Trying to confirm a recent Gore statement

[Geoff R. Casavant]

One of my friends on FaceBook is a climate-change-denier of the first order. She posted yesterday that apparently Al Gore had just said the earth's temperature was millions of degrees just a few kilometers down. My first guess is that she got this statement from Rush or Hannity, but I haven't seen any posts about Media Matters debunking it.

Anyway, it doesn't sound like something Gore would say, so my hypotheses so far are that the quote was taken out of context, or someone just made shit up. Anyone heard anything about this one way or another?

Thanks in advance.

[silverweb]

1. Standard response:

When something doesn't sound right or make sense, tell the person who made the assertion to either provide documentation or STFU.

The onus is not on you to waste your time disproving her statement, but on her to provide proof.

[guardian]

5. to provide proof

Did you see Reply #6 to this thread? So should YOU STFU?

[silverweb]

6. Reply #6...

I did happen to see it -- since it's this one and I wrote it.

The depth and intelligence of your discourse and the charming gallantry of your manners are exceeded, dear guardian, only by your ability to count.

:rofl:

[lapfog_1]

2. The temperature of the earth's mantle

which starts around 300km down and continues to around 3000km down is about 4000 C (7400 F) after the crustal barrier.

millions of degrees, no. Pretty damn hot, yes.

There have been many geothermal power plants installed around the earth where the crust is thinner.

Recently, some plans to tap this energy source by drilling have been abandoned because of increased earth quake activity near the drilling sites (the theory being that the drilling is causing the earth quakes).

I doubt that Al Gore ever uttered "millions of degrees", mostly because that would be complete nonsense. The surface temperature of the SUN is only around 6000 C or 7000 C (of course, the corona can reach temperatures of 2 million F).

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/mysteries_l1/corona.html

[AlecBGreen]

3. taking something out of context

I didnt hear the quote but I bet this is what happened:

Gore: Below our feet, deep in the earth, are temperatures exceeding the surface of the sun (true)

Nutjob: GORE JUST SAID ITS MILLIONS OF DEGREES DOWN THERE!!!1! (false)

[NickB79]

4. Gore screwed up on the Conan O'brian show

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag2AWst3Qv4

At 0:39, "millions of degrees".