Can you trust Al Gore's scientific claims ?

Writing an op-ed piece in Sunday's New York Times, Algore

claims:

Consider this tale of two planets. Earth and Venus are almost exactly the same size, and have almost exactly the same amount of carbon. The difference is that most of the carbon on Earth is in the ground--having been deposited there by various forms of life over the last 600 million years--and most of the carbon on Venus is in the atmosphere.

As a result, while the average temperature on Earth is a pleasant 59 degrees, the average temperature on Venus is 867 degrees. True, Venus is closer to the Sun than we are, but the fault is not in our star; Venus is three times hotter on average than Mercury, which is right next to the Sun. It's the carbon dioxide.

However, the atmosphere on Mars is 95% carbon dioxide, a tad shy of Venus's 96%, as pointed out by George Reisman. And what is the average temperature on Mars? Eighty-one below zero. So much for that theory, Al.

Hat tip James Taranto.

Meanwhile, Taranto identifies Agence France-Presse as they report:

Scientists who probed two kilometers (1.2 miles) through a Greenland glacier to recover the oldest plant DNA on record said Thursday the planet was far warmer hundreds of thousands of years ago than is generally believed.

"If scientists have such difficulty predicting past weather, surely we should be skeptical about politicians' predictions of future weather," quips Taranto.