The Gore Effect
Encyclopedia
The Gore Effect is a term used with various meanings relating to Vice President of the United States
and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Al Gore
. In one use, the term is a humorous concept suggesting a causal relationship between unseasonable cold weather phenomena and meetings associated with global warming
, with particular emphasis on events attended by Gore. The phrase has also been used to describe Gore's impact in raising global warming as a public issue, and in other ways related to Al Gore.
based national newspaper Globe and Mail
defined the term in 2007 quoting a user's submission to the online Urban Dictionary
website as "the phenomenon that leads to unseasonably cold temperatures, driving rain, hail, or snow whenever Al Gore visits an area to discuss global warming." According to an article at the Politico
website: "The so-called Gore Effect happens when a global warming-related event, or appearance by the former vice president and climate change crusader, Al Gore, is marked by exceedingly cold weather or unseasonably winter weather." The "Politico" article notes that global warming skeptics use the term "half-seriously". "In the weather community, we kind of joke about it", Bob Marciano, a CNN
weather forecaster, said in January 2010. "It's just a bad timing. Every time there's some big weather climate conference, there seems to be a cold outbreak. But, globally, we are still warming." "Gore Effect" phenomena are "chalked up as coincidence", according to Joe Joyce, a weather forecaster and environmental reporter.
The term Gore effect was utilized in a 2006 commentary by Andrew Bolt
where he opined that the effect was first noticed in 2004 when Gore was speaking in Boston
.
The phrase has been used in relation to the weather conditions at global warming venues, the first usage referring to a Speech of Al Gore on a global warming rally held in New York City. Other reported events have included when Gore visited Australia in November 2006 and an opinion column in the Ottawa Citizen stated "Mr. Gore arrived in the late antipodean spring, together with a remarkable cold front and a late-season boon for the ski resorts." A Gore lecture at Harvard University in October 2008 is also frequently mentioned. Other weather issues have allegedly affected global warming speeches and events, such as when Gore testified about global warming before the Senate
committee in January 2009 the local schools had a snow day. Other politicians have also allegedly been affected by the Gore effect. Nancy Pelosi
had to cancel an appearance at a global warming rally in March 2009 due to a snowstorm.
The Gore Effect phrase has also been included and commented on in press reports of several climate rallies.
of Harald Martenstein
in the German weekly Die Zeit
describes the effect as "Gore's personal climate disaster". According to Martenstein's ironic description of various alleged occurrences of the effect, it seems either to be based on a scientifically proven local cooling occurring in Gore's neighborhood, or based on nature or God having a sense of humour. The general use of the expression is, according to Martenstein, only half ironic, since the purported coincidences happen too often to be discounted. A Competitive Enterprise Institute
spokesperson, and The Washington Times
editorial staff, have expressed a similar view. Climate skeptic scientist and meteorologist Joseph D’Aleo said: "We used to kid in forecasting that whenever we were very certain about a major forecast, it would wind up being so dead wrong that we’d be embarrassed. It certainly makes you think."
Lisa Miller, Republican spokeswoman for the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, has said the coincidences are without basis in science and mentioning them "doesn’t contribute much to the actual making of policy". Yet some climate skeptics use the coincidences as a humorous way to make the point that either global warming isn't happening, or Global warming isn't occurring as fast as they say some climate experts are claiming.
Tobias Ziegler, blog
ging for Crikey
magazine, opined that the Gore Effect can be described by the availability heuristic
and confirmation bias
.
Curtis Brainard of the Columbia Journalism Review
has called coverage of the Gore Effect "asinine," noting the distinction between short-term weather and long-term climate. Michael Daly criticized this as a mere delight in noting coincidences between events relating to Gore's favorite subject and severe winter weather." But Steve Benen
of the Washington Monthly called focus on the claim "insulting", and environmentalist A. Siegel has called the jokes a "shallow observation" from "those who don't get that weather isn't climate".
as a public issue, particularly following his 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth
.
In the New York Times in September 2006, Heidi Mitchell wrote of new investment in environmentally-conscious industry as reflecting an "Al Gore Effect." The term appeared in the Times of India in June 2007, described as "the relentless campaign to alert the world to the issue by the man Bush did not win against." In 2009 the Canadian Press wrote of the Gore Effect that industry experts credited Gore with helping "to accelerate interest in green and socially responsible investing
."
