Video: The Goracle on geothermal temperatures
posted at 8:48 am on November 18, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
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Yesterday I featured the science stylings of John Kerry, who apparently can’t do math or research in his quest to sound like Chicken Little on carbon-dioxide emissions. The self-appointed dean of the American global-warming hysteria movement, Al Gore, didn’t do much better when trying to explain geothermal energy to Conan O’Brien. Gore tells Conan that geothermal energy is plentiful, because the Earth’s core temperature is millions of degrees (via John Derbyshire):
Conan: Now, what about … you talk in the book about geothermal energy …
Al: Yeah, yeah.
Conan: and that is, as I understand it, using the heat that’s generated from the core of the earth …
Al: Yeah.
Conan: … to create energy, and it sounds to me like an evil plan by Lex Luthor to defeat Superman. Can you, can you tell me, is this a viable solution, geothermal energy?
Al: It definitely is, and it’s a relatively new one. People think about geothermal energy — when they think about it at all — in terms of the hot water bubbling up in some places, but two kilometers or so down in most places there are these incredibly hot rocks, ’cause the interior of the earth is extremely hot, several million degrees, and the crust of the earth is hot …
The interior of the Earth is extremely hot … but as Derb notes, it’s estimated to be between 5000 – 9000 degrees Celsius, not “several million degrees.” The surface of the Sun is only estimated to be 6000º C, while its core really is several million degrees Celsius. If the Earth’s core temperature was that hot, we would have had a “global warming” crisis a few billion years ago, and this debate would never have taken place.
Of course, anyone who followed the controversy over Gore’s piece of cinematic fantasy An Inconvenient Truth knows that Gore tells a lot of very convenient untruths in his quest to create a market for his carbon-trading company. However, this is just flat-out ignorance that with any other person in any other context would destroy their credibility. This is worse than Tom Cruise telling Matt Lauer that he can debunk the entire psychiatric field because he’s read a few books. If Gore can’t get this rather basic fact right, why should he be believed on anything else in the energy field?
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cut him some slack Ed, he’s using new math
gatorboy on November 18, 2009 at 8:50 AM
fuzzy math prevails!
cmsinaz on November 18, 2009 at 8:52 AM
who still listens to this schmuck…seriously!
cmsinaz on November 18, 2009 at 8:53 AM
cuckoo cuckoo cuckoo
bill30097 on November 18, 2009 at 8:53 AM
The crust of my ass is hot. Al gore is a lunatic!
Ghoul aid on November 18, 2009 at 8:54 AM
That’s hot enough to melt steel. Perhaps global warming brought down the WTC.
Disturb the Universe on November 18, 2009 at 8:54 AM
Al: It definitely is, and it’s a relatively new one.
New? Go to Iceland and say that.
Tony737 on November 18, 2009 at 8:54 AM
I love it, the more he speaks the more people realize this charlatan is taking them for a ride.
elduende on November 18, 2009 at 8:54 AM
He invented the geothermonuclear heat exchange process in his kitchen.
faol on November 18, 2009 at 8:55 AM
So he was off by a few million degrees, what’s the big deal?
What’s important is that the earth will cool by 1/150th of a degree at a constant rate of .00239 joules/millisecond until April of the year 2051.
These are facts you conservatives can’t refute.
jeff_from_mpls on November 18, 2009 at 8:55 AM
Hey, it really is that hot in states 51 – 57. Even the unicorns are sweating.
rbj on November 18, 2009 at 8:56 AM
Well then, if we’re using Gores math, my schwang is 12″
JoeAvg on November 18, 2009 at 8:56 AM
Ed, you missed the biggest Goramerism, where he talks of the Earth’s mantle, 2 kilometers down or so, being 500-900 degrees C.
The air conditioning bills are a bitch, for our mining companies. ;-)
The definitive takedown.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/11/16/gore-has-no-clue-a-few-million-degrees-here-and-there-and-pretty-soon-were-talking-about-real-temperature/#more-12877
MNHawk on November 18, 2009 at 8:56 AM
And that’s not exactly the point of geothermal as I remember…
My father had geothermal for his house and I thought the whole point of geothermal was the fact that at a certain depth, the earth is a constant temperature no matter the season. It’s not like you are taking heat straight from the core of the earth. Good Lord, it sounds like he thinks that for ever person that uses geothermal the core of the earth decreases in temperature.
If that’s the case… he is either stupid or he thinks we are stupid.
MobileVideoEngineer on November 18, 2009 at 8:56 AM
In Gore’s world, money buys intelligence; With his new business venture, he’ll become another Einstein.
