Think of the Solyndra scandal. Now imagine thousands of Solyndras. That would have been the consequence inflicted by his [Al Gore's] agenda if he’d had his way.

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Following this week’s presidential debate, CNN moderator Candy Crowley conceded that Mitt Romney had been correct on substance during his celebrated confrontation over Libya with Barack Obama. 

Crowley went on to lament that time constraints prevented her from introducing other audience questions, specifically emphasizing “global warming” among the topics.  Somehow, it seems likely that the question she had in mind flowed from the usual, off-the-shelf alarmist orthodoxy, as opposed to the truly remarkable news released just this week. 

Namely, the following headline and revelation from London’s Daily Mail:  “Global Warming Stopped 16 Years Ago, Reveals Met Office Report Quietly Released.” 

“The world stopped getting warmer almost 16 years ago, according to new data released last week.  The figures, which have triggered debate among climate scientists, reveal that from the beginning of 1997 until August 2012, there was no discernible rise in aggregate global temperatures.  This means that the ‘plateau’ or ‘pause’ in global warming has now lasted for about the same time as the previous period when temperatures rose, 1980 to 1996.  Before that, temperatures had been stable or declining for about 40 years.” 

The conclusion derives from over 3,000 disbursed temperature measuring points on land and sea across the globe.  This also means that the current sixteen-year plateau matches the sixteen-year period of warming between 1980 and 1996 that triggered nearly two decades of global warming hysteria.  In fact, this means that since 1880, when the Industrial Revolution was just underway and measurement of global temperature data began, our globe has warmed a whopping…  wait for it…  0.75 degree Celsius, or just over 1 degree Farenheit. 

Naturally, global warming alarmists quickly attempted to downplay the news.  Phil Jones, who serves as Director of the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, “dismissed the significance of the plateau,” according to the Daily Mail, “saying that 15 or 16 years is too short a period from which to draw conclusions.” 

Well, 15 or 16 years apparently wasn’t “too short a period from which to draw conclusions” when the period in question was the 1980 – 1996 span of temporary global warming.  Incidentally, that temporary span itself followed a period of global cooling that had climate alarmists and such media institutions as Time and The New York Times predicting mass starvation and global cataclysm from a new Ice Age. 

Regardless, the name Phil Jones should ring a bell. 

That’s because Professor Jones was a central figure in the 2009 “Climategate” scandal that exposed the fraudulent “science” behind global warming hysteria.  In 2009, over 3,000 emails and documents from East Anglia revealed a coordinated effort among Prof. Jones and others to conceal evidence, blacklist scientists with whom they disagreed and even “redefine what the peer-review literature is” to squelch opposition.  As we at CFIF noted at the time, the following damning communications were among those leaked: 

“The fact is we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty we can’t.” 

“I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline.” 

“If they ever hear there is a Freedom of Information Act now in the U.K., I think I’ll delete the file rather than send to anyone…  We also have a data protection act, which I will hide behind.” 

“Try and change the received date!  Don’t give those skeptics something to amuse themselves with.” 

“I can’t see either of these papers being in the next IPCC report.  Kevin and I will keep them out somehow – even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!” 

Speaking of discredited global warming alarmists, where does this leave Al Gore? 

Gore claimed in his 1992 book Earth in the Balance that looming global warming meant that, “We must make the rescue of the environment the central organizing principle for civilization.”  He also demanded a “Global Marshall Plan” to reorder civilization itself in order to stop the impending climate Armageddon.  In 2008, Gore was still at it, predicting that “the entire north polarized cap will disappear in five years.” 

Think of the Solyndra scandal.  Now imagine thousands of Solyndras.  That would have been the consequence inflicted by his agenda if he’d had his way.  And for no reason whatsoever, according to nearly two decades of temperature data that have accumulated since that time. 

Since 1996, the world has witnessed an enormous increase in carbon output as nations like China and India have rapidly industrialized.  If man-caused global warming theory was correct, then during that period we would have presumably witnessed a consequent increase in temperatures. 

Instead, no change. 

So climate alarmists were wrong in predicting global cooling catastrophe in the 1970s.  Now the data shows that they were wrong in predicting global warming catastrophe in the 1990s. 

We can only speculate what they’ll predict next.  But we can be certain that whatever agenda they demand will carry a hefty pricetag, along with more millions of dollars in grants and honoraries for themselves.