A paper entitled "The Al Gore Effect: An Inconvenient Truth and
Voluntary Carbon Offsets" by University of California Santa Barbara professor Grant Jacobsen looked at the effect of the film on voluntary carbon offsets. The paper noted polling which indicated that "the number of Americans believing that the earth was warming due to human activity increased from 41 percent to 50 percent" during the period when the film was showing, and that "It seems plausible that at least some of this change was created by the film", adding "Hence, we find support for an ‘Al Gore effect’"
A report from the Swedish Environmental Management Council on socially responsible purchasing among Swedish organizations and corporations notes discussion of the Al Gore Effect, as "raised awareness about environmental issues across the world," and a concern that this may lead to lessened focus on social issues, which the council recommends to treat by integrating the focus on both issues.
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Al Gore
Al Gore
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
. In one use, the term is a humorous concept suggesting a causal relationship between unseasonable cold weather phenomena and meetings associated with global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
, with particular emphasis on events attended by Gore. The phrase has also been used to describe Gore's impact in raising global warming as a public issue, and in other ways related to Al Gore.
Appearance and background
The TorontoToronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
based national newspaper Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
defined the term in 2007 quoting a user's submission to the online Urban Dictionary
Urban Dictionary
Urban Dictionary is a Web-based dictionary of slang words and phrases, which contained over 6 million definitions . Submissions are regulated by volunteer editors and rated by site visitors...
website as "the phenomenon that leads to unseasonably cold temperatures, driving rain, hail, or snow whenever Al Gore visits an area to discuss global warming." According to an article at the Politico
Politico (newspaper)
The Politico is an American political journalism organization based in Arlington, Virginia, that distributes its content via television, the Internet, newspaper, and radio. Its coverage of Washington, D.C., includes the U.S. Congress, lobbying, media and the Presidency...
website: "The so-called Gore Effect happens when a global warming-related event, or appearance by the former vice president and climate change crusader, Al Gore, is marked by exceedingly cold weather or unseasonably winter weather." The "Politico" article notes that global warming skeptics use the term "half-seriously". "In the weather community, we kind of joke about it", Bob Marciano, a CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
weather forecaster, said in January 2010. "It's just a bad timing. Every time there's some big weather climate conference, there seems to be a cold outbreak. But, globally, we are still warming." "Gore Effect" phenomena are "chalked up as coincidence", according to Joe Joyce, a weather forecaster and environmental reporter.
The term Gore effect was utilized in a 2006 commentary by Andrew Bolt
Andrew Bolt
Andrew Bolt is an Australian newspaper columnist, radio commentator, blogger and television host. Bolt is a columnist and associate editor of the Melbourne-based Herald Sun. He has appeared on the Nine Network, Melbourne Talk Radio, ABC Television, Network Ten and local radio...
where he opined that the effect was first noticed in 2004 when Gore was speaking in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
.
The phrase has been used in relation to the weather conditions at global warming venues, the first usage referring to a Speech of Al Gore on a global warming rally held in New York City. Other reported events have included when Gore visited Australia in November 2006 and an opinion column in the Ottawa Citizen stated "Mr. Gore arrived in the late antipodean spring, together with a remarkable cold front and a late-season boon for the ski resorts." A Gore lecture at Harvard University in October 2008 is also frequently mentioned. Other weather issues have allegedly affected global warming speeches and events, such as when Gore testified about global warming before the Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
committee in January 2009 the local schools had a snow day. Other politicians have also allegedly been affected by the Gore effect. Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi is the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives and served as the 60th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011...
had to cancel an appearance at a global warming rally in March 2009 due to a snowstorm.
The Gore Effect phrase has also been included and commented on in press reports of several climate rallies.
Reception
A GlossGloss
A gloss is a brief notation of the meaning of a word or wording in a text. It may be in the language of the text, or in the reader's language if that is different....
of Harald Martenstein
Harald Martenstein
Harald Martenstein is a German journalist and author.- Biography :Martenstein studied History and Romance Studies in Freiburg. From 1981 to 1988, he was a journalist at the Stuttgarter Zeitung and from 1988 to 1997 he was a journalist at Tagesspiegel in Berlin...
in the German weekly Die Zeit
Die Zeit
Die Zeit is a German nationwide weekly newspaper that is highly respected for its quality journalism.With a circulation of 488,036 and an estimated readership of slightly above 2 million, it is the most widely read German weekly newspaper...
describes the effect as "Gore's personal climate disaster". According to Martenstein's ironic description of various alleged occurrences of the effect, it seems either to be based on a scientifically proven local cooling occurring in Gore's neighborhood, or based on nature or God having a sense of humour. The general use of the expression is, according to Martenstein, only half ironic, since the purported coincidences happen too often to be discounted. A Competitive Enterprise Institute
Competitive Enterprise Institute
The Competitive Enterprise Institute is a non-profit think tank founded on March 9, 1984 in Washington, D.C. by lobbyist Fred L. Smith, Jr to advance economic liberty and fight over-regulation by big government...
