Continuing his unbroken record of having his pronouncements on global warming royally mocked by events, Al Gore’s up-coming speech linking the explosion in the tree-munching pine beetle to global warming has been upset by reports of the pine beetle population “crashing”.
As Real Aspen announced only a few days ago, Al Gore was all set to give a landmark speech in Aspen in February in which he was to link global warming to the plague of pine beetles said to be devastating North America’s forests:
Former Vice President Al Gore will be in Aspen in February to attend what’s believed to be one of the first major public symposiums linking global climate change to the deteriorating health of forestland in the American West due to ongoing insect infestations and the growing threat of wildfire.
“Forests At Risk: Climate Change & the Future of the American West” is scheduled for Feb. 18 at the Doerr-Hosier Center on the campus of the Aspen Institute. Gore, a Democrat, Nobel laureate and Oscar-winning advocate for reversing the impacts of global climate change, will be the keynote speake
Some scientists predict up to half the forests in the American West will be lost to disease and fire during this century.
Real Aspen. Al Gore to Connect Climate Change to Beetle Kill.
Unfortunately, the gods of global warming got wind of the planned visit by the Goracle, and struck down the pine beetle population, in readiness for his speech. News reports now state that the population of pine beetles is in freefall:
After more than a decade of eating through B.C. forests, the mountain pine beetle population has begun to crash in the central Interior, Chief Forester Jim Snetsinger said Friday
. . . the beetle population is on the steep downward side of a bell curve. At the height of the epidemic three to five years ago, billions of beetles had attacked 14.5 million hectares of trees. By March, 2010, beetles had killed the equivalent of 675 million cubic metres of timber, making it one of North America’s worst-ever environmental disasters.
“Now it’s crashing,” Snetsinger said. “The mountain pine beetle population is decreasing.”
Vancouver Sun. Pine Beetle Population ‘Crashing‘.
Gore will probably carry on regardless and deliver his lecture on how global warming is causing pine beetle population to skyrocket, but even he will be aware that outside in the real world the threat has already vanished.
hauntingthelibrary 
He will probably change his story now and blame the crashing pine beetle population on the new warmcold globalwarming. HAHAHA!
A simple modification to his speech, replace increase with decrease will put the blame on global warming: global warming = beetle population increase = beetle population decrease.
In the same way global warming = global cooling = global warming.
The effects of global warming are whatever Prophet Gore and the Climate Clergy say they are from time to time.
All proves the claim, nothing disproves the claim.
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The list of prophetic global warming disaster claims by Al Gore that did not materialize is so voluminous, that there is enough material to write a book. Being wrong time after time doesn’t seem to hinder Gore and his tactic to shift from trying to persuade young minds with scientific support to persuading young minds using the spiritual guilt trip scam, is a sign of a troubled human being. When the mind becomes so narrow as Gore’s has, it is able to create a new apocalyptic religion where every weather event is further proof of global warming and where salvation can only be achieved by buying special dispensations aka carbon offsets from him. I feel sorry for the kids who fall victim to the false prophet as they are not yet savvy enough to question his poor record of prophecy.
Some parrallels (sp??) between the Australian floods/fires and the BC pine beetle epidemic – ‘environmentally’ and politicaly motivated changes to forest management practices helped create a favorable environment for the beetle population to explode. Crazy to link the beetle epidemic with the climate.
A detailed examination of the pine beetle alarm can be found here: http://www.appinsys.com/GlobalWarming/PineBeetle.htm
Alan
I haven’t been to your website for a bit, and I’d forgotten just how marvellously informative it is.
Thanks for the pine beetle link, and generally for maintaining such a useful resource. Much appreciated.
Dominic
You’re very welcome! Thanks for the kind comments.
HtL.
Now that the beetles are on the decline it all now looks just a part of a natural cycle which we have seen before. The hard winter is having the desired effect as it has done in the past. Al Gore should read the following:
De Ja Vu?
More rebuttals…
Damn you’re good Jimbo.
I’ve been tried to explain to one of our alarmist friends on this blog that the pine beetle thing was an example of a cyclical population boom which can be caused by a myriad of factors. I hope they’ll think about it and forget the politics for once.
And frankly, anyone who think’s Gore seriously cares about the environment is mad. The guy leased his family farm for strip-mining whilst campaigning on an environmentalist ticket, for goodness sake. It’s like David Brower, the grand old man of environmentalism always said, “One term of Clinton and Gore did more damage to the environment than all the terms of Reagan and Bush combined”. Not that I’ve anything against Clinton in particular. But I do suspect Gore, who I think is the worst kind of hypocrite.
Thanks for posting those links. I wonder if Gore will take them on board!
What is the cause of the population crash? The beetles have run out of mature trees to kill — already killed so many.
Ultimate extinction of the trees staved off by temporary collapse of the pine beetles.
That doesn’t say anything about global warming, you know? Typical of the denialist methods, though, you give half the story and draw incorrect, scientifically unsupportable conclusions.
No that’s bollocks.
