Al Gore: “Civil Disobedience Has a Role to Play”
[Guest post by DRJ]
Al Gore thinks his global warming opponents are quacks:
“Gore’s new book, Our Choice: A Plan To Solve The Climate Crisis, gives global warming deniers short shrift, and shows little concern for displays of political bipartisanship: he likens the doubters to the “birthers” intent on proving that Obama is a Kenyan – not just mavericks, but fantasists who inhabit a different version of reality.”
Gore also thinks true believers are justified in pursuing civil disobedience to save the planet:
“When making his Oscar-winning 2006 documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, Gore arguably had it easy: it’s fairly straightforward to grip an audience when you’re portraying scenes of apocalyptic destruction. The new book pulls off a considerably more impressive feat. It focuses on solving the crisis, yet manages to be absorbing on a topic that is all too often – can we just come clean about this, please? – crushingly boring. Importantly, it seeks to enlist readers as political advocates for the cause, rather than just urging them to turn down the heating. “It’s important to change lightbulbs,” he says, in a well-burnished soundbite, “but more important to change policies and laws.” Or perhaps to break laws instead: peaceful occupations of the kind witnessed recently in the UK, he predicts, are only going to become more widespread. “Civil disobedience has an honourable history, and when the urgency and moral clarity cross a certain threshold, then I think that civil disobedience is quite understandable, and it has a role to play. And I expect that it will increase, no question about it.”
Gore feels like God is on his side:
“It’s a blessing to have work that feels fulfilling,” he says. “There’s a passage in the Bible – not that I wear religion on my sleeve; I do not – but there’s a passage that’s long had meaning for me: ‘Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might’… There’s that wonderful old English movie, Chariots Of Fire, when the runner says at one point, ‘When I run, I feel God’s pleasure.’ He was expressing a universal human emotion that I think is applicable.”
Gore the crusader has found his crusade.
— DRJ
Quick, off the top of your head: Who has the bigger Messiah Complex, Al Gore or Barack Obama?
JVW (d32e06) — 11/6/2009 @ 8:15 pmThey’re a very strange family. He’s not right in the head and his kids are basketcases.
happyfeet (f62c43) — 11/6/2009 @ 8:39 pmWhen he starts behaving personally like he’s worried about global warming maybe people will take it seriously. Otherwise it just looks like he’s in it for the money.
daleyrocks (718861) — 11/6/2009 @ 8:42 pmhere’s the synopsis of the movie one of his wackadoodle spawn wrote… she’s a “screenwriter” is what they call it when you’re not where you can say “propaganda whore.”
coming out in 2010 maybe…
happyfeet (f62c43) — 11/6/2009 @ 8:49 pm. . . not that I wear religion on my sleeve; I do not. . .
Nope, you keep it hidden away until you can use it for cheap political purposes.
JVW (d32e06) — 11/6/2009 @ 8:53 pm‘Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might’
So if you are an f-ing fraud, go forth and defraud the public with all thy might. Amen.
tmac (5559f7) — 11/6/2009 @ 8:53 pmI think that all politicians, especially the ones at national level, are not quite right in the head, but Al Gore abuses the privilege. All in all I’d rather have O! or Slick Willie using the Presidency to work out their daddy issues, and then thank Ghod we escaped this creepy messiah complex.
fnord (cbc61c) — 11/6/2009 @ 9:03 pmCHRISTIANIST!!! THEOCRACY11!!!!111!!
zOMG!
Techie (482700) — 11/6/2009 @ 9:06 pmI wonder if Big Al classifies the Eco-Terrorism of Earth First as Civil-Disobedience?
AD - RtR/OS! (b8e0ad) — 11/6/2009 @ 9:07 pmHe might ask the FBI about it.
When I read about Gore exploiting religion in his patented smarmy way for his own self-aggrandizement, I thank God I’m an atheist.
Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407) — 11/6/2009 @ 9:25 pmIt seems to be religion night on Patterico.
