May 09, 2010 The Problems with Al Gore By David Deming There are two problems with Al Gore. First, he's a demagogue who lacks an appreciation for the ethics and methods of science. Second, he's a not a scientist, but a celebrity and politician who does not understand the technical aspects of science. Put succinctly, the man simply doesn't know what he's talking about. But Gore is now advising the world on complex technical issues related to energy and climate. That's a problem for the human race. As described in my book, Science and Technology in World History, Vol. 1, what we know as modern science began in ancient Greece in the 6th century B.C. The Greek philosophers embraced intellectual freedom, open discussion, and critical analysis. Pupils were not only allowed to question and criticize their teachers, but they were encouraged to do so. Debate was elevated by Plato and his students to the science of dialectic. In the Platonic Dialogue Timaeus, it is noted that anyone who can present a better plan "shall carry off the palm, not as an enemy, but as a friend." But Al Gore refuses to debate his critics. He has repeatedly dodged a debate with Christopher Monckton. Instead of engaging skeptics in reasoned discussions, Gore has relentlessly demonized those who disagree with him. In a series of infamous character assassinations, he has stated that people who are skeptical of the hysterical global warming scenario he has been promoting (and profiting from) are comparable to the lunatic fringe who believe that the Apollo Moon landings were filmed on a movie stage. He has also compared global warming skeptics to people who believe that the Earth is flat. Scientific issues like climate change are not morality plays. Scientists are objective and tentative. To be a scientist is to be skeptical. Science is never "settled" because there can be no finality in any empirical system of knowledge. Only God has all the data. Scientists employ multiple working hypotheses. They work together cooperatively, eager to have their mistakes pointed out to them, so as to advance a disinterested search for truth. One of the finest examples of this ethic is found in a letter written by Robert Hooke to Isaac Newton on January 20, 1676. Hooke told Newton, "I have a mind very desirous of and very ready to embrace any truth that shall be discovered though it may much thwart and contradict any opinions or notions I have formerly embraced." Why was Hooke eager to have his errors pointed out? Because, he explained, "my aim is the discovery of truth," therefore "I can endure to hear objections." But Al Gore can endure no objections. His aim is not to find truth, but to tendentiously assemble and present information so as to mislead. An example of Gore's dissembling is found in the film An Inconvenient Truth. One of the most memorable scenes in An Inconvenient Truth is the unveiling of a startling graph that shows a strong correlation between carbon dioxide and temperature over the last several hundred thousand years. Gore then states that "when there's more carbon dioxide, the temperature gets warmer." Because the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is now relatively high, the audience is led to believe that a drastic rise in global temperature is imminent. But carbon dioxide does not determine temperature in the way that Gore suggests. On the contrary, temperature controls carbon dioxide by modulating its release and absorption from the oceans. The temperature changes found in the ice core data cannot be caused by carbon dioxide changes, because the increases in atmospheric temperature precede increases in carbon dioxide by several hundred years. The Earth's oceans contain more than fifty times the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is more soluble in cold water. As the oceans warm, they release carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. When the oceans cool, they absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The science is no more complex than noting that a warm coke has more fizz than a cold one. Temperature controls carbon dioxide, not the other way around. A film like An Inconvenient Truth is carefully scripted and checked for errors. Al Gore can be made to appear as if he knows the science. But a recent television interview [video] was more revealing. Promoting geothermal energy, Gore said that the temperature in the interior of the Earth is "several million degrees." But it isn't. It's not even close. Since people first started lowering thermometers into boreholes in the nineteenth century, we have known that the temperature of the Earth's core is no more than several thousand degrees Celsius. The temperature at the inner-outer core boundary is constrained by a phase transition to be in the neighborhood of 6,000°C. More to the point, the temperature of near-surface rocks in geothermal areas is typically hundreds of °C. At te

Ssan demonstrates her impartiality regarding the candidates with a selection of coloured tortilla chips, Trinity Spadina Candidates debate© Linda Dawn Hammond / IndyFoto.com '11, WSIC TORONTO - Trinity Spadina All Candidates Debate, Monday, August 29, 2011 from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM (ET) DUKE OF YORK PUB. 39 PRINCE ARTHUR AVE Toronto, Ontario In the fall, 2011, Ontario residents will be voting for their Members of Provincial Parliament. Candidates from the local riding of Trinity Spadina were invited by WSIC TORONTO to discuss provincial political issues and field questions from the public. On Monday August 29th, Tim Grant (Green Party candidate), incumbent MPP Rosario Marchese (NDP candidate, ) and Sarah Thomson (Liberal candidate) met for a discussion of issues pertinent to the upcoming election. The Conservative candidate declined to participate. The audience voted on a selection of possible topics to be addressed, choosing six. Candidates Background Incumbent Rosario Marchese (NDP candidate, MPP) Dates of service as an MPP September 06, 1990 -- September 07, 2011 Background (Courtesy Wikipedia) Marchese arrived in Canada with his family at age nine. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, French and Philosophy from the University of Toronto in 1978, and later received a Bachelor of Education degree. Before entering public life, he taught English and French in Toronto and Mississauga. He is also fluent in Italian. Political life He served on the Toronto school board from 1982 to 1990, representing Wards 4 and 5 at different times. During this period, he distinguished himself as an advocate of lingual and racial rights, worked to establish international language programs, alternative schools and school childcare, and helped to end the practice of streaming students into narrow learning programs. As well, he served as Vice-President of the National Congress of Italian Canadians (Toronto), Toronto Public Library Board trustee, and Multilingual Literacy Centre Chair. Provincial politics Marchese was first elected to the Ontario parliament in th