Comments on: Right Wing Doctors Audio Clips To Distort Al Gore’s Comments About Cyclone Nargis

By: mdeatherage

mdeatherage — Sat, 10 May 2008 21:17:43 +0000

To be completely accurate, as I’m sure CAP and Wonk Room want to be, you should note that Poor’s quote of Gore in the article above is not “doctored,” it’s merely taken out of context. Gore did say those words in that order, but by leaving out the part before them, it creates a deliberately misleading context.

Using the five-paragraph transcript of Gore’s actual remarks as presented above, the BMI audio report omits the first paragraph (about the French Quarter), starts with paragraph 3, goes through paragraphs 3-5 in order, and then comes back to pick up paragraph 2. So while the audio in the BMI report is indeed “doctored,” the quote of a quote in paragraph 3 of this blog post is not—it’s just out of context.

It doesn’t really change any of the analysis, but it gives the deniers something to try to attack in self-justification. I’d recommend clarifying it.

By: Nestmaster

Nestmaster — Sat, 10 May 2008 11:41:06 +0000

Any weather predictions are just that – predictions. Predictions are primarily based on past occurances. Problem is, global climates are changing. Average global temps. are increasing due in great part to a human induced increase of the CO2 concentration in our atmosphere (if anyone believes otherwise then they have an issue with reality). Cyclones/hurricanes need 85º F. ocean surface temps. to begin and thrive. They also need high winds aloft to sustain their growth (removes warm air built up against the Stratosphere so that more circulation of the storm can commence). So, not warming alone can cause more cyclones/hurricanes. Other factors are needed as well. All factors are inter-related and increases in some can cause decreases in others. In short, weather, especially in a chaning climate, can be quite difficult to forecast. It is much easier to forecast the freguency of the practice of dissembly by right wingers (they are addicted to it).

By: kudosdc

kudosdc — Sat, 10 May 2008 05:49:32 +0000

Doesn’t William Gray make those infamous hurricane season predictions that recently have not been very reliable?

So, you’re telling me that the recent overhyped predictions -the ones the deniers throw back at scientists as evidence that nobody really knows what’s going and we’re freaking out over nothing – these predictions come from a devout and self-avowed denier who isn’t even asked why he can’t seem to predict the weather very well?!?!

By: williamf

williamf — Fri, 09 May 2008 23:42:32 +0000

Well, who, if anyone, can say that the cyclone was a result of global warming? Why not look at the possibility if there is science to do such a thing. If not all of this is just hot political air and it’s no way to get to the bottom of the global warming debate. Needless to say, however we argue on this matter, I would hope that everyone would argue from a position of concern about our planet and save the hot air for the Senate floor or somewhere else.