Anthony Campisi at the Daily Pennysylvanian reports:
For the past year, Al Gore has been the darling of environmentalists, as his popular documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, made their case about the dangers of global warming to people worldwide.
But now, Scott Armstrong, a Wharton Marketing professor, wants Al Gore to put his money where his mouth is.
Armstrong has challenged the former vice president to a 10-year bet, in which $10,000 from the two would be set aside in escrow as Gore pits his forecast of how much global temperature will increase during that time against a so-called “naive model,” in which temperature would be expected to stay the same.
The winner would get to donate the $20,000 and accumulated interest to the charity of his choice.
Armstrong explained that the idea of a bet arose out of research a colleague and he - both specialists in forecasting - had done on global-warming forecasts put out by Gore and organizations like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations-sponsored entity formed to help achieve scientific consensus on climate change.
Armstrong said that he discovered that most climate-change forecasts use bad methodology.
“We’ve been unable to find any scientific forecast, and what we have are forecasts by scientists,” he said.
[...]
While Gore has yet to respond to his challenge, which was sent out Tuesday, Armstrong says he “wouldn’t expect him to respond right away.”
Gore and his associates at Participate, an organization that promotes his message, couldn’t be reached for comment.
One of Armstrong’s students has created a website to give some background on the wager as well as follow future developments related to it.
Considering how Gore doesn’t really like to be challenged because, well, he’s right, damn it!, I’m fairly certain he’ll laugh this one off - as he has others. Iain Murray over at National Review’s Planet Gore blog is on the same wavelength.
Noel Sheppard at Newsbusters has more, including the details on Armstrong’s forecasting credentials - which are lengthy and impressive.
Oh, and it’s been 95 days since Senator James Inhofe asked Gore to take the “Personal Energy Ethics Pledge” - which reads as follows:
Hat tip: Ian Schwartz
C’mon, that’s hardly fair to Gorezilla. He’s working on increasing the energy efficiency of his house by changing the light bulbs to compact fluorescents. And he’ll do it too, just as soon as he figures out how to screw something other than the people of this country or his carbon credit investors, like a lightbulb.
Comment by Severian @ 6/24/2007 - 12:12 am
How many Gorezilla’s does it take to change the bulbs in a three minute hallway?
Comment by forest hunter @ 6/24/2007 - 6:05 am
I’d like to see algore take the challenge but the press won’t cover this little tidbit — can you just see spittin chrissie matthews talking bout this on his suck face show-NOT.
Comment by Drewsmom @ 6/24/2007 - 6:21 am
As they say in my neighborhood, “Time to put up or shut up.”
Comment by david @ 6/24/2007 - 10:05 am
“Time to put up or shut up.”
Don’t bet on it…
Comment by CZ @ 6/24/2007 - 12:03 pm
Talk about hedging a bet, Algore will just say it’s “climatic change” caused by “global warming”. If it’s too hot, he’s right. If it’s too cold, he’s right. He will never debate a scientist!
Comment by Tom TB @ 6/24/2007 - 6:49 pm
Too funny…
Comment by camojack @ 6/25/2007 - 4:05 am
Anyone remember when Paul Ehrlich took such a bet? He lost big time. You really don’t hear from Paul anymore, do you?
Doesn’t Gore pay more than this on his electric bill per month?
Comment by PCD @ 6/25/2007 - 9:53 am
Sounds like an easy 10 grand for Al. Seriously, the ‘naive’ prediction can be easily beaten in this circumstance - any warming at all will beat Armstrong if Gore picks a conservative enough model.
I wonder if that lowlife Inhofe has pledged to keep his own carbon footprint as small as the average citizens? I doubt it, what a hypocrite!
Comment by wallster @ 6/25/2007 - 1:08 pm
What fun to be cynical…you’re all right you know….and if not no one will ever remember. Safety first has nothing to do with it, the economy needs a rapid burn rate. Right?
Comment by Geo Rip @ 6/25/2007 - 1:52 pm
Ah, I see we have another clueless disciple of the Goracle’s ranting nonsense. Come back when you can make a complete sentence that makes some semblance of sense.
Comment by Severian @ 6/25/2007 - 2:56 pm
Gore a whimp and wont take the bet. just like all liberals all talk no walk
Comment by al @ 6/25/2007 - 3:04 pm
Great! Then Al should have no problem accepting the challenge. After all, that would mean an easy $20K to the charity of his choice, right?
Comment by Sister Toldjah @ 6/25/2007 - 3:09 pm
I see, since Inhofe’s pointing out Gore’s hypocrisy and the fact that the science is far from settled, in fact it’s in favor of no man made warming, he’s a low life. Thanks for giving us such a transparent clue as to where your political loyalties lie.
Typical liberal twit.
Comment by Severian @ 6/25/2007 - 5:33 pm
Don’t look for any of these guys to come back and defend their posts. Much like Al Gore, they don’t stand up very well to things like facts and truth.
Comment by NC Cop @ 6/25/2007 - 8:32 pm