Well, heck, that old Bible, the font of all evil, says:
“You [God] made humans ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under our feet: All flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas,” Psalm 8:6-8. (I think this is probably NSV)
Doesn’t that mean, literally, have at it you human folk?
Ha ha. Just joking.
But Psalms said:
“The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.”
So, what did old JC say, since these are Old Testament verses.
He said that the sick would be comforted, that the cheek should be turned, that all that believed should light the world, that the meek will inherit the same and some other new-age gibberish.
What’s a Christian to do?
Ag80 (3d1543) — 11/6/2009 @ 9:35 pmDoes serial arson count as civil disobedience?
happyfeet (f62c43) — 11/6/2009 @ 9:35 pmwho accidentally gets a nail lodged in her head
A medical explanation for moonbattery?
Mike LaRoche (445f08) — 11/6/2009 @ 9:37 pmWho has the bigger Messiah Complex, Al Gore or Barack Obama?
Yes.
Audacity (2fd5ad) — 11/6/2009 @ 9:56 pmPosted by Charles Spurgeon under Morning
“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do,” refers to works that are possible. There are many things which our heart findeth to do which we never shall do. It is well it is in our heart; but if we would be eminently useful, we must not be content with forming schemes in our heart, and talking of them; we must practically carry out “whatsoever our hand findeth to do.” One good deed is more worth than a thousand brilliant theories. Let us not wait for large opportunities, or for a different kind of work, but do just the things we “find to do” day by day. We have no other time in which to live. The past is gone; the future has not arrived; we never shall have any time but time present.
jbinnout (273b03) — 11/6/2009 @ 9:57 pm_____________________________________
The ultimate in limousine liberalism.
Phony Al Gore living in his big ol’ house in Tennessee, driving around in his big ol’ gas hogs, and jetting around the world in his first-class accomodations.
He’s merely a variation of Obama revealing his inner true self at the press conference following the massacre at Fort Hood in Texas.
I think all of this calls for another salute to the wonderful world of the left-leaning mind, including that of President “Goddamn America”:
Mark (411533) — 11/6/2009 @ 10:17 pmno, really? did you think we were buying all the guns and the ammo because we had so much money we didn’t know what to do with it?
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 11/6/2009 @ 10:57 pmIf Gore wanted to make the Obama-Carter comparison complete, he could run against Obama for the 2012 nomination. After all, if it’s so important to “save the planet”, then shouldn’t Gore be in charge.
Kevin Murphy (3c3db0) — 11/6/2009 @ 11:21 pmGive former Vice-President Gore credit – he *is* managing to sell Indulgences completely openly … and, like the Church back then, raking in the shekels/drachma/sous/mites/etc …
Alasdair (205079) — 11/6/2009 @ 11:37 pmWhat do you Gore critics think then? Is global warming a liberal hoax? Do you deny the existence of pollution? Do you think the earth and the seas are pretty much OK in spite of man-made pollutants? Is that it?
And about Gore’s big ol’ house in Tennessee and his big ol’ gas guzzling cars, is that any different from his conservative counterparts?
mikeb302000 (fad401) — 11/7/2009 @ 12:39 amglobal warming fills a hole for people what have empty empty lives
happyfeet (f62c43) — 11/7/2009 @ 12:45 amWhat do Gore critics think then? Is global warming a liberal hoax?
Yes.
When he starts behaving personally like he’s worried about global warming maybe people will take it seriously. Otherwise it just looks like he’s in it for the money.
Not even then.
papertiger (feba14) — 11/7/2009 @ 2:39 amoh and yes.
papertiger (feba14) — 11/7/2009 @ 2:41 amHe is only in it for the money.
Those old Holy Roller evangelists had a better delivery than Gore, and made a lot more sense too.
Fritz J. (139537) — 11/7/2009 @ 4:12 amWhat do you Gore critics think then? Is global warming a liberal hoax?
