Al Gore’s Confusion Reaches DEFCON 1

December 20th, 2015 by Roy W. Spencer, Ph. D.

al-gore-headshotAl Gore is the gift that just keeps on giving.

According to his prediction, Arctic sea ice was supposed to be gone two years ago.

Since Gore isn’t a scientist, he might be forgiven for making such bad long-range predictions.

But his statement at the AGU meeting in San Francisco last week — which I have not been able to completely verify — takes the cake: “We need to go to DEFCON 5. The will to act is itself a renewable resource.”

Now, as Vice President, for 8 years Mr. Gore was required to travel with the nuclear “football” in case he had to initiate nuclear war in the event the President was incapacitated.

So, how is it that Mr. Gore doesn’t know that DEFCON 1 (not DEFCON 5) is the highest level of readiness?

(H/T small dead animals)


22 Responses to “Al Gore’s Confusion Reaches DEFCON 1”

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  1. Mike Bromley the Kurd says:

    A picture of Gore the Thoughtful, grabbing his chin in faux elevation, is enough to make me swoon.

  2. All kinds of potential explanations here…
    – Freudian slip?
    – Explanation of why he’s always an alarmist? (mistakes calm for imminent danger)
    – Plausible deniability? (“hey, I never said we were at DEFCON 1”)

    • tonyM says:

      It has been clear that Al Gore is the chief scientist for global warming; his movie is used extensively in schools to educate our young.

      Politically, DEFCON 5 is the forcing which rapidly, via feedbacks, escalates into DEFCON 1. Clearly he has great anticipation perspicasity.

      I’m not a US resident, so will try to be tame, but I am not sure if it was a blessing or otherwise that he was not elected. He was a certainly a clear winner financially!

      Merry Xmas all; may it bring a wonderful new year for you.

  3. ossqss says:

    Let’s break the word Defcon down.

    Def, in slang means excellent.

    Con, as a verb, is to swindle or trick.

    Now think about that and look at his picture again 😉

  4. richard says:

    great report on sea ice in the 19th century from scientific ships.

    “Accounts from 19th-century
    Canadian Arctic Explorers’ Logs
    Reflect Present Climate Conditions”

    http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/147050331?searchTerm=winters%20getting%20warmer%20%20in%20england&searchLimits=

  5. richard says:

    ooops sorry, this is the link for 19th century ships reports-

    https://seagrant.uaf.edu/nosb/2005/resources/arctic-explorers.pdf

  6. mpainter says:

    According to the DoD, DefCon 5 is the minimal state of alert, corresponding to “normal peacetime readiness”.

    Al Gore is always an amusing fellow: “I will huff and puff and blow you into ‘normal peacetime readiness!'”

    Take that, denialist.

  7. rah says:

    Ranks right up there with other great Al Gore quotes.
    It seems Gore has always had as many problems with numbers as he has had with the truth. Thanks to http://www.gargaro.com/algore.html for the quotes.

    One thousand billion million trillion…
    Oct. 25 2000 JACKSON, Tenn. (Reuters) Criticizing Bush’s Social Security privatization plan at a rally in Tennessee, Gore said, “He is proposing to privatize a big part of Social Security and he’s proposing to take $1 trillion, a million billion dollars out of the Social Security trust fund and give it as a tax incentive to young workers.”
    A trillion is one thousand billion, not a million billion.
    (Source: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/wires/1025/p_rt_1025_41.sml)

    $29 dollars a week can buy a lot of Diet Cokes
    In his 2000 convention acceptance speech, Gore said the Bush tax cut would save the average family 62 cents a week (“enough for a diet coke”). He later clarified it and said 62 cents a day per family… which is still wrong. Even at 62 cents a day, that’s only a little over $226 a year. Under the Bush tax plan, the average family would save $1500 — $4.20 a day, which is almost $29 dollars a week.

    But then again he is also has problems with history:

    Who ARE these people??
    Listen to Al Gore (Algore) asking who the busts of our Founding Fathers are at Monticello before the Inauguration. DUH. gore.au (71k)
    Watch the video of this!

    Mary and Joseph were homeless??
    “Speaking from my own religious tradition in this Christmas season, 2,000 years ago a homeless woman gave birth to a homeless child in a manger because the inn was full.”
    Hello! Mary and Joseph were not homeless!
    (Sources: Press Conference at HUD, 12/22/97; George Will column, Sunday May 17 1998)

    James who?
    In his first appearance in a nationally televised candidates forum, Gore was asked to name a past US president from whom he drew personal inspiration. He replied that he especially admired another “dark horse” candidate, and a product of his home state, the great “president James Knox”. The only problem is that the history books show that nobody named Knox ever occupied the White House. He most likely meant James Knox Polk.
    (Source: Chicago Tribune of 7/24/87; The British Sunday Times; Michael Medved of KVI radio (570 AM based in Seattle).