Cybergeezer on November 18, 2009 at 8:56 AM
I am of the opinion that in the future when we are referring to Al and his ‘greenhouse gasses’, we should change that to ‘outhouse gasses’…just seems more appropriate in his case.
DoctorDentons on November 18, 2009 at 8:57 AM
algor, Latin:
cold, coldness; chilliness; a fit of shivering; cold weather
(alt: one dumb bunny)
publiuspen on November 18, 2009 at 8:57 AM
I’d like to apologize for that unnecessary post.
Sometimes I type faster than I think.
JoeAvg on November 18, 2009 at 8:57 AM
He is using the same math as the jobs creation math…at least they are consistent.
right2bright on November 18, 2009 at 8:57 AM
he’s a liberal.
Phoenician on November 18, 2009 at 8:57 AM
Well then, if we’re using Gores math, my schwang is 12″
JoeAvg on November 18, 2009 at 8:56 AM
I got 12′ using his formula. I better buy some new pants.
faol on November 18, 2009 at 8:57 AM
The guy’s a sociopathic liar. And a blowhard to boot.
4shoes on November 18, 2009 at 8:58 AM
Gore’s undergraduate transcript from Harvard is riddled with C’s, including a C-minus in introductory economics, a D in one science course, and a C-plus in another….In 1971, Gore enrolled in Vanderbilt Divinity School where, according to Bill Turque, author of “Inventing Al Gore,” he received F’s in five of the eight classes he took over the course of three semesters. Not surprisingly, Gore did not receive a degree from the divinity school. Nor did Gore graduate from Vanderbilt Law School. Source
Josiah on November 18, 2009 at 8:58 AM
Because Ed, he won the Nobel. Racist. Oh…. wait…
JeffinOrlando on November 18, 2009 at 8:58 AM
Well then, if we’re using Gores math, my schwang is 12″
- JoeAvg
HA! Best comment EVER!
Tony737 on November 18, 2009 at 8:58 AM
And this guy is scamming the better part of the world? It explains so much about where the country is.
Cindy Munford on November 18, 2009 at 8:59 AM
So I assume if Palin had said something as stupid as this, the AP fact checkers would be all over it … but since it’s the Goracle.
tarpon on November 18, 2009 at 9:01 AM
Yep. Albert Gore, Jr. is the P.T. Barnum of our time.
kingsjester on November 18, 2009 at 9:01 AM
So he confused the earth with the sun. It’s very common mistake amongst idiots.
forest on November 18, 2009 at 9:02 AM
As Steyn said in response to Derb:
Personally, I think it is a scam.
clorensen on November 18, 2009 at 9:03 AM
I really don’t understand why people are still listening to this guy and allowing him to have a platform to continue to make up stuff. When is he going to stop talking…I can’t decide who is more annoying Olbermann or Gore????
vitaatcaritas on November 18, 2009 at 9:03 AM
Ugh. And the traditional media say that Palin is “too stupid” to be VP. Radical ideologues — such as Gore and Obama — may be very clever, but they really aren’t very smart at all.
jwolf on November 18, 2009 at 9:04 AM
But for a couple hundred votes in Florida, this was the 43rd President of the United States.
We could have done worse than W. Much, much worse.
CDeb on November 18, 2009 at 9:04 AM
I researched geothermal for my house but I found out I would need about 1500 feet of hose buried 18 ft to 25ft underground over an acre of land.
The basic idea is to run water or other liquid through the hose and then to a heat pump. You can also use a hose in a lake if you have a deep enough lake available.
RagTag on November 18, 2009 at 9:05 AM
Gore belongs behind bars for his fraud. He’s the Bernie Madoff of environmentalism.
petefrt on November 18, 2009 at 9:05 AM
It doesn’t have to be an either/or scenario. I’d say both apply.
mwdiver on November 18, 2009 at 9:05 AM
Never thought I’d seen an ‘Infowars’ video linked to on Hot Air.
/hat tip: Alex Jones… the guy who hates Michelle Malkin
Ugly on November 18, 2009 at 9:06 AM
Thousands, millions, trillions, brazillions.
It’s all just a bunch of zeros.
Because he is trying to SAVE THE PLANET! And it feels like oil is bad, and it feels like it ought to be our fault. And it is not fair that people are buying into the whole carbon credit thing so we need to MAKE A LAW or THE WORLD WILL END pretty soon.
bitsy on November 18, 2009 at 9:06 AM
That’s PRESIDENT GORE to you, Ed. After all, he really won the 2000 election. Alan Dershowitz told me so.