When there are farms in Greenland, as there were in 1300, I will start to worry.
Now, back to my book.
Mike K (addb13) — 11/7/2009 @ 4:52 amLet’s try to stay focused here: the question isn’t “Do conservatives build big houses, too?” — it’s “What does Al Gore say about carbon footprints, pollution, conserving resources, living small and green, and environmental impact, and what does Al Gore actually do about these issues in his personal life?”
If you whacked-out enviroliberals can’t see the stark hypocrisy of the man, you are simply hopeless — you cannot see what the rest of the world sees so clearly: the man is a deep charlatan, and you believe in his message only because you do not have a fact-based viewpoint on life.
I really don’t care that Al Gore has a house that not even 1% of Americans can afford, or that he burns oil fossil fuels like a smelter to support his jet-setting lifestyle, or that he makes millions in speeches (and will soon be making billions in carbon industry taxes) — what I and other simple conservatives point out is that he says all this kind of stuff is wrong for the rest of the world but he himself indulges in all these things. It’s a matter of simple and yet oh-so-deeply profound hypocrisy.
steve miller (dae725) — 11/7/2009 @ 5:07 amTypically, Mr. Gore takes the quote from Ecclesiastes 9:10 out of context:
One could argue — successfully, I think — that in Mr. Gore’s case there is already neither “knowledge or wisdom”.
navyvet (c7f520) — 11/7/2009 @ 5:31 amThe message, when the facts are gone, switch to religion. AGW hoaxers have morphed into religious nuts.
bill-tb (365bd9) — 11/7/2009 @ 6:14 amMikeb – yes. Now crawl back under your rock.
JD (d94e9d) — 11/7/2009 @ 6:30 amalgore has been eating his feelings of inadequacy again$
JD (8a886b) — 11/7/2009 @ 6:44 amTo steal from Glenn Reynolds: “I’ll start believing it’s a crisis when the people telling me it’s a crisis start acting like it’s a crisis”.
Techie (482700) — 11/7/2009 @ 7:07 amWhy don’t we hear about Gore’s “dangerous populism”? He has changed our lives and taken away our liberty in far greater measure than say Beck.
Patricia (b05e7f) — 11/7/2009 @ 8:01 amI’ll believe Gore’s contention about his opponents when he finally agrees to debate them on the relative merits of his case – he’s ducked them all, and he disgracefully ran out of the room when he had less than one minute at a recent UN conference in an apperance with a GW opponent. Cowardice, pure and simple.
Dmac (a964d5) — 11/7/2009 @ 8:29 amI no longer have access to my collegiate search engines, like counterpoint, or whatever it was called, which shows two lists of documents: a pro list and a con list. But I found good information regarding “global warming/ice age” scares from one of those search engines.
The media has been all over this since as far back as the 1930s, with NYT oftentimes leading the charge. Reverse chronology showed the press saying something along the lines of:
1990s: catastrophic global warming and man is responsible.
1970s: catastrophic ice age and man is responsible. (freon, anyone?)
1950s: catastrophic global warming and man is responsible.
1930s: catastrophic ice age and man is responsible.
(snark)Anybody see a pattern here? Because I don’t.(/snark)
John Hitchcock (3fd153) — 11/7/2009 @ 8:46 amAn Australian news outlet had an online project for kids. (I can not remember the name but it refered to pigs or hogs as in planet hogs.) It consisted of about twelve questions about a childs and their families use of energy and views on the enviroment. At the end it would give the child the age they should be allowed to live to for the good of the planet.
Someone went through and tested the underlying assumptions by running through it over and over. It turns out you could promise to live in small house, never fly in an airplane, use public transportation at all times, etc. and you would never get an age out of your teens.
Turns out the key was the question, “Do you contribute money to enviromental causes?” If you answered yes to this question and entered a proper percentage of salary you were granted a far longer acceptable life span. In fact you could have the big house, fly for frivolous reasons, drive a gas guzzler, etc. as long as you gave a proper percentage of your salary to the enviros you were told you were worthy of living into your thirties or even forties.
