Or maybe not.

It's being reported that Al Gore gave his ever-evolving Global Warming Scare Presentation to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) recently.  But only after questions were (finally) raised about one of his new slides is he pulling that slide (a version of that graph shows up in the presentation video linked above at about minute 7.)

It seems he misrepresented the data.  One of the most interesting things, to me, about the misrepresentation is this: he claims the graph shows the change in number of disasters.  But what the graph shows is the change in the number of reported disasters.

Why is that important?  Doesn't that sound a bit like quibbling over nothing?

Well, it is important, and it's not just quibbling.  Here are two reasons: 

1) Disaster reporting has improved drastically in the last 30-40 years as compared to 100 years ago. (Global travel and communications have improved exponentially.)

And

2) Incentives to report disasters have increase dramatically in recent years. (Look at all the humanitarian aid that's being dispersed in recent years.)

(See here.  Note especially comments 18 and 19 with regard to reason #1, and comment 22 - from CRED!! (that is, the people who created the graph in the first place) - reaffirming #1 and pointing out #2 as well as other potential explanations - ALL of which would indicate AGW (Anthropogenic Global Warming) has little to nothing to do with what the graph shows.)

I wonder... how many people are easily "snowed" by such shoddy and/or careless presentations?

Isn't this, at least in part, one of the kinds of things that has led us to the current economically challenging times we're currently facing?  What I mean is, isn't this the kind of thing politicians have been doing for years to protect their lobbying buddies?  And isn't this the kind of thing unscrupulous Lenders have done to push high-risk loans on unsuspecting borrowers?  And isn't this the kind of thing unscrupulous borrowers have done to get past the lending criteria of ethical Lenders?

When people lie about their data, "stuff" happens.  And while for the moment those who lie seem to "get away with it" and benefit - at least in the short term - most often, they (and a whole lot of other people) ultimately have a high price to pay for their deception.