Del Dolemonte on November 18, 2009 at 9:06 AM
Anybody want to point to him that geothermal heat is at least partially created by nuclear fission. Oh no, not nuclear energy. Somebody help us, don’t let them build it. We’re all gonna die.
Then again this is much of a surprise. I mean this science genius confused high purity with high concentration. (I can’t remember where he said this but he said Venus was hot because the atmosphere was almost pure CO2. Actually the green house effect is bad there because for a given volume of atmosphere there’s about 90,000 times more CO2 than earth.)
Dave_d on November 18, 2009 at 9:06 AM
Gore is correct for really small values of “millions”.
Physics Geek on November 18, 2009 at 9:07 AM
Al Gore fails
at Sciencein all things.Holger on November 18, 2009 at 9:07 AM
Very true. The DOE has been studying geothermal for at least 30 years. When I was doing some work at Sandia National Laboratory in the early 70’s, the DOE had already gone throught the process of identifing areas of geothermal activity and were working on recovery systems. Gore is such a dolt.
brtex on November 18, 2009 at 9:07 AM
Actually, the real reason he lost in 2000 was because he was rejected by the voters of his own home state. Had he won that state, he wouldn’t have needed Florida.
Del Dolemonte on November 18, 2009 at 9:08 AM
Q: Will the AP fact check this?
A: Democrat
artist on November 18, 2009 at 9:08 AM
Yeah, my father had 52 acres and his land was right up against Alum Creek (a big reservoir in Central Ohio) at the time. So that makes sense.
MobileVideoEngineer on November 18, 2009 at 9:08 AM
With the calories Gore’s consuming and apparently not burning, he must be doing his part to lower global temperatures…. or he’s just full of sh!t!
donh525 on November 18, 2009 at 9:10 AM
A million degrees, its around 3,000 to 18,000 degrees!!
First its 57 States,and now this!!
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=000B2C71-BCF0-1C71-9EB7809EC588F2D7
canopfor on November 18, 2009 at 9:10 AM
Last time I looked Palin had an R after her name and the other two D. Rs are inherently stupid and Ds are inherently brilliant, articulate, clean and win Nobel prizes. That is a liberal fact that conservatives are just to dim to understand. Lucky for me I’m a libertarian so I at least have a small clue about the whole thing.
RagTag on November 18, 2009 at 9:10 AM
For a guy that has never had a real job in his entire life and has been slopping at the public feeding trough for most of it, he appears to be eating well. The fact that anybody even pays attention to this idiot vividly defines the true state of this poor sick Republic.
rplat on November 18, 2009 at 9:10 AM
Lord Goracle still trying to persuad people to the dark side…saddddd
SHARPTOOTH on November 18, 2009 at 9:10 AM
Well, maybe he had the earth confused with some other planet, like Mars which could be a lot hotter since no one is able to live there. Folks, he did flunk out of Harvard and a divinity school. Probably passed on out of high school too. He’s a lying thief of a former politician.
Kissmygrits on November 18, 2009 at 9:10 AM
Del Dolemonte on November 18, 2009 at 9:08 AM
That’s because Tennesseans knew him to be a 2nd Generation Professional Politician. Later, they rejected Harold Ford, Jr. for the same reason.
kingsjester on November 18, 2009 at 9:11 AM
He is right, however, about hot rocks being several kilometers down. His followers incorrectly call them Gore’s rocks.
unclesmrgol on November 18, 2009 at 9:11 AM
Oy vey; Even if geothermal energy were practical, we could never drill for it!
Cybergeezer on November 18, 2009 at 9:13 AM
Right. That’s why geothermal is impracticable for most small-lot high density suburban neighborhoods, and impossible for city dwellers.
Gore’s an idiot and shows complete ignorance about geothermal. Does he honestly believe geothermal system pipes are laid nearly 2 kilometers underground? Why does noone ever challenge him on the inane statements he makes?
BacaDog on November 18, 2009 at 9:13 AM
I blame ManBearPig. I’m totally serial!
OhioCoastie on November 18, 2009 at 9:13 AM
HELLO! Gore’s won a Nobel, an Oscar, and a Grammy! If that doesn’t give him credibility I don’t know what does! ;-0
highhopes on November 18, 2009 at 9:14 AM
[insert joke about 500 million jobs lost each month here]
Daggett on November 18, 2009 at 9:15 AM
Personally I blame the vegitarians for global warming. They eat only vegitation which through photosynthesis takes in carbon dioxide and produces pure oxygen.
