Soon-to-be-Dr. Al Gore is training people to give his global warming slide presentation at places like “schools, Rotary clubs and nursing homes” around the country.
I kid you not.
As reported by USA Today (emphasis added throughout):
Meet, no, not Al Gore, but Gary Dunham, 71, a grandfather from Texas who was the first of 1,000 Americans Gore trained to deliver his Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth slide show to schools, Rotary clubs and nursing homes around the nation.
Scared yet? Well, brace yourselves, for it’s much worse than you can imagine:
Two weeks ago, the last 150 of this hand-picked crew arrived here — paying their own way for everything but food — to go through a two-day seminar starring Gore but effectively led by Dunham and a few other graduates of the former vice president's global-warming boot camp.
To date, The Climate Project has drawn everyone from Wal-Mart workers to Cameron Diaz. And though the 1,000 mark has been reached, "we keep hearing whispers that (Gore) might do more," project director Jenny Clad says. "I wouldn't call this final."
Scary stuff. Though seemingly a new revelation, Time magazine reported on this in January:
Now through the Climate Project — an initiative to spread awareness and challenge citizens and governments to take action against the effects of global warming — Gore has trained nearly 1,000 of his foot soldiers to give the same presentation that he delivers in the movie. His disciples, who are required to give at least 10 talks a year, are not just scientists but volunteers from all walks of life including teachers, housewives and even celebrities like Cameron Diaz.
Yet, there appears an inherent danger in this strategy:
Gore's "cavalry," as he calls them, can also do something else the movie can't: talk back to the audience. "I can answer questions better than Gore can in the film," said Ken Mankoff, by night a soldier for Gore and by day a computer programmer who develops models at Columbia University.
Hmmm. So now, regular citizens with no formal training in climatology or meteorology, after twelve hours with a man who also has no such training, are going around the country disseminating information from a film that even the New York Times admitted had many flaws.
Marvelous. Fortunately, USA Today addressed this: “‘I'm very uncomfortable with 1,000 people who aren't technically trained in a field as complex and important as this proselytizing for one extreme point of view,’ says Pat Michaels, senior fellow with the conservative Cato Institute.”
So should everyone, Pat. After all, what this means is that Gore and his sycophant cadre can now spread this message to folks not interested in paying to see his film, and, maybe worse, in schools where our impressionable children are.
Once again, be afraid.
