January 1, Al Gore’s Movie Predictions Miss Reality Mark

Wyatt’s Take

• Al Gore’s film fueled climate panic that hasn’t materialized.
• Big predictions about melting glaciers and disasters failed.
• Experts say media scares matter more than scientific facts.

Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” came out twenty years ago and got a warm welcome from the climate activist crowd.

The documentary was credited with stoking fears about global warming, painting a dire picture of a world thrown into chaos by human activity.

The movie warned of disasters like disappearing glaciers and a boiling planet, but today, many of those predictions haven’t come true.

In fact, glaciers in Montana’s Glacier National Park and Africa’s Mt. Kilimanjaro are still there, despite warnings they’d be gone by now.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claimed five years ago the world would end in 12 years because of fossil fuel use, echoing past doomsday claims.

Matt Wielicki, a scientist, said he once taught students using Gore’s film, but he started doubting its message over time.

“People took that as a starting point, and they just kept running further and further with it.”

Wielicki said.

Federal agencies even put up signs warning glaciers would disappear by 2020, but they ended up having to take them down when the ice didn’t melt away.

Gore also linked Hurricane Katrina to global warming and predicted such storms would become common.

But the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says it’s too soon to say that human actions have pushed hurricane activity past natural limits.

“In summary, it is premature to conclude with high confidence that human-caused increases in greenhouse gases have caused a change in past Atlantic basin hurricane activity that is outside the range of natural variability, although greenhouse gases are strongly linked to global warming.”

The agency states.

Meteorologist Chris Martz points to a lot of uncertainty in climate science.

He says Gore made more wrong claims, such as predicting an ice-free Arctic by the mid-2010s.

“We look at the Arctic ice now and yes, it’s declined since 1979 when satellite records began … But over the last 18 to 20 years, there’s really been no trend. And this caught scientists off guard. The models never predicted this.”

Martz said.

He noted that while some research points to losing Arctic ice, other studies show the ice comes and goes based on natural swings.

Media outlets don’t often follow up when dramatic climate warnings turn out false.

For example, just two years after stories of an unstoppable “megadrought” in the west, California is now drought-free, but news about climate change is left out.

Martz says most folks get their information from the media, not scientific journals.

“That communication is what’s more important in terms of public perception of what science is.”

Martz said.

Stay on guard, ask questions, and hold the media accountable for hype.

Real change for working Americans starts with the truth.

Wyatt Matters

Ordinary folks deserve honest answers, not fear-mongering.

Hollywood and the political class push doom stories to control choices and raise money, but the facts on the ground matter most to families in Middle America.

Read more here.