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The "Gore Effect" is a humorous term which has been used to refer to extreme weather associated with prominent anthropogenic global warming events which includes effects such as unseasonably cold temperatures, driving rain, hail, and/or snow. The effect is named after former U.S. Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize winning anthropogenic global warming activist Al Gore. The Gore Effect has been claimed in regard to severe weather at several anthropogenic global warming events. Previously, the "Al Gore Effect" was sometimes used to describe the impact of Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth, on the climate change debate.

Because of Gore's prominence in warning of the dangers of global warming, "His detractors delight in noting coincidences between events relating to his favorite subject and severe winter weather." Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly called the focus on such coincidences, "insulting". Environmentalist A. Siegel called jokes about the Gore Effect a "shallow observation" from "those who don't get that weather isn't climate".

In the opinion of The Washington Times editorial staff, "If nothing else, the Gore Effect proves that God has a sense of humor." A representative of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian think tank, expressed a similar view.

Events described as instances of the Gore Effect

The following is a partial list of the events described in various media sources as instances of the Gore Effect:

• January 15, 2004 – A global warming rally was held in New York City which suffered one of the city's coldest days in history.
• November 2006 – Al Gore visited Australia to speak about global warming two weeks before summer began, and it snowed. According to an article in the The Age: "Ski resort operators gazed at the snow in amazement. Parents took children out of school and headed for the mountains. Cricketers scurried amid bullets of hail as Melbournians traded lunchtime tales of incredible cold."
• March 2008 – A congressional media briefing on the Bingaman/Specter Climate Bill was purportedly canceled due to a cold snap.
• May 2008 - Gore delivers a speech at a climate change conference in Lima, Peru at the same time the city experiences an unseasonable cold spell.
• October 2008 – London saw the first snow since 1922 while the House of Commons debated the Climate Change Bill.
• October 2008 – Gore appeared at Harvard University, which "coincided with low temperatures that challenged 125-year records."
• March 2009 – Driving snow caused problems at an event billed as "the biggest global warming protest in history" in Washington.
• October 2009 - Gore gives a speech in Wisconsin amidst frost and near-record low temperatures.
• December 2009 – Over four inches of snow fell in Copenhagen during the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference as temperatures dipped to below 25°F, not including wind chill.

See also

• Al Gore and the environment
• Global warming controversy

References

1. ^ Peckham, Aaron (2007). Mo' Urban Dictionary: Ridonkulous Street Slang Defined. Kansas City, Missouri: Andrews McMeel Publishing. p. 126. ISBN 978-0-7407-6875-0.
2. ^ "EDITORIAL: The Gore Effect". The Washington Times. March 4, 2009.
3. Bolt, Andrew (November 17, 2006). "Al Gore rains on his party". Herald Sun. Melbourne.
4. Smith, Ron (January 08, 2010). "Temperatures drop, alarmism heats up". Baltimore Sun. The Baltimore Sun. p. 1. Retrieved 8 June 2010. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
5. Sayre, Carolyn, "Measuring the Al Gore Effect", Time, 169.8 (Feb 19, 2007): p20.
6. Howard, Cori, "Green peace of mind", The Globe and Mail. Toronto, Ont.: Jun 21, 2007. pg. L.5.
7. "Icons of pop." Power Engineering 112.7 (2008): 38.
8. ^ Daly, Michael (December 20, 2009). "The Gore Effect brings snow to New York City". Daily News. New York.
9. Benen, Steve (November 25, 2008). "Political Animal: 'The Gore Effect'". The Washington Monthly. Retrieved 2010-01-12. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
10. Siegel, A. (March 2, 2009). "Fire and Ice..." The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2009-01-10.
11. Dufour, Jeff (January 27, 2009). "Yeas & Nays: If it's Al Gore, it's cold". The Washington Examiner. Retrieved 2010-01-08. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
12. ^ Warren, David (2 November 2008). "Save us, please, from those who would save the earth". Ottawa Citizen. p. A.14..
13. Waller, Martin, "I am indebted to David ; City Diary", The Times, 15 Oct. 2009: 52.
14. McCrann, Terry (June 09, 2010). "Climate hysteria just warming up". Herald Sun. Herald and Weekly Times. p. 1. Retrieved 8 June 2010. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

• Al Gore
• Environmental controversies
• Global warming
• Political satire