So yes it does turn out it is all about the money. Gore gets to live the energy hog lifestyle because he is doing good, and has the right feelings about the subject. Plus he is making billions for the folks pushing this.
I believe the test is long gone. When this analysis was released they retuned it and there was some blowback about telling elementary school kids they should be liquidated as a preteen for the good of the planet.
Have Blue (854a6e) — 11/7/2009 @ 8:50 amOh, and there’s a scientist-type person who has tried for a long time to publicly debate Algore and Algore constantly refuses. If I remember right, Algore once agreed to a debate until he saw the name of his opponent and then declined. Again, if I remember right, Algore’s opponent showed up at an Algore press conference and asked a question or two and was promptly whisked away or shut down or something.
John Hitchcock (3fd153) — 11/7/2009 @ 8:53 amYeah, Al, there’s also a passage in there about being wary of false prophets.
I’d love to see this guy freeze to death on an Arctic ice floe, but I’m afraid all his blubber would insulate him too well.
Another Chris (470967) — 11/7/2009 @ 8:54 amAccording to the precepts that Earth First seems to operate under,
AlGore’s manse should have been torched long ago, and would have if he was a developer.
Do as I say, not as I do!
AD - RtR/OS! (89a0a7) — 11/7/2009 @ 8:56 amAnother Chris, you think maybe Algore should go talk to a tribe of hungry polar bears and tell them he’s trying to make it better for them? I mean, if they set up a banquet and offered him the opportunity to come over for dinner?
John Hitchcock (3fd153) — 11/7/2009 @ 8:58 amAl Gore is a complete and utter tool!
Ed (996c34) — 11/7/2009 @ 9:31 amAnd about Gore’s big ol’ house in Tennessee and his big ol’ gas guzzling cars, is that any different from his conservative counterparts?
Yes, because a higher percentage of conservatives, regardless of how they themselves live, have enough common sense to realize that the stuff they exhale — carbon dioxide — is not a major pollutant, right up there with, for example, sulpher dioxide, sulphuric acid, etc. However, if the left extends their concern about — their fear of — carbon dixoide to the crappy junk that spews forth regularly from their lips, I’ll reconsider my position.
Mark (411533) — 11/7/2009 @ 10:18 amIf there were anything to the fears of the enviros, their behavior has discredited them. At this point, even with an open mind and a science background, I can’t figure out if there is any validity. The lying and dishonesty by many of the advocates has wrecked any ability to judge. The hockey stick is one strike. The behavior around urban heat islands is another. Now the tree ring scandal.
More here.
since 2000, a large number of peer-reviewed climate papers have incorporated data from trees at the Yamal Peninsula in Siberia. This dataset gained favour, curiously superseding a newer and larger data set from nearby. The older Yamal trees indicated pronounced and dramatic uptick in temperatures.
How could this be? Scientists have ensured much of the measurement data used in the reconstructions remains a secret – failing to fulfill procedures to archive the raw data. Without the raw data, other scientists could not reproduce the results. The most prestigious peer reviewed journals, including Nature and Science, were reluctant to demand the data from contributors. Until now, that is.
At the insistence of editors of the Royal Society’s Philosophical Transactions B the data has leaked into the open – and Yamal’s mystery is no more.
From this we know that the Yamal data set uses just 12 trees from a larger set to produce its dramatic recent trend. Yet many more were cored, and a larger data set (of 34) from the vicinity shows no dramatic recent warming, and warmer temperatures in the middle ages.
In all there are 252 cores in the CRU Yamal data set, of which ten were alive 1990. All 12 cores selected show strong growth since the mid-19th century. The implication is clear: the dozen were cherry-picked.
