Former Vice President Al Gore is back and our future has never been bleaker. That was the message he delivered at a Climate & Health meeting he hastily organized after a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) climate change conference got postponed. Despite having a 10-year record of failed climate predictions, Gore blamed everything from contagious diseases to food shortages to Extreme Weather on global warming.
At the meeting held yesterday at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Gore and invited guests said climate-related risks were "obviously" increasing.
Every night on TV, he said, was like a “hike through the Book of Revelations,” his favorite refrain. But Gore was misleading the attendees and the media as he often does in his movies and lectures.
With many areas becoming much more densely populated, when a storm does strike more damage occurs. Storms have not increased, only populations and expensive items. Data shows there hasn’t been an increase in floods, droughts, tornadoes, or other climate-related weather. And a category-3 or higher hurricane hasn’t made landfall in the United States in over 11 years.
Study: Cold kills 20 times more people than heat:
— Climate News (@ClimateNewsCA) March 15, 2016
1985 - 2012: 5.4 million people dead from the coldhttps://t.co/GjFEr8kjW6 via @usatoday
Cold kills more than heat
Heat waves, Gore said, were the number one climate-related cause of death in the United States.
And a scientist from the activist group Natural Resources Defense Council said the rate of warming in the last 30 years was unlike anything in the past 1,000 years. Again, untrue. Tony Heller, who operates Real Climate Science, plotted out the frequency of hot days (those over 100°F) showing they have actually plunged in the last 80 years.
And the U.S. Natural Hazard Statistics showed that 45 people died from extreme heat in 2015, down from a 10-year average of 113. Extreme cold, however, killed 53 people in 2015, which was twice the 10-year average of 32 cold-related deaths. And worldwide, cold killed 20 times more people than heat. That’s because fossil fuels have lifted more countries out of poverty, provide lifesaving fuel, and deliver stable power.
Highlighting The Dangerous Risk Of Fake News https://t.co/wViNtnomyu #Eco #Green pic.twitter.com/8MbCoq5G7C
— The Anti Al Gore (@AGW_IS_A_HOAX) February 17, 2017
Crops are booming
Gore also said that crops have suffered from increased carbon dioxide (CO2). Again, facts don’t comport to these spurious claims. Heller wrote that crop production since 1965 has increased and is at record highs, keeping up with consumption; forty percent of corn is diverted toward ethanol. NASA also recently said the Earth was getting greener thanks to elevated CO2 levels.
And despite Gore’s statement that flooding was the world’s number one killer because of increased CO2, facts say otherwise. The worst ‘global’ floods all occurred when CO2 levels were below 320 parts per million (PPM), writes Heller.
The Huang He River flood of 1887 caused between 900,000 and 6,000,000 deaths when CO2 levels were at 294 ppm.
Worth reading: Zika’s long, strange trip into the limelight https://t.co/2ZYAkmiGHw
— Kaitlin Solimine 老K (@LetsGoKato) October 16, 2016
Zika and climate?
None of this is surprising given the conference attendees were from some of the largest activist groups across the country, with many having pecuniary interests in propping up global climate alarm. Funding, corporate welfare, and research grants were lavishly doled out under the Obama administration. All that spending, though, was put on hold until President Donald Trump has his agency heads confirmed.
Gore also blamed the spread of the Zika virus on climate change, a claim largely debunked by leading science magazines.
With the recent 2015 El Nino, heavy rains inundated South and Central America creating large pools of clean water for the Zika-carrying mosquito to breed. The virus originated in Africa and migrated across the Atlantic via infected travelers or as stowaways.
Heller noted 2016 was one of the mildest years on record, with very little extreme hot or cold weather. And the most probable science advisor for Trump, eminent physicist William Happer, said in recent interviews that calling CO2 a pollutant was ridiculous and global warming was actually a good thing.