WHETHER it’s floods in North Dakota or hurricanes off the Florida coast, Vice President Al Gore never misses an opportunity to blame a disaster on global warming. In Florida on June 29 to announce stepped-up federal assistance to fight the wildfires, Gore attributed the fires to the greenhouse effect. “These fires offer a glimpse of what global warming may mean to families across America,” he proclaimed, adding, “And that is why it is so critical that we get on with the job of cutting greenhouse-gas emissions. Working together, we can spare other communities like those we have seen here today.”
Three weeks earlier, Gore had noted that five states set record temperatures in the first five months of 1998, proving beyond a doubt that global warming had arrived. Never mind that, according to climatologist John Christy of the University of Alabama at Huntsville, there are 37 states whose records were set before 1940—i.e., before modern industry started emitting substantial amounts of greenhouse gases.
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