Saturday, December 09, 2006

Senate Committee Berates Media For Global Warming Alarmism

The Senate's Environment & Public Works Committee has released "A Skeptic’s Guide to Debunking Global Warming Alarmism. Hot & Cold Media Spin Cycle: A Challenge To Journalists who Cover Global Warming.”

The publication is available online here. A sample:
Here is a quote from Newsweek magazine:
“There are ominous signs that the Earth’s weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production– with serious political implications for just about every nation on Earth.”

A headline in the New York Times reads:
“Climate Changes Endanger World’s Food Output.”

Here is a quote from Time Magazine:
“As they review the bizarre and unpredictable weather pattern of the past several years, a growing number of scientists are beginning to suspect that many seemingly contradictory meteorological fluctuations are actually part of a global climatic upheaval.”

All of this sounds very ominous. That is, until you realize that the three quotes I just read were from articles in 1975 editions of Newsweek Magazine and The New York Times, and Time Magazine in 1974.

They weren’t referring to global warming; they were warning of a coming ice age.
In fact, the nation's mainstream media has been hyping catastrophic climate change stories for over a hundred years, alternating between global warming and global cooling scenarios. Global warming is in fashion right now.

I feel comfortably ahead of the curve on this one, having posted this warning about the media hype almost two years ago.