Three Questions for Al Gore and The Live Earth Hystericals

By Frank Pastore
Sunday, July 15, 2007

Despite the wild popularity of their number one hit “Man Is Responsible for Global Warming,” I’m still not wowed by the music of Al Gore and his backup band, The Live Earth Hystericals. All their songs sound the same, and all their lyrics always reduce to the same one hook that’s also the title of their one hit song.

But, great ideas, like great music, can stand the test of time. And they invite inquiry, investigation, dialogue, and discussion. Advocates of great ideas—true ideas—are not afraid of engaging in debate, especially when they have the arguments and the evidence at the ready—in the bullpen if you will.

Just like when I pitched in the big leagues: When you have your good stuff, you’re told to attack the hitters. When you don’t, you try to trick ’em for as long as you can, and just pray they hit the ball right at people. You can boast all you want, but the moment you step on that mound and start throwing the ball, everybody on that field is going to know pretty soon whether you’ve got your good stuff that night or not. You can trick major league hitters for only so long and then there’s nowhere to hide. I should know. Too often in my career I was the guy trying to trick ’em.

By repeating the mantra “the debate is over,” when thoughtful observers know it isn’t, the Hystericals are screaming one thing loud and clear for the whole world to hear: “We don’t have the science to back us up.” Or, to continue the baseball metaphor, “We don’t have our good stuff, and there’s no one in the bullpen.”

No. The debate is not over.

Here are three, simple, easy-to-remember questions you can ask those who sing along with Algore and the Live Earth Hystericals.

1) Why is it getting hotter on Mars without any SUVs and private jets emitting carbon dioxide? If it’s the sun that’s responsible for the warming on Mars, then maybe it’s also responsible for the warming of the Earth.

2) How do the alarmists adequately explain past warming and cooling cycles that started long before the introduction of the first internal combustion engine? There was a Medieval Warm Period from 900-1300 and then a Little Ice Age from about 1500-1800. By simply looking at the covers of our most popular periodicals over the past century, these cycles are clearly evident. We worried about a coming Ice Age from 1895 to 1930, then it was the threat of global warming from the 1930s to the 1960s, followed by another imminent Ice Age during the 1970s, and now we’re back to the threat of global warming again. Our great grandkids will likely have to worry about another Ice Age. There’s just no such thing as our planet’s “ideal temperature.” Average surface temperatures are constantly in flux, up or down about a few tenths of a degree every year. These cycles are normal.

3) If man is solely responsible for the increased levels of CO2, then how do you explain the Ordovician Period, 440 million years ago, when the CO2 level was 16 times higher than today? Or, the Cretaceous Period, 140 million years ago, when dinosaurs ruled the Earth and CO2 was 8 times higher? Or, the CO2 levels from 95 million years ago which were about the same as levels today? How can these levels be changing long before the appearance of man?

Despite what they claim, no, the debate is not over. Not by a long shot.

But, it has never really been about the science anyway. It was, has been, and continues to be all about the money. Who needs to pay it, who collects it; who redistributes it.

Put it this way. Al Gore views capitalism the same way other liberals view tobacco. He doesn’t want to outlaw it, he just wants to tax it. He doesn’t want to kill the Golden Goose, he just wants more of the eggs for himself and his big government cause.

But that’s a topic for another column.