal can be achieved almost entirely through the use of "renewables" alone, meaning solar, geothermal, wind power and biofuels.

And he doesn't think we really have any other good options: "The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk," he says, with his usual gift for understatement. "And even more -- if more should be required -- the future of human civilization is at stake."
What manner the catastrophe might take isn't yet clear, but the scenarios are grim: The climate crisis is getting worse faster than anticipated; global warming will cause refugee crises and destabilize entire nations; an "energy tsunami" is headed our way. And so on.

Here, however, is an inconvenient fact. In 1995, the U.S. got about 2.2% of its net electricity generation from "renewable" sources, according to the Energy Information Administration. By 2000, the last full year of the Clinton administration, that percentage had dropped to 2.1%. By contrast, the combined share of coal, petroleum and natural gas rose to 70% from 68% during the same time frame.

Now the share of renewables is up slightly, to about 2.3% as of 2006 (the latest year for which the EIA provides figures). The EIA thinks the use of renewables (minus hydropower) could rise to 201 billion kilowatt hours per year in 2018 from the current 65 billion. But the EIA also projects total net generation in 2018 to be 4.4 trillion kilowatt hours per year. That would put the total share of renewables at just over four percent of our electricity needs.

Mr. Gore's argument would be helped if he were also willing to propose huge investments in nuclear power, which emits no carbon dioxide and currently supplies about one-fifth of U.S. electricity needs, and about three-quarters of France's. Britain has just approved eight new nuclear plants, and the German government of Angela Merkel is working to do away with a plan by the previous government to go nuclear-free.

But Mr. Gore makes no mention of nuclear power in his speech, nor of the equally carbon-free hydroelectric power. These are proven technologies -- and useful reminders of what happens when environmentalists get what they wished for.

Mr. Gore's case would also be helped if our experience of renewable sources were a positive one. It isn't. In his useful book "Gusher of Lies," Robert Bryce notes that "in July 2006, wind turbines in California produced power at only about 10% of their capacity; in Texas, one of the most promising states for wind energy, the windmills produced electricity at about 17% of their rated capacity." Like wind power, solar power also suffers from the problem of intermittency, which means that it has to be backed up by conventional sources in order to avoid disruptions. This is especially true of hot summers when the wind doesn't blow and cold winters when the sun doesn't shine.

And then there are biofuels, whose recent vogue, the World Bank believes, may have been responsible for up to 75% of the recent rise in world food prices. Save the planet; starve the poor.

None of this seems to trouble Mr. Gore. He thinks that simply by declaring an emergency he can help achieve Stakhanovite results. He might recall what the Stakhanovite myth (about the man who mined 14 times his quota of coal in six hours) actually did to the Soviet economy.

A more interesting question is why Mr. Gore remains believable. Perhaps people think that facts ought not to count against a man whose task is to raise our sights, or play Cassandra to unbelieving mortals.

Or maybe he is believed simply because people want something in which to believe. "The readiness for self-sacrifice," wrote Eric Hoffer in "The True Believer," "is contingent on an imperviousness to the realities of life. . . . All active mass movements strive, therefore, to interpose a fact-proof screen between the faithful and the realities of the world. They do this by claiming that the ultimate and absolute truth is already embodied in their doctrine and that there is no truth nor certitude outside it. . . . To rely on the evidence of the senses and of reason is heresy and treason. It is startling to realize how much unbelief is necessary to make belief possible."

Write to bstephens@wsj.com


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1216683 ... torialPage

How much money does Gore earn again

Originally Posted by vmonkey56

How much money does Gore earn again

Bingo! When he left the WH in 2000, he had a net worth of $2M. Today he is worth over $100M!!!

Same with his buddy, Bill Clinton! Clinton was practically broke because of all the lawsuits, and now we all know he's worth at least $109M!!!

I read Al Gore has a $4k a month electric bill for his mansion.

On top of that, since he "invented the internet" maybe he can set his sights on fighting for Net Nuetrality instead of spinning more of this propaganda "the sky is falling" BS.

Al Gore's 'Inconvenient Truth'? -- A $30,000 Utility Bill

Think Tank Blasts Gore for Hypocrisy, Defenders Call Report a Last Gasp from Warming Skeptics

read the rest here if you feel the need.


http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/GlobalWa ... id=2906888

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,362023,00.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6341451/

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/01/30/scientists-warming/

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I thought the NASA scientist that was threatened by our government, if he exposed the truth on global warning, was on 60 minutes not long ago, saying the truth was kept from us? Did anyone else see it?

What bothers me is that the glacier that is the water sourse for China, India and Pakistan is going to be gone in 5-10 years... Water and food shortages will be what will cause violence, you watch.

Watch California this summer with their water problems! That's when they will get on the subject of illegals when there is no water

People who don't believe in global warning, who do you believe if you don't believe the head scientist at NASA? For real, who do you believe, who's YOUR source?

The winters and summers, the world is experiencing, is why?

No hate mail please!!

(I'm an evolution believer too!)

we truly are in a very scary era! gore is a complete joke, we have had many a laugh over his muses, but the scary part is there are actual real people that think this idiot has a brain.... those same people are probably planning on voting for obama. PEOPLE THINK!!

Watch California this summer with their water problems! That's when they will get on the subject of illegals when there is no water

Ive been screaming about this for YEARS now.

Al Gore needs to harness some of that constant Hot Air coming out of his mouth and turn it into wind energy. He's a complete windbag and thats about all he's good for...

Watch California this summer with their water problems! That's when they will get on the subject of illegals when there is no water

Unfortunately, the DWP in L.A. is going to start re-cycling Toilet Water...Sewer Water!!! And yet they keep building, building, building; and more and more and more illegals keep coming!

Originally Posted by Lone_Patriot

we truly are in a very scary era! gore is a complete joke, we have had many a laugh over his muses, but the scary part is there are actual real people that think this idiot has a brain.... those same people are probably planning on voting for obama. PEOPLE THINK!!

But what about what was reported onFox news?

I know the poeple here believe Fox news.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,362023,00.html

And no! I'm voting Ron Paul or Chuck Baldwin. I need to look more into Chuck.