"North of 20 degrees [latitude] forests had a direct warming influence that more or less counterbalanced the cooling effect of carbon removal from the atmosphere," said Prof Caldeira. Past 50 degrees, forests warmed the Earth by an average of 0.8C. But in the tropics forests helped cool the planet by an average of 0.7C.
Fiction 2: Gore cites disappearing snow on Africa's Mt. Kilimanjaro as proof that global warming (caused by humans, of course) is dramatically changing the planet.
The truth: Snow cover has disappeared on the mountain's peak since 1970, however, it has nothing to do with global warming (human-induced or not). In fact, satellite data confirm just the opposite is true:
The top of Mt. Kilimanjaro is actually colder than it was in 1970 when it had a large snow cover. Why has the snow disappeared? Because farmers have removed large areas of forest around the base of the mountain. Those forested areas held the moisture that allowed the clouds to form that created the local snow event at the peak. Without the forests to supply sufficient moisture, the cycle that produced the snowy peak has been broken.