ManBearPig Speaks!

I missed the performance of ManBearPig today but I hear it was a doozy:

Penraker did a bit of liveblogging:

Barbara Mikulski, as she introduced Gore this afternoon: "What Al Gore tells us might be inconvenient, but it will ALWAYS be the truth. (20 foot sea rise?)

Barbara Boxer compared him to Rosa Parks (!) She sounded as if she were going to cry at times, in the face of such greatness.

Gore said there are times in history when a small group of people stand against the rest of the world and change all of history. He compares him and his friends to the 300 at Thermopylae.

The Europeans, he reminds us, are better than us. They are running around trying to outdo each other in global warming activism. "They’re not talking about the science!" he exclaims. That is the point, isn’t it.

For some reason, he thinks this is the same as the Marshall Plan. I don’t quite get it.

He is giving a fake impassioned speech. . "The Earth is shaking because of the glacial earthquakes in Greenland"

He says it’s too hot for Manatees in Southern Florida. (seriously, he said that)
But the scientists say that some populations are growing in Florida. They say the only danger to Manatees is boat propellers, not too much heat.

He says we need to ban incandescent bulb. Everyone must pay $6.00 per bulb now.

Inhofe asks him to sign a pledge saying that "We will strive to use no more energy than an average American" Everyone knows this is aimed at Gore’s rather large home energy use.

Gore answers by blabbering on about "green energy", totally ignoring the question. Inhofe insists on an answer. Barbara Boxer protects Gore from having to answer.

And that’s about how it went.  Gore blabbered on and on, not answering questions, stating that there is no more debate, and refusing to pledge to change his energy consumption:

I mean comparing himself to Rosa Parks?  WTF planet are we living on?

Former Vice President Al Gore refused to take a “Personal Energy Ethics Pledge” today to consume no more energy than the average American household. The pledge was presented to Gore by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, during today’s global warming hearing.

Senator Inhofe showed Gore a film frame from “An Inconvenient Truth” where it asks viewers: “Are you ready to change the way you live?”

Gore has been criticized for excessive home energy usage at his residence in Tennessee. His electricity usage is reportedly 20 times higher than the average American household.

It has been reported that many of these so-called carbon offset projects would have been done anyway. Also, carbon offset projects such as planting trees can take decades or even a century to sequester the carbon emitted today. So energy usage today results in greenhouse gases remaining in the atmosphere for decades, even with the purchase of so-called carbon offsets.

“There are hundreds of thousands of people who adore you and would follow your example by reducing their energy usage if you did. Don’t give us the run-around on carbon offsets or the gimmicks the wealthy do,” Senator Inhofe told Gore.

“Are you willing to make a commitment here today by taking this pledge to consume no more energy for use in your residence than the average American household by one year from today?” Senator Inhofe asked.

Senator Inhofe then presented Vice President Gore with the following "Personal Energy Ethics Pledge:

Cl As a believer: · that human-caused global warming is a moral, ethical, and spiritual issue affecting our survival;

· that home energy use is a key component of overall energy use;

· that reducing my fossil fuel-based home energy usage will lead to lower greenhouse gas emissions; and

· that leaders on moral issues should lead by example;

I pledge to consume no more energy for use in my residence than the average American household by March 21, 2008.”

Gore refused to take the pledge.

Oh, and he was supposed to turn in his opening statement 24 hours prior to the hearing, he gave it to them 1 minute prior.  The King cannot be bothered to listen to underlings, don’t you know?

I will update as I find interesting tidbits about this farce know as the Goracle.

UPDATE

Congressman Barton appears to have taken Gore to task:

Texas Congressman Joe Barton today told former Vice President Al Gore his theories on global warming are not supported by the facts and if Gore’s desires are implemented, there would be no new businesses, cars or even people allowed in the United States.

