Gore: Ignorant or Dishonest?

In his July 1, 2007, New York Times Op-Ed piece, (“Moving Beyond Kyoto,”) Al Gore states:

Consider this tale of two planets. Earth and Venus are almost exactly the same size, and have almost exactly the same amount of carbon. The difference is that most of the carbon on Earth is in the ground – having been deposited there by various forms of life over the last 600 million years – and most of the carbon on Venus is in the atmosphere.

As a result, while the average temperature on Earth is a pleasant 59 degrees, the average temperature on Venus is 867 degrees. True, Venus is closer to the Sun than we are, but the fault is not in our star; Venus is three times hotter on average than Mercury, which is right next to the Sun. It’s the carbon dioxide.

No, Mr. Gore, it’s not the carbon dioxide. If you take the trouble to do an internet search on Google for “carbon dioxide” + “Martian atmosphere,” you will learn that the Martian atmosphere is 95 percent carbon dioxide, yet the average surface temperature on Mars is –63° C (–81° F).

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Great article by George Reisman. A suggested reading for all those who believe that without Kyoto protocols the earth will be toasted in no time. They may be quite surprised to find out that Earth atmosphere has only 0.0383% (383 parts per million) of Carbon Dioxide, as opposed to 96% on Venus or 95% on Mars.