If Al Gore were so profoundly afraid of climate change, he wouldn't fly in a private jet or have a huge mansion with massive electrical consumption. Since he does those things, then he's obviously not convinced that human activity affects climate. Interestingly, if he donated the billions in profits he has made from his climate change "investments" then perhaps he could be taken more seriously. Al Gore invests in "green" companies. He uses his platform to scare the world. He becomes a billionaire. He continues living his life exactly as he did before. Anyone that attempts to give Al Gore any credibility whatsoever has none themselves.

It's interesting because Warren Buffet is often cited by leftists because Buffet supports raising income taxes. See the Buffet secretary story from 2011 where he complained that his secretary pays a higher income tax rate than he does. Interestingly, Buffet did not call for a raising of the capital gains tax -- the form of income from which Buffet derives his wealth. The relevance of this example is that these marquee people that try and influence public policy ALWAYS act rationally towards their own best interests. Al Gore promotes AGW and becomes a billionaire. Buffet suggests raising income taxes to potentially deflect calls to raise capital gains taxes.

This "settled science" bullshit is exactly that. No science is "settled," yet there are those that want to fundamentally alter civilization based on politically-influenced mathematical models. Interestingly, even the IPCC admits that "we redistribute world's wealth by climate policy." Looking at the AGW issue objectively, given all of the scandal, the misrepresentations, the outright lies (i.e. the polar ice cap will be completely gone by 2016,) and the Chicken Little aspects, a person with no political opinions at all would be suspicious. The idea of human-caused global warming has been trumpeted with a zeal equal to that of the Eugenics movement -- and we all know how that turned out.

As an example, Charles Davenport had a PhD in biology from Harvard and later was a Harvard professor. He also was the director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. At the time, one could say his scientific credentials were beyond reproach. One of his statements (among others) was, "I believe in such a selection of immigrants as shall not tend to adulterate our national germ plasm with socially unfit traits." This highly respected scientist helped and supported the Nazis, their scientific programs were based on much of Davenport's work. Yet, in 1911, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences because of his eugenics work. Eugenics inspired Margaret Sanger to found Planned Parenthood, not to save society from unwanted pregnancies, but to prevent immigrant "inferiors" from breeding. A member of the National Academy of Sciences who laid the groundwork for the extermination of millions of people. All based on "settled science."

So pardon me if I'm a bit skeptical when a billionaire politician like Al Gore tries to sell the world a bill of goods. We could argue that divestiture or the elimination of fossil fuels might be "good," but then again similar arguments for "goodness" were made in the justification eugenics. I'm certainly not comparing oil to genocide; I'm elucidating the potential rabbit hole down which we may go when we confuse the scientific with the political.