I watched someone interviewed about this the other day. He concluded that it was not just anti-capitalism that drove these people. From Gore’s behavior, I would have to agree. He just wants to make money. That of course, explains the enthusiasm of big corporations for some of this. They see a new line of business.
It really is a bit like the sale of indulgences in the Middle Ages. The fat churchmen ate well and had nubile wenches tend to their every want while the peasants starved outside.
Mike K (addb13) — 11/7/2009 @ 10:50 amWe think that he’s an idiot who’s found a way to line his pockets. Need I remind you of the “D” he received at school in the science class Man’s Place in Nature? He shows no evidence of having learned anything in the meantime.
Yep. Since solar luminescence has trended down a bit for several years, and we are experiencing global cooling rather than warming, I wouldn’t consider it a hoax as much as stupidity in the face of contrary evidence.
Nope. But please, carbon dioxide? The earth’s biomass is dependent on it.
Yep. In fact, they are in much better shape with respect to pollutants than when I was growing up. Rivers in the north east, for example, no longer catch on fire.
Yep.
Yes. Gore is a self-righteous hypocrite lining his pockets preying on the likes of you. His “conservative counterparts” are not.
EW1(SG) (edc268) — 11/7/2009 @ 11:02 am#42 Mike K:
And we are going to base national/international energy use policy on the basis of the tree rings of 12 trees? In the same forest? At a single spot on the planet?
AlGore, you got some ‘splaining to do.
EW1(SG) (edc268) — 11/7/2009 @ 11:12 amThe crazy are excused from ‘splainin’ since they are incapable of dealing with reality.
AD - RtR/OS! (89a0a7) — 11/7/2009 @ 11:25 amActually Mike K its even worse than that. Most of the “warming signal” in the Yamal data set comes from just one of those trees among the twelve. IIRC if you remove the one tree from the twelve you lose about half of the indicated warming. If you use the other eleven trees plus the rest of the discarded data the result is no clear evidence of a warming tren at all.
Most of this “warming signal” from Yarmal is from just ONE tree.
Have Blue (854a6e) — 11/7/2009 @ 12:12 pmnavyvet beat me to the whole passage:
In other words, once you’re dead, your work is done. Of course, there’s some value in reading Ecclesiastes, but I’m not sure that the flunked-out divinity student would appreciate it all. Ecclesiastes 1:4 notes:
And, of course, the one (1:2) which applies most directly to the inventor of the internet:
The very annoyed Dana (474dfc) — 11/7/2009 @ 12:34 pm“Not that I wear my religion on my sleeve, I do not”
If his slavish devotion to AGW is not religious, then nothing is.
JD (b32fa4) — 11/7/2009 @ 12:38 pm“Vanity” in Ecclesiastes means “futility”, I believe, Dana.
nk (df76d4) — 11/7/2009 @ 12:40 pmI am not as much down on Al Gore as some of my fellow commenters. I think he has a strong sense of duty and can be sensible when he needs to. I for sure think that he would have acquitted himself much better than Billy had he been elected President in 1992.
nk (df76d4) — 11/7/2009 @ 12:47 pmHere is the link for my comment at 46.
YAD06 – The Most Influential Tree in the World
http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=7241#more-7241
Check out the graphs in Figure 2. YAD06 is the second graph down on the right hand side labled YAD061. This figure shows ten of the twelve trees used from the Yamal data set.
Have Blue (854a6e) — 11/7/2009 @ 12:53 pm#51 Have Blue: I’m still trying to remember the last tree I saw with a thermometer built into it.
There is a sufficient panoply of factors to choose from in tree ring growth that I think isolating temperature to be terribly difficult, and not particularly practical to apply outside silviculture.
EW1(SG) (edc268) — 11/7/2009 @ 1:19 pmEW1(SG) makes a good point. I’d bet an oak tree would grow much more in a wetter 78 degree environment than in a rain-free 90 degree summer. Of course, if that wet cool environment was too wet or lacked too much sunshine, that would cause parity in results, I think.
