Armstrong Remains Hopeful
Armstrong Remains Hopeful that Al Gore will Spend Five Minutes to Aid the Scientific Approach to Climate Change Forecasting
It was falsely reported through the media that Al Gore replied “no” to the Global Warming Challenge. What his Communications Director and Scheduler said was, “Please understand that Mr. Gore is not taking on any new projects at this time.” This does not preclude taking action at a future time.
Armstrong has not heard directly from Mr. Gore and suspects there is a communication problem. The Global Warming Challenge requires only that Mr. Gore select a climate model (and put up $10,000 in December 2007 to go to a charity.). It is analogous to selecting a horse. Since he knows about climate models, it should take about five minutes to make a selection. Perhaps he could reduce it to two minutes if he were to ask someone on his staff to make this selection.
Given the importance of the climate change issue, Armstrong is still hopeful that Mr. Gore can set aside five minutes to join the Global Warming Challenge. This would further his goal of using science to develop useful solutions.
Armstrong says that the climate change issue will be with us for some time, so he is content to wait until Mr. Gore can find five minutes. He sent a message to Mr. Gore asking him when he might have five minutes in which to join the Global Warming Challenge.
Your opinions
Will Mr. Gore be able to find five minutes over the next six months to participate in the Global Warming Challenge?
I doubt that there is a forecasting model that can satisfactorily project the behaviour of Mr Gore over the next six months, but I would be surprised if he could not find five minutes to accept the bet. I would be more surprised if he used that five minutes to do so, however.