US Media's Left Wing 'Agenda' and the Public's Knowledge of Climate Science
Don Beck | 29.04.2008 06:32 | Climate Chaos | Ecology | World
You've heard it many times.
--The 'left wing' U.S. media is 'scare-mongering and alarmist' about climate change. They are frightening the people of the U.S. about the affects of global warming without having enough facts and research to back up their statements. --
The statements from researchers 'on the ground' ARE very alarming, no one can dispute that. Here are a few of the past year or so from separate, independent, long-term scientific studies. [Links to the report that these statements are ripped from are provided below.]
--The 'left wing' U.S. media is 'scare-mongering and alarmist' about climate change. They are frightening the people of the U.S. about the affects of global warming without having enough facts and research to back up their statements. --
The statements from researchers 'on the ground' ARE very alarming, no one can dispute that. Here are a few of the past year or so from separate, independent, long-term scientific studies. [Links to the report that these statements are ripped from are provided below.]
1) Dec. '06 - Globe is Warming Faster Than Scientist's worst predictions. Our worst fears are exceeded by reality.
**************
Oceans
2) Jan. '07 - Earth is Losing its Ability to Absorb CO2?
3) May '07 - ... (the Southern Oceans) are beginning to release the CO2 they have stored.
4) Oct. '07 - ...the ability of (the Atlantic) ocean to absorb CO2 has dropped by half....
5) Feb. '07 - World's sea levels are rising at an accelerating rate. Sea levels are rising even faster than scientists predicted.
6) May '07 - 30% reduction in the warm currents that carry water north from the Gulf Stream.
**************
Other Positive Feedbacks
7) Mar. '07 - Tundra Disappearing At Rapid Rate. "It's like it waited until conditions were just right and then it decided to get up and run, not just walk.".....This sets up a "positive feedback," the same process that is associated with the rapidly decaying Arctic ice cap.
8) Aug. '07 - Arctic lakes are beginning to release methane and CO2. A global tragedy of monumental proportions is unfolding at the top of the world...
9) Nov. '07 - The increase in forest fires in the boreal forests have weakened one of the earth's greatest terrestrial sinks of carbon dioxide.
**************
CO2
10) Feb. '07 - Carbon dioxide rate is at highest level for 650,000 years.
11) Oct. '07 - New CO2 evidence means climate change predictions are 'too optimistic' Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are increasing much faster.... than scientists have predicted....
**************
Glaciers
12) Jan. '07 - Glaciers (water supply) Melting 6 X Faster Than '80s.........the change "is happening so extremely fast, much much faster than we have seen in thousands and thousands of years" says Rasmus Hansson of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
13) Sept. '07 - Glaciers are moving much faster towards the sea because of previously unknown factors. (Greenland ice is) advancing toward the sea at seven miles per year, compared with three and a half miles before.
**************
Polar Ice
14) Jan. '07 - The Pace of Arctic Global Warming is Staggering. "....the change "is happening so extremely fast, much much faster than we have seen in thousands and thousands of years. "Climate change in the Arctic is not coming. It is here,"
15) April '07 - .... the (sea ice) that we've observed is actually declining much faster than the models have shown.
16) Sept. '07 - 'Remarkable' Drop in Arctic Sea Ice Raises Questions
**************
17) Jan. '07 - Reduce CO2 in Ten Years, or Climate Will be Out-of-Control. 'If we fail to act, we will end up with a different planet'
18) July '07 - No Link Between Cosmic Rays and Global Warming
*************
These statements from climatologists and researchers are very alarming, indeed. They make us wonder what is going to happen in the near future, let alone a century or two from now.
But guess what. These statements and the reports they are from were NEVER REPORTED by a U.S. Media outlet. They all came from foreign media or government sources.
If you had set 'google alerts' (very simple) for "climate change" and "global warming", these worldwide reports would have been emailed to you daily. But very few people are paying that close of attention to what is being discovered by climate researchers around the world. We all hope that the climate is not going to drastically change. We all want to believe the skeptics (who have, by the way, been shown to be closely connected to the whims and funding of the energy giants such as ExxonMobile).
When you realize that, actually, the US media has WITH-HELD all of these reports form us, and the information there-in, then you will be able to see that the cry of 'liberal media alarmism' is simply another example of the well-honed tactic of the right wing to 'project' what they are guilty of, onto their opponents, just as they have been doing with disgusting success for many years now on many issues. The so-called liberal media is, in fact, quite conservative and not nearly 'informative' enough.