John Hitchcock (3fd153) — 11/7/2009 @ 1:24 pmIf Global Warming is real, then this experiment will prove these Hollywood people will move out of Malibu Colony Rd in Malibu by December:
http://valley-of-the-shadow.blogspot.com/2009/10/true-test-if-global-warming-is-real.html
I await someone to prove how the scientific method is wrong……
Will algore warn these people on Malibu Colony Drive that the ocean will sweep away their multi-million dollar homes? Stay tuned.
JSF (4ea85e) — 11/7/2009 @ 2:46 pm[…] to this article by DRJ of Patterico’s Pontifications, I learned that former Vice President and Nobel Laureate Albert Arnold Gore, Jr, believes that […]
Common Sense Political Thought » Blog Archive » Save us, St. Al! (73d96f) — 11/7/2009 @ 2:48 pmCivil disobedience has an honourable history against tyrannies. It has no place in democracies, where is is nothing but a refuge for ideologues who cannot persuade voters as to the rightness of their cause.
Gore is garbage.
… but then, we knew that already
Paul (9e9fe0) — 11/7/2009 @ 3:15 pmI can remember the 70’s, and I can remember the hand wringing over the pollution in LA. Actually, it seems there is ALWAYS hand wringing about pollution, and it ALWAYS comes from the leafy left.
But back then, what was concerning them the most was global cooling, they had many stories made up to show we are causing it.
It didn’t really happen then, even with all that pollution, we did survive.
But now they come back and try to scare the shit out of people again with bullshit about the sea rising and drowning millions.
We should believe them?
I don’t. And since I don’t, maybe Al would send his followers to murder me, to save the planet.
I don’t think I’m far off in thinking that could happen. There is a greater chance of that happening than the goddamn seas rising a hundred feet.
Rev. Dr. E. Buzz Miller (72836b) — 11/7/2009 @ 3:35 pmHave Blue, it’s even worse, if possible. The twelve trees were the only ones showing warming out of more than 200.
There are other examples of lying and cherry picking data. One of the Chinese ground sensors hadn’t been checked in years by the guy who was supposed to be monitoring it. he was in the US and a heat island had developed around it.
Russia temperature data showed rapid warming last fall. It turned out they just extrapolated data from August into October. They call those seasons.
A small dose of reality.
Mike K (addb13) — 11/7/2009 @ 3:44 pmnk wrote:
That’s certainly the translation given in some versions, When it came to our good Nobel Laureate, I thought “vanity” would be the better word to use, though futility might just as well apply to our former Vice President.
The flunked out divinity student makes me thank the Lord for the Electoral College!
The good Catholic Dana (474dfc) — 11/8/2009 @ 6:52 amOne wonders if Mr Gore would think as highly of civil disobedience if it took the form of not paying the ridiculous crap-and-trade fees.
The sarcastic Dana (474dfc) — 11/8/2009 @ 6:54 amI can remember the 70’s, and I can remember the hand wringing over the pollution in LA.
But at least there was some validity to both the science and purpose of such hand wringing, in that LA’s air quality (or, as another example, tons of mercury deposits off the coast of southern Calif) really was lousy. But a few decades later that hand wringing — over carbon dixoide!!!, over carbon emissions!! — now takes the form of idiocy run amok.
This is merely a variation of the way that several decades ago, in order to be a good liberal, one had to disapprove of anti-miscegenation laws that forbid marriages between people of different races—which never really was a hotly contested, controversial position to take in public. But that nowadays, in order to be a good liberal, one must embrace the idea of two dudes or two chicks being allowed to marry.
Mark (411533) — 11/8/2009 @ 7:57 am[…] relevance of information. So just as I condemn Mr. Al Gore, former Vice President of the US, for suggesting civil disobedience, I condemn the stealing of information from the […]
Is It Getting Warmer? » No scientist had email stolen from East Anglia! (8d4d06) — 11/24/2009 @ 6:41 am