This week marks two decades since Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans on August 29, 2005. The aftermath of the disaster saw political figures and commentators assigning blame for both the storm and its consequences.
The response to this period was satirized in a South Park episode titled “Two Days After the Day After Tomorrow.” In the show, townspeople argue over who is responsible for a fictional flood rather than focusing on rescue efforts. Al Gore’s involvement in the climate change debate soon followed with his 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth, which received both an Oscar and a Nobel Prize.
A January 2023 Capital Research magazine report examined Gore’s narrative regarding hurricanes and climate change. According to the report, Gore stated in his film: “We have seen in the last couple of years, a lot of big hurricanes,” and referred to “the summer of 2005” as “one for the books.” He argued that recent hurricane activity reflected ignored warnings about stronger storms due to human-caused climate change.
However, research from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) indicates otherwise. As updated in October 2022, NOAA concluded: “We conclude that the historical Atlantic hurricane data at this stage do not provide compelling evidence for a substantial greenhouse warming-induced century-scale increase in frequency of tropical storms, hurricanes, or major hurricanes, or in the proportion of hurricanes that become major hurricanes.”
NOAA records show six named hurricanes made landfall on the continental United States in 2005; four were classified as major but only reached Category 3 intensity at landfall—the lowest level considered “major.” Notably, after 2005 there was a period without any major hurricane making U.S. landfall until 2017. Between 2009 and 2015, only four hurricanes—mostly Category 1—struck the country.
The Capital Research magazine report also reviewed other claims made by Gore over three decades concerning environmental changes that did not materialize as predicted—including glacier melt at Glacier National Park by 2020 and loss of snowpack on Mt. Kilimanjaro by 2015.
Gore’s comments about his loss in the contested Florida vote during the 2000 presidential election are also discussed: “I’m Al Gore and I used to be the next president of the United States,” he said early in An Inconvenient Truth. The recount process after Election Night involved disputes over ballot validity due to incomplete punches on paper ballots.
For further reading on these topics—including detailed critiques of Al Gore’s environmental record—Capital Research Center has published several reports online:
– Al Gore’s 30 Years of Climate Errors
– Part 1: Glacial Recount
– Part 2: Snow Job
– Part 3: The Scary Seas
– Part 4: Bridge Fuel to Nowhere
– Part 5: Favoring Failure
– Part 6: Blood & Gore
– Part 7: It Could Have Happened Here
An Inconvenient Truth was produced by Participant Media—a company profiled by InfluenceWatch—which ceased operations last year. Participant also released Promised Land (2013), depicting negative effects from hydraulic fracturing or fracking. Financing for Promised Land included Image Media Abu Dhabi, wholly owned by UAE’s government—a nation with significant oil and gas interests through OPEC membership (Participant Media profile at InfluenceWatch). A Heritage Foundation report noted UAE’s economic interest could influence portrayals discouraging increased natural gas production outside OPEC nations (Heritage Foundation report).
