Al Gore’s Reality Tour
Former Vice President Al Gore claims the “climate crisis is accelerating,” so he’s going on a “reality tour” to fix the problem.
IN FACT, Gore and company have been predicting catastrophes scenarios for decades, and they have turned out to be categorically false. Here are 10 examples among dozens:
- In 1992, Al Gore wrote that “up to 60% of the present population of Florida may have to be relocated” “not long after” the “next few decades” “because of the rising sea level, due to global warming.” Since then, the coastal population of Florida has grown by 67%.
- In 1995, the New York Times reported, “At the most likely rate of [sea level] rise, some experts say, most of the beaches on the East Coast of the United States would be gone in 25 years.” Since then, none of them have disappeared.
- In 1989, Noel Brown, a senior U.N. environmental official, stated that “entire nations could be wiped off the face of the Earth by rising sea levels if the global warming trend is not reversed by the year 2000.” Since then, Earth’s land area grew by about 22,400 square miles.
- In 1989, Sandra Henderson, a biogeographer at EPA’s Environmental Research Laboratory, wrote that “scientists are warning of a possible loss of 20 percent of the earth’s species before the end of the century” due to “global warming.” This equals about 240,000 species. The actual loss was well under 100, or less than 0.04% of her projection.
- In 2004, James McCarthy, a professor of biological oceanography at Harvard University, claimed, “As the world warms, we expect more and more intense tropical hurricanes and cyclones.” Since then (and for decades prior), global hurricane frequency and intensity have been roughly level.
- In 1992, Al Gore wrote that “about 10 million people in Bangladesh will lose their homes and means of sustenance because of the rising sea level, due to global warming, in the next few decades.” Since then, the population of Bangladesh has grown by 42%.
- In 2007, NASA climate scientist Jay Zwally stated, “At this rate, the Arctic Ocean could be nearly ice-free at the end of summer by 2012, much faster than previous predictions.” Since then, summer Arctic sea ice has remained roughly level and was higher in 2024 than 2007.
- In 1989, Dr. David Rind, an atmospheric scientist at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies and a “leading researcher” on global warming, projected “an average global temperature increase of “3.6ºF by the year 2020.” In reality, the increase was about 0.7ºF, or one-fifth of his projection.
- In 1989, William H. Mansfield III, the deputy executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, wrote that “sea-level rise as a consequence of global warming would immediately threaten that large fraction of the globe living at sea level.” Since then, Earth’s coastal land area grew by about 5,200 square miles.
- In 1989, Mansfield wrote that “global warming may be the greatest challenge facing humankind,” and “any change of temperature, rainfall, and sea level of the magnitude now anticipated will be destructive to natural systems” like “plant” life. Since then, earth’s natural vegetation productivity and tree cover have increased.