I am a meatatarian. I eat animals that produce carbon dioxide thus helping to lower the emmision of co2 into the atmosphere and help to reduce the comsumption of vegitation. Vegitarians however are eating the vegitation possibly at the same rate as animlas. Therefore, IMHO I am eating the problem and they are eating the solution.
No, I am not saying eat the vegitarians, just pointing out some proven SCIENCE.
milwife88 on November 18, 2009 at 9:15 AM
Plus he wasn’t a Tennessean. D.C. Born and Raised he is.
Holger on November 18, 2009 at 9:15 AM
Science is hard!
loudmouth883 on November 18, 2009 at 9:15 AM
I heard it was billions of degrees.
logis on November 18, 2009 at 9:16 AM
It’s because of man!! The earth’s inner core has been getting hotter ever since we have started paving roads and parking lots. The pavement acts as an insulator and doesn’t allow for the earth to release the heat into the atmosphere…..hence the one million degree inner core.
I’m surprised he didn’t try to push buying carbon credits to offset the superheated core.
tommer74 on November 18, 2009 at 9:16 AM
The “traditional media” is full of people even dumber than Gore, Biden, and Obama. That and they’re lazy. Which is why they’re content to just read talking points issued by the White House and call that news or write book reviews without reading the actual book.
I don’t think it’s just a common ideology that’s prompting the drive-bys to cover for Obama and the Dems. I think it’s also that they suck at their jobs. Investigative journalism requires hard work and dedication. That’s just too much to ask of them.
Doughboy on November 18, 2009 at 9:17 AM
I’ve never been able to figure out why anyone takes this moran seriously.
MarkTheGreat on November 18, 2009 at 9:18 AM
Al Gore’s a good example of alternate energy sources; Look at all the energy expended by this one gas bag!
Cybergeezer on November 18, 2009 at 9:18 AM
First off after the first 1000 degrees who really cares because it’s just really, really hot and that’s all Al was trying to convey. Second off it was 60 states not 57. Visited 57, one to go and not doing Alaska or Hawaii. That’s 60 not 57. Man I just hate it when people use false quotes to make somebody look stupid.
Third off no I did not read or view anything about this thread but as a liberal I’m inherently smart and don’t have to. All I need to know is that HA is trying, very unsuccessfully I might add, to make Nobel Prize whiner VP Gore look bad.
RagTag on November 18, 2009 at 9:18 AM
Plus he wasn’t a Tennessean. D.C. Born and Raised he is.
Holger on November 18, 2009 at 9:15 AM
So was Harold Ford, Jr. Then they came down and tried to make people believe that they were raised in Tennessee. It did not work. Harold Jr. won his Daddy’s Congressional District because of his Dad, but couldn’t get any further than that.
kingsjester on November 18, 2009 at 9:19 AM
And one of the cost-saving options for geothermal wells is to re-open capped oil and natural gas drilling wells that go several thousand feet down — where temperatures are much hotter — and cycle water through them to get the heat up to the surface for conversion and redistribution (of course, in Al’s world if you ran a drill bit 20,000 feet down where the temperatures are a million degrees, all the drilling equipment would melt, unless you also apply the Rosie O’Donnell rule of metallurgy that fire can’t melt steel).
jon1979 on November 18, 2009 at 9:19 AM
Go crawl back to your mega carbon footprint home… and stay there please!
PrincipledPilgrim on November 18, 2009 at 9:20 AM
Al’s next project is a perpetual motion machine. Investors?
donh525 on November 18, 2009 at 9:20 AM
Well,Al Gore has come along way,since he was Vice President
calling for campaign contributions from his office in the
White House,and going for a paper bag of cash contributions
from the Buddists!!
canopfor on November 18, 2009 at 9:20 AM
Geothermal energy has been in use for thousands of years.
The number of places on this earth where one can drill down a mile or two and find rocks hot enough to power steam turbins is limited. A few hundred at most.
MarkTheGreat on November 18, 2009 at 9:20 AM
I wonder if the core of the Earth is hot enough to melt steel?
gwelf on November 18, 2009 at 9:21 AM
But he means well and for the left, that’s all that matters.
Intentions not results is the measure.
SteveMG on November 18, 2009 at 9:21 AM
I’ve given up trying to point this out.
thomasaur on November 18, 2009 at 9:21 AM
Al Gore- “Some like it hot!”
loudmouth883 on November 18, 2009 at 9:21 AM
LOL! milhusband88 is a lucky man!
