Al Gore Challenged on Global Warming

This past Friday, Al Gore was speaking at a conference in Madison, Wisconsin to The Society of Environmental Journalists.  During this speech, Al Gore was to take questions from the audience regarding climate change and global warming.  Gore, who since 2000 has re-invented himself from politician to leading spokesman for the global warming crowd, has not taken questions regarding his cause in 4 years.  Journalist and film-maker Phelim McAleer looked to confront Gore on some inconsistencies in his 2006 film An Inconvenient Truth.  It should be noted that Mr. McAleer will be releasing a rebuttal to Gore’s documentary in the near future titled, Not Evil Just Wrong.  In the above video, you will notice that after attempting to ask his question, he has his mic cut while trying to submit a follow-up question to the former Vice President. 

This wasnt the only embarrassment for the global warming believers on Friday.  The BBC released a piece questioning the existence of global warming at all.  This comes as quite a surprise as Great Britain is known as one of the leading societies in the human-enduced global warming phenomenon.

In this column, they cite numerous facts to counter global warming, although not outright denying the man made impact our carbon emissions have on the environment.  These certain facts include:

• 1998 was our warmest year recorded globally.  We have not seen an increase in global temperature over the last 11 years which counters the claim the globe is warming.
• New studies may indicate that while the planet did warm over the final decades of the 20th century, it could be caused by increased solar activity which initially was dismissed as a possible theory.
• Oceanic cycles that typically last for 30 years were positive (or warmer in the end of the 20th century), but now we are in the midst of a negative oceanic cycle.  This ocean temperature is consistent with the decrease in global air temperatures that has befuddled the global warming argument the last half of this decade.
• Scientists who have promoted man’s influence in global warming are starting to acknowledge that we may be in the middle of a 10-20 year cooling period.  But believe global temperatures will begin to trend up after this period.

Admittedly, I may be weaker in the environmental argument.  It’s a topic that I still don’t feel like I have a full understanding about, although it seems scientists can not agree on their own data either.  But what I do believe, is if there is so much evidence of historical data that proves the cyclical nature of weather patterns, why does it seem to be hidden by the advocates of the global warming cause?  I would not classify myself a denier, but I need more proof before I’d support Al Gore and his ilk in this effort.  My gut feeling on the topic is that man has played a role in the climate change and will continue to do so in the future. However, the effect of people is not as great as some would have you believe and environmental factors play a larger role than first assumed.