Oh, relief, and suspicion that you are kidding, just for shock value. (What else is new?) In that case, I am relieved of the need to bother to defend the debating proposition that Al Gore may not be presenting all scientific sides of the environmental issues. Are some people willing to excuse him, on "blind faith"?

Remi, you seemed, then, to be missing the fundamental issue of airplane contrails and climate, after 9-11 air traffic grounding in North America resulted in pragmatically observable clearer, more cloud-free skies.

In brief: If Remi wishes to capriciously set a bad precedent and draconianly rule on the this thread's topicality, which actually does truly connect somehow with "POLITICS" AND "WORLD GOVERNMENT" APPROACHES TO GLOBAL WARMING PROBLEMS. THAT WILL BE AN INDEED SAD DAY FOR THE FREEDOM OF TT spontaneous EXPRESSION. POSSIBILITIES OF "PUNISHMENT", such as possibly by selectively and without fear ridiculing posts, are a better if time-comsuming way to go. This leaky bucket approach can test the Teflon characteristics of various high profile political performers after they leave elected political office. Would you prefer that this be carried on at TT Enviro, assuming that Al Gore is an "environmental" personality, and that politics and environment aren't deeply entwined?

http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/2008/02/19/january-2008-4-sources-say-globally-cooler-in-the-past-12-months/

The point and purpose and appeal of a lively debate is not IMO to confirm whatever "common wisdom" is politically/factionally fashionable, but to try to locate holes in any buckets that may be brought to the predicted sky-is-falling holocaust. Example: Barack Obama putting his foot in the mouth, speaking to the loyal in San Francisco presuming (plausibly) that some people are bitter in coal miner-??displaced Pennsylvania, resorting to guns, duck hunting, chauvinism, and religion? Clearly his own quick "clarification" suggests that he slipped up.

It has taken me at least 24 hours to wake up/see that Federal Farmer introduced contrails were associated with global warming questions. If there are influential wackos to be noted and eventually exposed, that is also legitimate process, IMO. On reflection, then, his/her/its post may be valuable, after all.