Josiah on November 18, 2009 at 9:21 AM
I wonder if this ’sun’ you speak may contribute somewhat to climate change? I wonder if Mars has experienced similar swings in surface temperatures just like Earth…oh wait!
gwelf on November 18, 2009 at 9:22 AM
Not to mention the vegetation shades the ground from getting hot from the sun. So in effect AGW is correct but the fault of Vegans not SUVs. I say ban Vegans and save a world.
RagTag on November 18, 2009 at 9:23 AM
Gore always reminds me of Foghorn Leghorn…
ErinF on November 18, 2009 at 9:23 AM
Actually RT, Al Gore is trying (unsucessfully) to provide HOT AIR that only koolaid drinkers will swallow.
Rovin on November 18, 2009 at 9:24 AM
Manbearpig!
coldwarrior on November 18, 2009 at 9:24 AM
Why don’t environmentalists oppose sucking energy directly out of the center of the planet? Isn’t that like raping Mother Earth? Shouldn’t they at least oppose it on the principle that it’s not infinite (like they oppose shipping waste off-planet) or renewable (people take without any responsibility to give back!)?
JohnJ on November 18, 2009 at 9:25 AM
I wonder if Conan asked the Goracle why he flies on private jets if we’re all about to die OMG!!!!!!
And how the Goracle plans to spend the 100 of millions he’s making on this new ‘green’ venture?
gwelf on November 18, 2009 at 9:25 AM
Third off no I did not read or view anything about this thread but as a liberal I’m inherently smart and don’t have to. All I need to know is that HA is trying, very unsuccessfully I might add, to make Nobel Prize whiner VP Gore look bad.
RagTag on November 18, 2009 at 9:18 AM
RagTag: Correction,your Team said,57 States,just like
GaffeBiden said about jobs!!
===================================
Senator Joe Biden schooled John McCain on a “simple three letter word” today: “J-O-B-S”.
canopfor on November 18, 2009 at 9:25 AM
Here’s the problem, Ed. All your figures are in Celsius. Gore was talking Fahrenheit. He got the conversion tables from Kerry.
Nevertheless, one still is left to wonder why the Goracle failed to drill down to get at that geothermal energy when constructing his home/office complex, or use any other green technology for that matter. Perhaps it was just too darned expensive.
Kafir on November 18, 2009 at 9:26 AM
I would also like to add that vegitarians, in order to take in protien eat a lot of soy which for most people causes an uptick in farting. So in essence they are defeating their own cause.
milwife88 on November 18, 2009 at 9:26 AM
There are a few places in the US, Hawaii, Alaska, Washington and Yellowstone come to mind were we could put some sort of GT power generation but don’t and I’ve never understood why more hasn’t gone into researching it.
RagTag on November 18, 2009 at 9:27 AM
Hell, my Tennessee cred is better established than either of those politicos and I had to move away when I was 9, didn’t move back until I was 22.
Holger on November 18, 2009 at 9:27 AM
ManBearPig.
“He’s real. I’m super serial.”
/snort!
Akzed on November 18, 2009 at 9:27 AM
I should have Al Gore come to my middle school. He could guest teach Earth science.
Home boy’s worth $100,000,000 now. At least he can do math.
Mojave Mark on November 18, 2009 at 9:28 AM
Bernie Madoff is a piker compared to the Goracle. Biggest swindler in world history. Wanna buy some carbon credits from the man who flunked out of divinity school even though he had private tutors all his life. He is that dumb.
Geochelone on November 18, 2009 at 9:28 AM
It’s also high in estrogen, hence, liberal beta males abound.
Akzed on November 18, 2009 at 9:28 AM
People from Tennessee never question Gore’s intentions because they are abunbdantly clear. What they do question is his sanity. Gore has not been sane for most of his adult life. He is lioving proof that liberalism is a mental disorder and he is in the latter stages.
volsense on November 18, 2009 at 9:29 AM
Love your logic:
-Cow/Pig flatulence = methane gas
-Carnivore eats cow/pigs = reduced methane gas
-Carnivores save the planet
JoeAvg on November 18, 2009 at 9:30 AM
kingsjester on November 18, 2009 at 9:19 AM
Hell, my Tennessee cred is better established than either of those politicos and I had to move away when I was 9, didn’t move back until I was 22.
Holger on November 18, 2009 at 9:27 AM
Moved across the border to the Magnolia State in ‘97 after 38 years. Only go back into to Detroit South (Memphis)for business reasons.
kingsjester on November 18, 2009 at 9:30 AM
FIFY.
BobOfTexas on November 18, 2009 at 9:30 AM
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