SOME EXAMPLES OF 'PROJECTION'
-The Republicans calling Senator John Kerry a flip-flopper -- after this administration's reversal of all environmental campaign promises,
-The 'swift-boating' and labeling of Senator Kerry as un-patriotic (an actual honored war hero) -- for a clearly AWOL Reserve Air force pilot,
-Dissenters of the government's foreign policy are said to be un-patriotic -- as this administration has systematically shredded the Constitution and the Bill of Rights with an unprecidented number of 'signing statements', executive orders, and the Patriot Acts l and ll,
People who have been paying attention to the political scene have noticed this hypocritical tactic time and time again, in an attempt to confuse those who are NOT paying close attention. Well, it has been used with great success in the area of climate science also, by railing against the Main Stream Media about their 'liberal tendencies' while, in fact, the Main Stream Media has been keeping the U.S. Public ignorant of the current state of climate science for years.
THEN THERE ARE THE POLITICIANS
Every administration is able to appoint new heads of office to every government regulatory commission. They are expected to find the most knowledgeable people available, and they generally have ..... until this administration. The Bush administration has time, and time again, taken people from the industries that they are supposed to regulate, and given them the highest spots in the U.S. Government.
Be it the Forestry Service, the mining industry, the banking industry, the EPA - the list goes on, and it is OUTRAGEOUS. The conflicts of interest in this administration are simply criminal. The political appointees have wreaked havoc on all fronts and few citizens aware of this immense problem.
The Union of Concerned Scientists recently reported that 889 scientists at the EPA had personally experienced at least one incident of political interference in the past five years. The UCS said their survey "shows an agency under siege from political pressures. On numerous issues......political appointees of the George W. Bush administration have edited scientific documents, manipulated scientific assessments, and generally sought to undermine the science behind dozens of EPA regulations."(19)
The chief U.S. Climatologist Dr. James Hansen testified to Congress about the unethical 'editing' by political appointees of scientific research saying "There remains a vast gap between what is understood about global warming, by the relevant scientific community, and what is known about global warming by those who need to know, the public and policy-makers."(20)
He also stated "The effect of leaving the public confused about the reality of human-caused climate change is to delay actions needed to put the nation and the world on an energy pathway that would preserve creation...."
Two very important things there. 1) The delay is in order to make unfettered, astronomical profits by the energy giants before the true nature of the changing climate is known by the public because the energy giants know that the climate is a very slow moving force of nature and the public is not aware of its decadal inertia; 2) Dr. Hansen is telling us that 'creation' is at risk.
WHY ARE THEY GETTING AWAY WITH IT?
People ask "Why is our Congress cowing to this administration and the blatant corruption?"
We only need to remember the anthrax attacks that occurred just weeks after 9/11. Letters containing the most lethal strain of anthrax ever developed were sent to two members of Congress who were holding up the passage of the "Patriot Act" (Daschle and Leahey), all three major U.S. news agencies, and a few other news organizations, killing five people and infecting 17 others. The FBI investigation is still pending, but they have disclosed that the strain of anthrax came from a U.S. Weapons Laboratory in Maryland.
This was not a death threat.......it was attempted murder! That put a distinct chill on our Congresspeople and investigative journalists.
THE ENERGY GIANT'S DIS-INFORMATION CAMPAIGN
Then there is the multi-million dollar funding of the 'skeptics' who continue to infer that the climate has changed many times in the past without the impetus of human influence, and refuse to accept that human influence could ever have any affect on the climate....... in the face of a mountain of scientific evidence to the contrary.
For an incredibly informative look at the skeptics and their tactics please view this free on-line video by the Univ. of California at San Diego's History Professor Naomi Oreskee as she exposes in great depth the anti-environmental icons who, by the way, were once in the hands of the Tobacco Industry (and most likely because of threats to their lives from a mafia-like group of corporate criminals):
The American Denial of Global Warming, 12/12/07, free on-line, 58 min.
http://www.uctv.tv/search-details.asp?showID=13459
This video will open your eyes to the extent of corporate greed and power....... if the movie "The Insider" did not. Anyone who has seen the movie/documentary "The Insider" will understand just how far the corporations have digressed into a mafia mentality to protect themselves from litigation and public furor in order to keep the gusher of cash and profits flowing.
