Yeah, the politicization of this serious issue I find a bit odd. Evey one says, "If AL Gore is right." Well, he's just repeating what the majority of climatologists and scientists working in the field believe. In addition to former Senator and Vice President Al Gore (that crack pot), believers include
The National Academy of science , George Bush and the current administration who support the findings
of the IPCC ,to
Pat Robertson who usually takes longer to change his mind then to melt the snows of Kilimanjaro.
Is global warming a certainty? Nothing is. Of course, is a shred of doubt good reason to stick our heads in the sand and do nothing? If there is a huge potential world crisis and we can do something about it, why not do it? People point to the big food shortage that scientists predicted in the 70s that never came. Of course, they fail to note that concern over this global crisis caused new crops and farming techniques to be developed that helped avert this crisis.
Got to defend Al one time though. He never claimed to invent the internet. THat's a misrepresentation of his words. In a 1999 interview with Wolf Blitzer Gore said, "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."
A bit of an exaggeration, sure, but he was instrumental in it's early funding.
Vincent Cerf , often called "the father of the internet" said of Gore's contribution "The Internet would not be where it is in the United States without the strong support given to it and related research areas by the Vice President in his current role and in his earlier role as Senator." Dave Ferber, the creator of the
Mosaic Web Browser , which wasone of the first popular web browsers and was funded by Gore's initiative. Ferber said the internet "would not be where it is today," without AL Gore.
Joseph Traub who headed the computer sience program at Carnegie Mellon and founded Columbia Universities Computer Science program said Gore, "was perhaps the first political leader to grasp the importance of networking the country."
I bring these experts into it as that quote is often sited to undermine the credibility of the former Vice President. Of course, he's just the front man. It's the scientists who do the work whose credibility should matter.
