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Networks Embrace ‘Catastrophic’ Warnings of Latest IPCC Report
ABC swipes at skeptics, while CBS airs ‘irresponsible’ claim about temperatures rising 212 degrees.
Published: 10/2/2013 1:16 PM ET
Subscribe to Julia A. Seymour
The UN’s climate panel (IPCC) released its latest warning about "catastrophic" climate change on Sept. 27, garnering the frantic attention of all three broadcast networks that night. CBS even aired a claim about temperatures rising “more than 200 degrees."
Predictably, the evening news shows on ABC, CBS and NBC Sept. 27 repeated the IPCC’s dire warnings without including any skeptics and without mentioning past failures such as their inability to accurately predict warming or sea level rise.
ABC’s “World News with Diane Sawyer,†NBC “Nightly News†and CBS “Evening News†all failed to include criticism of the IPCC with the exception of a swipe against “skeptics†on ABC. NBC continued to link weather events like Hurricane Sandy to climate change while CBS aired a statistic that one scientist called “meaningless.â€
With the words “big warning†onscreen, ABC announced the “landmark†report from “top scientists.†Dan Harris went on to mention weather events including “superstorm Sandy,†and ominously warned that the “UN report says we will be seeing much more of these kinds of things in the coming decades as a result of climate change ...†Of course, that’s what the IPCC has been saying for years.
Harris acknowledged the existence of other viewpoints, but immediately tore them down saying, “skeptics have predictably accused the UN panel of being alarmist, but Princeton climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer, who is on the panel, says this is a major wake up call.†Yet Oppenheimer himself has been accused of activist junk science by other scientists, according to meteorologist Anthony Watts’ website. Harris didn’t happen to mention that.
“Evening News†took a different tack, airing a story about oyster farming and complaints that climate change is ruining a man’s business. But in Ben Tracy’s story, which mentioned the IPCC’s latest report, he said that oceans have absorbed much of the heat caused by CO2 and that ocean temperatures have risen only slightly. Then he made a claim that Principal Research Scientist Dr. Roy Spencer of the University of Alabama in Huntsville called “totally misleading and irresponsible.â€
“Had all that heat gone into the atmosphere, air temperatures could have risen by more than 200 degrees [showed 212 degrees onscreen],†Tracy warned.
ABC swipes at skeptics, while CBS airs ‘irresponsible’ claim about temperatures rising 212 degrees.
Published: 10/2/2013 1:16 PM ET
Subscribe to Julia A. Seymour
The UN’s climate panel (IPCC) released its latest warning about "catastrophic" climate change on Sept. 27, garnering the frantic attention of all three broadcast networks that night. CBS even aired a claim about temperatures rising “more than 200 degrees."
Predictably, the evening news shows on ABC, CBS and NBC Sept. 27 repeated the IPCC’s dire warnings without including any skeptics and without mentioning past failures such as their inability to accurately predict warming or sea level rise.
ABC’s “World News with Diane Sawyer,†NBC “Nightly News†and CBS “Evening News†all failed to include criticism of the IPCC with the exception of a swipe against “skeptics†on ABC. NBC continued to link weather events like Hurricane Sandy to climate change while CBS aired a statistic that one scientist called “meaningless.â€
With the words “big warning†onscreen, ABC announced the “landmark†report from “top scientists.†Dan Harris went on to mention weather events including “superstorm Sandy,†and ominously warned that the “UN report says we will be seeing much more of these kinds of things in the coming decades as a result of climate change ...†Of course, that’s what the IPCC has been saying for years.
Harris acknowledged the existence of other viewpoints, but immediately tore them down saying, “skeptics have predictably accused the UN panel of being alarmist, but Princeton climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer, who is on the panel, says this is a major wake up call.†Yet Oppenheimer himself has been accused of activist junk science by other scientists, according to meteorologist Anthony Watts’ website. Harris didn’t happen to mention that.
“Evening News†took a different tack, airing a story about oyster farming and complaints that climate change is ruining a man’s business. But in Ben Tracy’s story, which mentioned the IPCC’s latest report, he said that oceans have absorbed much of the heat caused by CO2 and that ocean temperatures have risen only slightly. Then he made a claim that Principal Research Scientist Dr. Roy Spencer of the University of Alabama in Huntsville called “totally misleading and irresponsible.â€
“Had all that heat gone into the atmosphere, air temperatures could have risen by more than 200 degrees [showed 212 degrees onscreen],†Tracy warned.
We have looked at the IPCC's report because it's our biz. Imagine if you decided to issue a report on fat kids. You identified some fat kids, you looked at what brands of cereal the fat kids ate, and you carefully monitored the favorite TV programs of fat kids. From that, you scrupulously ignored how many calories all the fat kids ate compared to a similar normal kid control group. Your report blames Frosted Mini-Wheats for childhood obesity and strongly suggests that Dora The Explorer is a contributing factor. You also claim that it's impossible to attribute fatness to calories since large number of poor children are fat and calories are inversely related to wealth. Then you add some graphs.
Jesus wept.
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