"You just gave us an idea for a straight CO2 freeze, if I heard you correctly. I think that’s an idea that’s flawed. If you take that literally, we can add no new industry, nor new cars and trucks on our streets, and apparently no new people," Barton, who represents the 6th District in Texas, said. "People are mobile-source emitters. Every person emits 0.2 tons of CO2 a year, so an absolute true freeze would be no new industry, no new people, and no new cars."

[…]"The first thing I want to address is the science of global warming as portrayed by the vice president’s film, ‘An Inconvenient Truth.’ This is something that I think we absolutely have to get right. Even the mainstream media, Mr. Vice President, are now noticing that global warming science is uneven and evolving. We need to be deliberative and careful when we talk about so-called scientific facts," Barton, the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said.

"In your movie, you display a timeline of temperature and compared to CO2 levels over a 600,000-year period as reconstructed from ice core samples. You indicate that this is conclusive proof of the link of increased CO2 emissions and global warming. A closer examination of these facts reveals something entirely different," Barton said.

Barton said a Science magazine article he was submitting for the record shows that historically, increases in CO2 concentrations actually lagged temperature changes by up to 1,000 years.

"The temperature appears to drive CO2, not vice versa. On this point, Mr. Vice President, you’re not just off a little. You’re totally wrong. And it’s not just this one article; the president of the National Academy of Sciences agreed, under oath, last summer in an Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing on this very point," said Barton.

Barton also noted that "historically, and repeatedly," CO2 levels have far exceeded concentrations now being reported, which are in the range of 380 parts per million.

"Indeed, CO2 levels in the past have exceeded 1,000 ppm, and average earth temperatures have been much higher then than they are today. We know these things. … [I]t remains a fact, and is clear from the data we do have, that for hundreds of thousands of years, CO2 levels followed temperature rise, not the other way around, as you preach," he said.

"You’ve also asserted that global warming will cause sea levels to rise by over 20 feet. The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report indicates a rise of at most 23 inches.

"You state that there will be more and stronger hurricanes because of global warming. The IPCC report does not support this claim. You also state that malaria has been exacerbated in Nairobi because of global warming. The World Health Organization report does not support this allegation. In fact, malaria is not exclusively a warm weather disease – inhabitants of Siberia have long experienced malaria outbreaks," Barton noted.

[…]Even as Gore prepared to appear before the House committee, Czech President Vaclav Klaus was calling the issue a new religion, and describing it as the modern equivalent of communism.

"It becomes evident that while discussing climate we are not witnessing a clash of views about the environment, but a clash of views about human freedom," the Czech leader has said.

"As someone who lived under communism for most of my life I feel obliged to say that the biggest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity at the beginning of the 21st century is not communism or its various softer variants," said Klaus, responding to questions posed by the two lawmakers. "Communism was replaced by the threat of ambitious environmentalism."

So true.  The environmentalism movement is no longer about the science, no longer about debate, it’s a religion now.  You MUST believe or you are deemed a heretic and banished to the woods.  Take this exchange at today’s hearing:

Senator Lautenberg says, quite unbelievably, that Gore has produced proof that reducing carbong emissions will NOT harm the economy. But Gore just blathered on about it, giving facile and self serving statements. Lautenberg quotes from the Union of Concerned Scientists, a leftist organization. He calls those who oppose Gore "Luddites". He says that the Bush administration is trying to suppress science. He ends saying "…the entire world is looking for ways to relieve ourselves…

Gore says it is wrong to have political people who have no scientific training altering the words of scientists. Apparently he does not recognize this is exactly what he has done.

Really, is there that many ignorant people on this planet?

UPDATE II

Heh!

Gore said. "If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don’t say, `Well, I read a science fiction novel that told me it’s not a problem.’ If the crib’s on fire, you don’t speculate that the baby is flame retardant. You take action."

A more accurate analogy would be that the smoke detector is beeping indicating not that the house is on fire but that it needs a new battery and Al Gore wants to throw your baby out the window.

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