    • mpainter says:

      You forgot to quote the masseuses that Al Gore roughed up.

    • wert says:

      Sure, but the system with trillion equal to (1e6) is much more logical.

      How hot was the center of the Earth? Millions of degrees? Enough for nuclear fusion? Gore is a genius, he invented the Internet.

  8. AlecM says:

    The Gore effect is well known. It is equivalent to the term FUBAR.

  9. David L. Hagen says:

    We need to strongly endorse Gore’s Defcon 5 evaluation of the importance of “climate change” i.e., ranking as “Normal peacetime readiness” – the lowest/normal priority for the military to be concerned about. The dead lastUN’s international poll of 7 million similarly ranks “climate change” dead last in global concerns.

  10. Transport by Zeppelin says:

    Why was Gore, a non scientist, making statements at the AGU meeting in San Francisco last week???

    What other non scientists were invited to make statements about science???

    Seems more like DUMBCON 1

  11. David Appell says:

    Al Gore never made such a prediction, Roy. You aren’t being honest.

    What Al Gore actually said:

    “Last September 21 (2007), as the Northern Hemisphere tilted away from the sun, scientists reported with unprecedented distress that the North Polar ice cap is “falling off a cliff.” One study estimated that it could be completely gone during summer in less than 22 years. Another new study, to be presented by U.S. Navy researchers later this week, warns it could happen in as little as 7 years.”

    • mpainter says:

      You want some fun, David?
      Google “al gore predicts”.
      Loads of laughs, I promise.:-)

      For more fun, google “arctic ice prediction”.

  12. mpainter says:

    You want some fun, David?
    Google “al gore predicts”.
    Loads of laughs, I promise.:-)

  13. Keith Noren says:

    Gore made a mistake with the DEFCON call – no issue there.

    However, here is his Dec 2007 statement about when the Arctic Sea Ice would be gone:

    “Last September 21 (2007), as the Northern Hemisphere tilted away from the sun, scientists reported with unprecedented distress that the North Polar ice cap is “falling off a cliff.” One study estimated that it could be completely gone during summer in less than 22 years. Another new study, to be presented by U.S. Navy researchers later this week, warns it could happen in as little as 7 years.

    And if you look at what happened in Sept 2007, it was falling off a cliff.

    http://robertscribbler.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/piomas-minimum-arctic-ice-volume.png

    Thus he said the Arctic Sea Ice “could be completely gone during summer month in less than 22 years (according to one study) or it could happen (according to another researcher – NPGS) in as little as 7 years.

    You can start satirizing Gore about what he said could occur “in summer months in Sept 2029. Certainly not before then.

    Similar for his Dec 2009 Nobel Acceptance Speech. Listen to all of it.
    https://youtu.be/MsioIw4bvzI

    How Roy Spencer says:
    “According to his prediction, Arctic sea ice was supposed to be gone two years ago.
    is beyond the pale of honest debate.

    Roy – you should apologize publicly.

    Now if I had to guess, there will be some Arctic Sea Ice left in 2030 up near the Greenland / Baffin Island area above 85 deg. But the sustence of what Gore said is true – the Sea Ice Volume (minimum month) is diminishing substantially – in fact is at 65% of what it was when PIOMASS started measuring last Sept. That is alarming enough (imo). Look it this clever plot:

    http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/files/2015/10/arctic-death-spiral.jpg

    • JohnKl says:

      Hi Keith Noren,

      I must apologize to Al Gore and all in that I attributed such a prediction to him. in fairness, Al Gore refers to another group’s prediction that arctic sea ice COULD be gone in 7 years. His pitch was to make it sound authoritive as if the people making the prediction had any clue about what they spoke of at all.

      Have a great day!

  14. Brett Jones says:

    Uh his actual ‘prediction’ was documented here:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsioIw4bvzI

    “Some of the models suggest to Dr. Maslowski that there is a 75% chance that the entire north polar ice cap during summer… during some of the summer months could be completely ice free within the next 5 to 7 years. Bob used a figure of 2030, and the volumetric analysis leads this… Dr. Maslowski to make that projection.” – Al Gore, Dec. 2009

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