IMPORTANT POINT
It is important to remember that, because of a deadline of July 2006, the IPCC Report dis-allowed every one of these scientific studies listed above. That means that the report, which is meant to inform government leaders around the world to the urgency of taking action on CO2 emissions, is woefully out-of-date.
It also means that the regulations and policies adopted by governments will be based on incomplete and incorrect information, and will not be sufficient to handle the real problems ahead.
So it is not only the American Public who are unaware of the seriousness of the situation, it is also the people who have the power to do what is necessary to reduce the emissions and slow the climate change. That is an alarming situation in itself.
THIS IS A 'HORRIBLE' SITUATION
The corporate media is holding back the current science from the Am. Public; the U.S. government is watering down and filtering the current science that is allowed to be given to the Am. Public; a small group of skeptics are spweing out false statements and dis-information that gets the same coverage (until just recently) as the watered down science; and governments around the world are being informed about the climate situation by an outdated and under-estimating report with predictions that are far too rosy.
This is worse than any sci-fi movie I have ever seen.........because it is actually happening right now, and there is no quick cure in sight, of either informing the public, nor of slowing the degradation to the climate by fossil fuels. This is actually beyond horrible!
Please tell everyone you can about the above reports and the fact that they are being kept from us by a huge system of energy-giant funded and organized experts at keeping the public mis-informed about a very, very urgent situation that is being swept under the rug. These people should be taken to court and charged with crimes against humanity for this one, single issue of future climate degredation and their attempts to confuse, obscure, and delay mitigation of this world threatening, and life-on-Earth-threatening situation, alone.
Don Beck
=================================
1) http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article2110651.ece
2) http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/jan/19/frontpagenews.climatechange
3) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_article_id=455735&in_page_id=1965
This link is not functioning. To retrieve this article you must enter "Ocean less effective at absorbing climate change gases"
into google's search engine.
4) http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7008907686
5) http://www.environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,2004718,00.html
6) http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2007/05/86525.html
7) http://www.mbeconetwork.org/newsitem.php?news=2
8) http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/08/13/008.html
9) http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article3115537.ece
10) http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article2211568.ece
This link is not functioning. To retrieve this article you must enter "Carbon dioxide rate
is at highest level for 650,000 years" into the Independent's search engine.
11) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2719627.ece
12) http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Melting_Glaciers_Show_Climate_Change_Speeding_Up_999.html
13) http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ji-VBJ-GzgzCFcdspzNBU5kKAB3Q
14) http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Arctic_Region_As_Global_Warming_Barometer_999.html
15) http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2007/04/04/3916309-cp.html
16) http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2007/arctic_minimum.html
17) http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article2116874.ece
18) http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/07/no-link-between.html
19) http://ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/interference/interference-at-the-epa.html
20) Hansen testimony before Congress, Mar. '07,
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=23642
**************
Oceans
2) Jan. '07 - Earth is Losing its Ability to Absorb CO2?
3) May '07 - ... (the Southern Oceans) are beginning to release the CO2 they have stored.
4) Oct. '07 - ...the ability of (the Atlantic) ocean to absorb CO2 has dropped by half....
5) Feb. '07 - World's sea levels are rising at an accelerating rate. Sea levels are rising even faster than scientists predicted.
6) May '07 - 30% reduction in the warm currents that carry water north from the Gulf Stream.
**************
Other Positive Feedbacks
7) Mar. '07 - Tundra Disappearing At Rapid Rate. "It's like it waited until conditions were just right and then it decided to get up and run, not just walk.".....This sets up a "positive feedback," the same process that is associated with the rapidly decaying Arctic ice cap.
8) Aug. '07 - Arctic lakes are beginning to release methane and CO2. A global tragedy of monumental proportions is unfolding at the top of the world...
9) Nov. '07 - The increase in forest fires in the boreal forests have weakened one of the earth's greatest terrestrial sinks of carbon dioxide.
**************
CO2
10) Feb. '07 - Carbon dioxide rate is at highest level for 650,000 years.
11) Oct. '07 - New CO2 evidence means climate change predictions are 'too optimistic' Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are increasing much faster.... than scientists have predicted....
**************
Glaciers
12) Jan. '07 - Glaciers (water supply) Melting 6 X Faster Than '80s.........the change "is happening so extremely fast, much much faster than we have seen in thousands and thousands of years" says Rasmus Hansson of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
13) Sept. '07 - Glaciers are moving much faster towards the sea because of previously unknown factors. (Greenland ice is) advancing toward the sea at seven miles per year, compared with three and a half miles before.