If you’d studied zoology, as I have, you’d know that the pine beetle thing was a typical example of a population boom and crash. Happens all the time in nature.
Why? Could be one of a hundred reasons. More food, fewer predators, and yes, even more favourable weather.
Typical alarmist opportunism to seize on a perfectly natural phenomenon and try to wring doom and gloom out of it. No conception of how real, scientific ecology works, just a political sense. The idea of “balance” in nature, which has been discarded in scientific ecology for decades now in favour of dynamic disequilibrium.
Why don’t you study a natural science and then come back and we’ll talk?
Global warming is a total scam. I can see that now, thanks!
Get a concerted call of bloggers to write to The Academy of Motion Pictures to strip him of his Oscar before this year’s Ceremony…. He won for a factual documentary but now seen to be fabricated lies.
Of course he did not win at all (despite his winners speech the Oscars went to the producer and the song not Al Gore) but he made it look like he had.
http://www.savethebritishfilmindustry.com/
I infer that HtL and AC are one and the same and that this is an open secret 😉
I shall try to keep up better in future…
Dominic
Ed Darrell
Do look at the links Alan Cheetham (who may indeed be our host) provides in his comment above.
Take special note of the various forestry agency reports summarised at the beginning. Especially analysis of the extent of tree mortality caused by MPBs in previous decades as compared to recent infestations.
Note also the link between forest fire suppression during the C20th and the consequent increase in the amount of mature trees vulnerable to the MPB.
Actually, HTL and Ed both have a point. The decrease in beetle in BC IS due to reduction in the food supply. I would note, however, that in typical BC fashion, the report fails to consider forests north of the chilcotin (fort st john is currently getting hammered). It is therefor, not evidence that gores claim was BS.
HTL is right in stating that Gores thesis (ok i know it isnt really his) was bull in the first place. The beetle has always been with us. In the absence of significant fires, and with an aging pine population, and outbreak was inevitable. Add to this the fact that the point of initial population buildup was in a park, in a forest distrct which was unable to deal with the subsequent spread and you have all the explanation you need. If you want more, i will give you some. Forests north of fort st john are now being devastated by the beetle. Given the huge beetle population, the colder northern winters are NOT controlling the beetle. Since northern winters are much colder (and more importantly, have always had more extreme early and late frosts) than chilcotin winters have EVER had, it is unlikely that global warming is to blame for the beetle. I am being politic here , unlikely isnt really the right word, impossible is.
Still, you cant really be surprised at a politico being stupid or mendacious. Remember prince charles? He toured the ‘largest contiguous clearcut in north america’ (we even flew him over it for free) only to support a boycut of BC’s horrible clearcut practices. He never saw fit to mention that the cut involved was a gigantic area of…you guessed it, beetle kill. OK, its true, i am still bitter about that one. God save the queen, at least until charles is gone.
john s
Really interesting – thank you.
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Ed Darrell is a hopelessly brainwashed school teacher. I’ve tried to explain things to him in the past, and I’ve finally given up and booted him off my site. The final straw came when he couldn’t understand the stars next to the kangaroo, were not cartoon “kick in the butt stars” but a constellation, the southern cross. Then when called out on it refused to admit his error.
Really, he’s that dense. My advice is not to waste your time with him. He’s a time sink and we all have better things to do.
Now watch he’ll post something angry on his site.
lol.
Thanks for the heads-up on this person. As you say, there’s really no point wasting any time with their type. I will simply ignore them.
Cheers.
Anthonty Watts: Called out by a brainwashed school teacher, won’t admit error. Stalks the school teacher.
Not a heads up, exactly, but be careful where you lie down.
Yep, my prediction comes true. He posted something angry on his site. Now I’m a “stalker” for visiting and commenting on a skeptical website like my own.
Hilarious Ed! Keep ’em coming! Woo!
It must be a very scary world for him!
Watts, it’s not hard to predict things from the past. I posted nothing new at the site.
Here’s a prediction: Any time we call Anthony Watts on one of his revered beliefs that is absolutely unsupported by any facts, he’ll ban the author of the comment, so he doesn’t have to face it.
Here’s another prediction: Anthony Watts and many of the people who firmly disbelieve in global warming will continue to promote charlatans like Christopher Monckton. They will never apologize for their own academic sins, like claiming (as Watts did) that Rachel Carson got ahead only by being friendly with the Kennedys, hitchhiking on Monckton’s disgusting story infantilizing the Kennedy’s in Monckton’s last North American tour.
Being wrong is almost a badge of honor.
And Watts, so angry at that brainwashed high school teacher who has Watts’s number so well, will continue the stalking, avoiding a discussion of the facts so long as Watts can avoid it.
Sadly, others in the “warming’s no problem” camp will fail to stand up for the facts, too.
Facts remain: Gore’s record as a prognosticator is golden compared to those who see a minor win against pine beetles as complete refutation of the worldwide case that warming is a problem we should do something about. Pine bark beetles will steal a few tens of thousands of jobs in North America this year. Those who think Al Gore is wrong will not be part of any solution.