Al Gore has made an enormous amount of money by pretending to know something about science. He is by no means the first such charlatan, but he must be one of the most successful. A week or two ago, when we interviewed National Review’s John Derbyshire on our radio show, he emphasized that he is a science guy at heart. Today, at The Corner, he takes Gore to school. To convey the impact I’m reproducing the whole thing, but please do follow the link anyway:
Al Gore on Conan O’Brien’s show the other day:
Conan: Now, what about … you talk in the book about geothermal energy …
Al: Yeah, yeah.
Conan: and that is, as I understand it, using the heat that’s generated from the core of the earth …
Al: Yeah.
Conan: … to create energy, and it sounds to me like an evil plan by Lex Luthor to defeat Superman. Can you, can you tell me, is this a viable solution, geothermal energy?
Al: It definitely is, and it’s a relatively new one. People think about geothermal energy — when they think about it at all — in terms of the hot water bubbling up in some places, but two kilometers or so down in most places there are these incredibly hot rocks, ’cause the interior of the earth is extremely hot, several million degrees, and the crust of the earth is hot …
[Me] The geothermal gradient is usually quoted as 25-50 degrees Celsius per mile of depth in normal terrain (not, e.g., in the crater of Kilauea). Two kilometers down, therefore, (that’s a mile and a quarter if you’re not as science-y as Al) you’ll have an average gain of 30-60 degrees — exploitable for things like home heating, though not hot enough to make a nice pot of tea. The temperature at the earth’s core, 4,000 miles down, is usually quoted as 5,000 degrees Celsius, though these guys claim it’s much less, while some contrarian geophysicists have posted claims up to 9,000 degrees. The temperature at the surface of the Sun is around 6,000 degrees Celsius, while at the center, where nuclear fusion is going on bigtime, things get up over 10 million degrees.
If the temperature anywhere inside the earth was “several million degrees,” we’d be a star.
It is a remarkable fact that Al Gore has had a significant influence on public policy relating to science when he is, in fact, utterly uneducated in scientific matters and is of very limited intelligence.
On the other hand, he’s gotten rich, so I guess the joke is on us.
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Well, Al was wrong about the temperature at the center of the Earth. Best estimate is that it is approximately 5,700 kelvin or 9,800 degrees Fahrenheit
But to even things out, you are either wrong or dishonest about Al. You say “Al Gore has made an enormous amount of money” … “he’s gotten rich”.
Were you informed/honest you would know/admit that Al gives 100% of what he makes from his books and personal appearances to non-profit organizations that are working on the climate change project. He’s even testified to that fact in front of Congress.
Now, it could well be that Al made a momentary slip of the tongue and meant to say “thousands” when he said “millions”, but I suspect you knew what you were doing when you wrote this attack bit.
How about we give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you might have gotten your “truth” from Laura Ingram’s doctored video of Al testifying in front of the House committee and you aren’t aware of what he actually said.
Step up. Educate yourself. Talk truth and don’t twist the truth to match your political agenda.
Comment by Bob Wallace — 11/18/2009 @ 1:13 pm
No, it was not an accident. It was a lack of education on Gore’s part. And he one who has a politcal agenda is Gore, which has been covered endlessly on other blogs ad nausiem. And you need to look in the mirror, as the one who is not bothering to educate himself is you, as you have not provided one single fact to refute the many facts on this thread here:
http://www.baltimorereporter.com/index.php?cat=62
which apparently you did not bother to read. Next time, try providing a fact to back up your argument, or keep on looking like an uneducated liberal lemming. It is your choice.
Comment by Robert Farrow — 11/18/2009 @ 2:49 pm