The Gore effect or Al Gore effect refers to coincidence between occurrences of unseasonably cold weather and some events associated with global warming activism, particularly those attended by former Vice President of the United States and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Al Gore. The term was coined and used, sometimes humorously, by global warming deniers.
Usage
Citing the
crowdsourcing Urban Dictionary, Peter Scowan of
The Globe and Mail reported the term as "the phenomenon that leads to unseasonably cold temperatures, driving rain, hail, or snow whenever Al Gore visits an area to discuss global warming".
Erika Lovely of
Politico described it as occurring when "a global warming-related event, or appearance by...Al Gore, is marked by exceedingly cold weather or unseasonably winter weather".
The phenomenon was reportedly first observed in January 2004 when a speech by Gore to a global warming rally held in New York City met extremely cold winter weather;
according to
Andrew Bolt after another Gore speech took place on a strikingly cold day in Boston in the same year.
"
" use the term "half-seriously" in relation to the weather conditions at global warming venues.
German authors Daniel Rettig and Jochen Mai described the effect in 2012 in a popular science book about psychological mechanisms and memes, but referred to it as selective perception.
[Ich denke, also spinn ich: Warum wir uns oft anders verhalten, als wir wollen, Daniel Rettig, Jochen Mai, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 2012, Chapter Gore effect, p. 47 ff Online, reception of the book see [2]] CNN meteorologist
Rob Marciano describes use of the effect as a mere
in-joke among weather forecasters: "in the weather community, we kind of joke about it. It's just a bad timing. Every time there's some big weather climate conference, there seems to be a cold outbreak. ... But, globally, we are still warming."
Curtis Brainard of the Columbia Journalism Review has called coverage of the Gore effect "asinine", noting the distinction between short-term weather and long-term climate,
See also
Further reading
