Gore’s unscientific claim opens the door to climate sceptics
16 Dec 2009
Al Gore, former US vice president and one of the leading lights of the campaign against global warming and climate change found himself at the centre of an embarrassing episode at the UN climate summit at Copenhagen on Tuesday.
In his speech Gore told the conference that some of the global warming models when used with fresh figures, suggested that there was a 75 per cent chance that the entire north polar ice cap would be entirely ice-free within five to seven years.
Gore cited respected climatologist, Dr Wieslav Maslowski's research to back his claim.
However, the climatologist left Gore out on a limb when he wondered how the figure had been arrived at and said he would never try to estimate the likelihood of anything as exact as that.
Gore's office later admitted that the 75 per cent figure was one used by Maslowksi as a ''ballpark figure'' several years ago in a conversation with Gore.
The incident, analysts say point to the growing disconnect between the science of global warming and the politics behind it. They say much of the scepticism with which global warming and climate change is increasingly being viewed is due to the hijacking of the issue by politicians and others to drive their own agenda.
