The effulgence

That is Gore-Al appeared last week at that Forests at Risk thingie in Aspen I mentioned a while back, and he brought a slide show! Wildfires, pine beetles, overwhelming consensus, non-partisan issue, evil corporations, you know the drill. On that last point, this was funny (from the Aspen Times):

[Gore] said many global corporations base their profit margins on the ability to pollute. They have banded together and spent billions of dollars in the media and in political campaigns, even hiring “four anti-climate lobbyists for every member of Congress.”

"Anti-climate." There's precision in language for you. And four lobbyists for each congresshump. Not three, not five. Four. He did acknowledge that the "scientific community" had some "self-inflicted wounds" (you know, Climategate, Himalayan glaciers melted by 2035, etc., etc., etc.), but:

“I think the mistakes were blown way way out of proportion,” Gore said. One reason for the mistakes, he said, was that a defensive culture developed among some scientists because they were “harassed on a regular basis” by opponents of the concept of global warming.

Harassment = FOI requests.

“But the general consensus [recognizing global warming [those are the Times' brackets. These are mine.]] is so strong, and so firm [oh, baby], and so widely shared now, that it is clearly the basis for action that the rest of us ought to take,” Gore said.

"The rest of us" = you. Somebody warm up my jet.

At least Gore was "passionate," and managed to work in a quote from noted climate scientist and all 'round hunk Bill Maher, so, not a complete waste of time.