**************
Polar Ice
14) Jan. '07 - The Pace of Arctic Global Warming is Staggering. "....the change "is happening so extremely fast, much much faster than we have seen in thousands and thousands of years. "Climate change in the Arctic is not coming. It is here,"
15) April '07 - .... the (sea ice) that we've observed is actually declining much faster than the models have shown.
16) Sept. '07 - 'Remarkable' Drop in Arctic Sea Ice Raises Questions
**************
17) Jan. '07 - Reduce CO2 in Ten Years, or Climate Will be Out-of-Control. 'If we fail to act, we will end up with a different planet'
18) July '07 - No Link Between Cosmic Rays and Global Warming
*************
These statements from climatologists and researchers are very alarming, indeed. They make us wonder what is going to happen in the near future, let alone a century or two from now.
But guess what. These statements and the reports they are from were NEVER REPORTED by a U.S. Media outlet. They all came from foreign media or government sources.
If you had set 'google alerts' (very simple) for "climate change" and "global warming", these worldwide reports would have been emailed to you daily. But very few people are paying that close of attention to what is being discovered by climate researchers around the world. We all hope that the climate is not going to drastically change. We all want to believe the skeptics (who have, by the way, been shown to be closely connected to the whims and funding of the energy giants such as ExxonMobile).
When you realize that, actually, the US media has WITH-HELD all of these reports form us, and the information there-in, then you will be able to see that the cry of 'liberal media alarmism' is simply another example of the well-honed tactic of the right wing to 'project' what they are guilty of, onto their opponents, just as they have been doing with disgusting success for many years now on many issues. The so-called liberal media is, in fact, quite conservative and not nearly 'informative' enough.
SOME EXAMPLES OF 'PROJECTION'
-The Republicans calling Senator John Kerry a flip-flopper -- after this administration's reversal of all environmental campaign promises,
-The 'swift-boating' and labeling of Senator Kerry as un-patriotic (an actual honored war hero) -- for a clearly AWOL Reserve Air force pilot,
-Dissenters of the government's foreign policy are said to be un-patriotic -- as this administration has systematically shredded the Constitution and the Bill of Rights with an unprecidented number of 'signing statements', executive orders, and the Patriot Acts l and ll,
People who have been paying attention to the political scene have noticed this hypocritical tactic time and time again, in an attempt to confuse those who are NOT paying close attention. Well, it has been used with great success in the area of climate science also, by railing against the Main Stream Media about their 'liberal tendencies' while, in fact, the Main Stream Media has been keeping the U.S. Public ignorant of the current state of climate science for years.
THEN THERE ARE THE POLITICIANS
Every administration is able to appoint new heads of office to every government regulatory commission. They are expected to find the most knowledgeable people available, and they generally have ..... until this administration. The Bush administration has time, and time again, taken people from the industries that they are supposed to regulate, and given them the highest spots in the U.S. Government.
Be it the Forestry Service, the mining industry, the banking industry, the EPA - the list goes on, and it is OUTRAGEOUS. The conflicts of interest in this administration are simply criminal. The political appointees have wreaked havoc on all fronts and few citizens aware of this immense problem.
The Union of Concerned Scientists recently reported that 889 scientists at the EPA had personally experienced at least one incident of political interference in the past five years. The UCS said their survey "shows an agency under siege from political pressures. On numerous issues......political appointees of the George W. Bush administration have edited scientific documents, manipulated scientific assessments, and generally sought to undermine the science behind dozens of EPA regulations."(19)
The chief U.S. Climatologist Dr. James Hansen testified to Congress about the unethical 'editing' by political appointees of scientific research saying "There remains a vast gap between what is understood about global warming, by the relevant scientific community, and what is known about global warming by those who need to know, the public and policy-makers."(20)
He also stated "The effect of leaving the public confused about the reality of human-caused climate change is to delay actions needed to put the nation and the world on an energy pathway that would preserve creation...."
Two very important things there. 1) The delay is in order to make unfettered, astronomical profits by the energy giants before the true nature of the changing climate is known by the public because the energy giants know that the climate is a very slow moving force of nature and the public is not aware of its decadal inertia; 2) Dr. Hansen is telling us that 'creation' is at risk.
WHY ARE THEY GETTING AWAY WITH IT?
People ask "Why is our Congress cowing to this administration and the blatant corruption?"
