« Europe's Demise | Main | Greenpeace Loonies Penetrate Security »
July 14, 2006
Scientist Objects to Discovery Channel Global Warming Propaganda Fest
Posted by Dave Blount at July 14, 2006 12:09 PM
Dan Rather isn't the only MSM dinosaur who refuses to stagger off to the tar pits where he belongs. Former NBC liberal elitist in chief Tom Brokaw will be hosting a marathon propaganda fest on the Discovery Channel Sunday evening, apparently intended to scare the gullible into voting for the party most likely to throw the brakes on our economy in the name of cute penguins and cuddly polar bears. But Roger Pielke, Sr., a professor of atmospheric sciences at Colorado State University, is not on board with the program.
"Global Warming: What You Need to Know" is a "disappointment" to Dr. Pielke, because it "misleads the public" by relying on "just a few scientists with a particular personal viewpoint on this subject" and because it features a number of "errors and misconceptions." Pielke wishes that Tom Brokaw and friends had seen fit to "use the two hours to present a balanced view on the spectrum of perspectives on the human influences on the climate system."
But of course, presenting a balanced view defeats the whole purpose of propaganda. That's why the show will feature, as Pielke puts it, "just a few scientists with a particular personal viewpoint on this subject, which misleads the public on the broader view that is actually held by most climate scientists."
A press release promoting the program puts it differently:
Produced by the global alliance of Discovery Channel, the BBC and NBC News Productions, and hosted by award-winning journalist Tom Brokaw, the two-hour special presents the facts and leaves it up to the viewers to determine their own truth about global warming.
That is, viewers will be left to decide for themselves whether to succumb to abject panic when Brokaw makes menacing declarations like this one:
By the year 2100, in the lifetime of our children and grandchildren, our world will be a drastically different place. Severe weather will become the norm rather than the exception.
The "international team of experts" contributing to the special includes Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences and international affairs at the highly moonbat-friendly Princeton University. Oppenheimer also serves as "science adviser" to the lefty group Environmental Defense, and has been affiliated with environmentalist organizations Scientists and Engineers for Change and Environment2004. To state the obvious, he has an agenda.
Another member of the team, Dr. James Hansen, has credentials that fall somewhat short of impeccable — although he has done propaganda work for Al Gore.
Among the "errors and misconceptions" noted by Pielke are inferences that rapid glacial retreat is a new observation, and that all glaciers are retreating. The documentary might have gained a little credibility by admitting that climate models have not demonstrated accuracy in predicting variability over decades, and that controlling CO2 emissions will not significantly influence climate.
Iain Murray is a senior fellow specializing in global climate change and environmental science at the free market-based Competitive Enterprise Institute. As he puts it:
These days, people get bashed over the head with the idea that there is a consensus, and anybody who speaks out against the so-called consensus is a contrarian or a tool of the oil industry or an otherwise morally suspect person.
In the end, this attitude could blow up in the face of global warming alarmists. Al Gore fans will surely believe even their most hysterical claims. But everyone else is likely to dismiss them as ideologues trying to pass off politics as science.