spokesperson, and The Washington Times
The Washington Times
The Washington Times is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. It was founded in 1982 by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, and until 2010 was owned by News World Communications, an international media conglomerate associated with the...
editorial staff, have expressed a similar view. Climate skeptic scientist and meteorologist Joseph D’Aleo said: "We used to kid in forecasting that whenever we were very certain about a major forecast, it would wind up being so dead wrong that we’d be embarrassed. It certainly makes you think."
Lisa Miller, Republican spokeswoman for the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, has said the coincidences are without basis in science and mentioning them "doesn’t contribute much to the actual making of policy". Yet some climate skeptics use the coincidences as a humorous way to make the point that either global warming isn't happening, or Global warming isn't occurring as fast as they say some climate experts are claiming.
Tobias Ziegler, blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
ging for Crikey
Crikey
Crikey is an independent Australian electronic magazine comprising an open access website and an email newsletter available to subscribers. Well known in Australian political, media and business circles, Crikey was described by former Federal Opposition Leader Mark Latham as the "most popular...
magazine, opined that the Gore Effect can be described by the availability heuristic
Availability heuristic
The availability heuristic is a phenomenon in which people predict the frequency of an event, or a proportion within a population, based on how easily an example can be brought to mind....
and confirmation bias
Confirmation bias
Confirmation bias is a tendency for people to favor information that confirms their preconceptions or hypotheses regardless of whether the information is true.David Perkins, a geneticist, coined the term "myside bias" referring to a preference for "my" side of an issue...
.
Those who treat the Gore Effect as a remotely serious phenomenon are engaging in the same type of flawed reasoning as when people think it usually rains just after they wash the car. They notice evidence that confirms it – say, when it is cold and a global warming event is scheduled – and store it away in their memory. When the same type of event happens on a mild, warm or hot day, it isn’t something that they pay attention to.
Curtis Brainard of the Columbia Journalism Review
Columbia Journalism Review
The Columbia Journalism Review is an American magazine for professional journalists published bimonthly by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961....
has called coverage of the Gore Effect "asinine," noting the distinction between short-term weather and long-term climate. Michael Daly criticized this as a mere delight in noting coincidences between events relating to Gore's favorite subject and severe winter weather." But Steve Benen
Steve Benen
Steve Benen is an American political writer and blogger, and became the lead blogger for the Washington Monthly "Political Animal" blog in August 2008....
of the Washington Monthly called focus on the claim "insulting", and environmentalist A. Siegel has called the jokes a "shallow observation" from "those who don't get that weather isn't climate".
Use in relation to public awareness of global warming
The phrase has also been used to describe Gore's impact in raising global warmingGlobal warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
as a public issue, particularly following his 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth
An Inconvenient Truth
An Inconvenient Truth is a 2006 documentary film directed by Davis Guggenheim about former United States Vice President Al Gore's campaign to educate citizens about global warming via a comprehensive slide show that, by his own estimate, he has given more than a thousand times.Premiering at the...
.
In the New York Times in September 2006, Heidi Mitchell wrote of new investment in environmentally-conscious industry as reflecting an "Al Gore Effect." The term appeared in the Times of India in June 2007, described as "the relentless campaign to alert the world to the issue by the man Bush did not win against." In 2009 the Canadian Press wrote of the Gore Effect that industry experts credited Gore with helping "to accelerate interest in green and socially responsible investing
Socially responsible investing
Socially responsible investing , also known as sustainable, socially conscious, or ethical investing, describes an investment strategy which seeks to consider both financial return and social good....
."
A paper entitled "The Al Gore Effect: An Inconvenient Truth and
Voluntary Carbon Offsets" by University of California Santa Barbara professor Grant Jacobsen looked at the effect of the film on voluntary carbon offsets. The paper noted polling which indicated that "the number of Americans believing that the earth was warming due to human activity increased from 41 percent to 50 percent" during the period when the film was showing, and that "It seems plausible that at least some of this change was created by the film", adding "Hence, we find support for an ‘Al Gore effect’"
A report from the Swedish Environmental Management Council on socially responsible purchasing among Swedish organizations and corporations notes discussion of the Al Gore Effect, as "raised awareness about environmental issues across the world," and a concern that this may lead to lessened focus on social issues, which the council recommends to treat by integrating the focus on both issues.