We only need to remember the anthrax attacks that occurred just weeks after 9/11. Letters containing the most lethal strain of anthrax ever developed were sent to two members of Congress who were holding up the passage of the "Patriot Act" (Daschle and Leahey), all three major U.S. news agencies, and a few other news organizations, killing five people and infecting 17 others. The FBI investigation is still pending, but they have disclosed that the strain of anthrax came from a U.S. Weapons Laboratory in Maryland.
This was not a death threat.......it was attempted murder! That put a distinct chill on our Congresspeople and investigative journalists.
THE ENERGY GIANT'S DIS-INFORMATION CAMPAIGN
Then there is the multi-million dollar funding of the 'skeptics' who continue to infer that the climate has changed many times in the past without the impetus of human influence, and refuse to accept that human influence could ever have any affect on the climate....... in the face of a mountain of scientific evidence to the contrary.
For an incredibly informative look at the skeptics and their tactics please view this free on-line video by the Univ. of California at San Diego's History Professor Naomi Oreskee as she exposes in great depth the anti-environmental icons who, by the way, were once in the hands of the Tobacco Industry (and most likely because of threats to their lives from a mafia-like group of corporate criminals):
The American Denial of Global Warming, 12/12/07, free on-line, 58 min.
http://www.uctv.tv/search-details.asp?showID=13459 This video will open your eyes to the extent of corporate greed and power....... if the movie "The Insider" did not. Anyone who has seen the movie/documentary "The Insider" will understand just how far the corporations have digressed into a mafia mentality to protect themselves from litigation and public furor in order to keep the gusher of cash and profits flowing.
IMPORTANT POINT
It is important to remember that, because of a deadline of July 2006, the IPCC Report dis-allowed every one of these scientific studies listed above. That means that the report, which is meant to inform government leaders around the world to the urgency of taking action on CO2 emissions, is woefully out-of-date.
It also means that the regulations and policies adopted by governments will be based on incomplete and incorrect information, and will not be sufficient to handle the real problems ahead.
So it is not only the American Public who are unaware of the seriousness of the situation, it is also the people who have the power to do what is necessary to reduce the emissions and slow the climate change. That is an alarming situation in itself.
THIS IS A 'HORRIBLE' SITUATION
The corporate media is holding back the current science from the Am. Public; the U.S. government is watering down and filtering the current science that is allowed to be given to the Am. Public; a small group of skeptics are spweing out false statements and dis-information that gets the same coverage (until just recently) as the watered down science; and governments around the world are being informed about the climate situation by an outdated and under-estimating report with predictions that are far too rosy.
This is worse than any sci-fi movie I have ever seen.........because it is actually happening right now, and there is no quick cure in sight, of either informing the public, nor of slowing the degradation to the climate by fossil fuels. This is actually beyond horrible!
Please tell everyone you can about the above reports and the fact that they are being kept from us by a huge system of energy-giant funded and organized experts at keeping the public mis-informed about a very, very urgent situation that is being swept under the rug. These people should be taken to court and charged with crimes against humanity for this one, single issue of future climate degredation and their attempts to confuse, obscure, and delay mitigation of this world threatening, and life-on-Earth-threatening situation, alone.
Don Beck
=================================
1)
http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article2110651.ece 2)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/jan/19/frontpagenews.climatechange 3)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_article_id=455735&in_page_id=1965 This link is not functioning. To retrieve this article you must enter "Ocean less effective at absorbing climate change gases"
into google's search engine.
4)
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7008907686 5)
http://www.environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,2004718,00.html 6)
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2007/05/86525.html 7)
http://www.mbeconetwork.org/newsitem.php?news=2 8)
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/08/13/008.html 9)
http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article3115537.ece 10)
http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article2211568.ece This link is not functioning. To retrieve this article you must enter "Carbon dioxide rate
is at highest level for 650,000 years" into the Independent's search engine.
11)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2719627.ece 12)
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Melting_Glaciers_Show_Climate_Change_Speeding_Up_999.html 13)
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ji-VBJ-GzgzCFcdspzNBU5kKAB3Q 14)
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Arctic_Region_As_Global_Warming_Barometer_999.html 15)
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2007/04/04/3916309-cp.html 16)
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2007/arctic_minimum.html 17)
http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article2116874.ece 18)
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/07/no-link-between.html 19)
http://ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/interference/interference-at-the-epa.html 20) Hansen testimony before Congress, Mar. '07,
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=23642
Don Beck
Comments
Display the following 2 comments