Brian, OK, point taken, calling Al Gore a professional scientist was probably overdoing it on my part. But, higher on this thread is some discussion of the credentials and credibility of a Ph.D. climate scientist. Having a Ph.D does not prevent you from being clueless in certain areas. Also, I don't think you should need a Ph.D. to do research, and that if someone becomes an expert by non-traditional means and they are well-informed and make some use of the scientific method or something like it, they could be taken seriously, expecially on this page. For example, see the intro from Mike Williams on the thread above. He seems to know quite a bit more about many areas of seismology than I do and therefore his comments can be taken as credible etc...
Chris