Lawrence Solomon, Financial Post;
More than six months ago, I began writing this series, The Deniers. When I began, I accepted the prevailing view that scientists overwhelmingly believe that climate change threatens the planet. I doubted only claims that the dissenters were either kooks on the margins of science or sell-outs in the pockets of the oil companies.My series set out to profile the dissenters -- those who deny that the science is settled on climate change -- and to have their views heard. To demonstrate that dissent is credible, I chose high-ranking scientists at the world's premier scientific establishments. I considered stopping after writing six profiles, thinking I had made my point, but continued the series due to feedback from readers. I next planned to stop writing after 10 profiles, then 12, but the feedback increased. Now, after profiling more than 20 deniers, I do not know when I will stop -- the list of distinguished scientists who question the IPCC grows daily, as does the number of emails I receive, many from scientists who express gratitude for my series.
Of course, none of this is news unless you limit your media consumption to the rock hard stupid coverage provided by CTV[1][2] which - as much as it pains me to say this - is inferior to even the propoganda laden fare provided by the CBC.
Footnotes:
[1] CTV National News - "Canada's #1 source for Florida weather."
[2] David Akin - "Climate reporting for the under 7 set". Please, Mr. Akin - science is not your forte. Statements like "even if we reduced C02 levels to zero, temperatures would continue to rise for the next 100 years" (from an on-air report last month) are an insult to the intelligence of viewers - and raise serious questions about your own.
Didn't take long for Akin to dumb down. Prime GG material after the obligatory Mother CBC indoctrination. Just another maroon.
Akin is unfathomable on this topic. Either he is completely clueless when it comes to basic science (in which case, someone else should be assigned the beat) or he's intentionally misleading the viewers. In which case, he ought to look himself in the mirror and ask if a different occupation might be a better fit.
"Of course, none of this is news unless you limit your media consumption to the rock hard stupid coverage provided by CTV[1][2] which - as much as it pains me to say this - is inferior to even the propoganda laden fare provided by the CBC."
Another "amen" to that from the choir sister Kate
and now something to counter the ''rock hard stupid coverage'' http://www.ewire.com/display.cfm/Wire_ID/3967 some voices of reason to be heard amidst the howlings of fools.
Um - if we reduced Co2 levels to zero, everything would forget to breathe and die.
But thanks for playing!
Global warming is still a lie and fruad being spread by a bunch of unscruplous persons wanting to control our lives
Fraud or not, the second last great holdout on Kyoto is about to fall ... Howard of Australia is preparing a Carbon Trading plan ... he's trailing in the polls, and like Mr. Harper, is buckling to the pressure. Instead of showing leadership on the issue (just like Harper), getting elected is more important.
I tip my hat to Vaclav Klaus, the Czech PM who has gone against all of the EU on Climate Change and continues to proclaim Global Warming a fraud. He's one of the last few out their among the politicians doing it. And, he is wildly popular in the Czech Republic as a result.
Perhaps Mr. Howard and Harper could learn a thing or two from him.
Akin is just another one of the gang of freaking media drones who are "intentionally misleading". I don't give them much credit for being on top of what they report on, it's not important to their job, their jobs entail doing whatever it takes to fulfill the Leftist agenda. I've been observing this Akin dude for some time now and he's been on a downward spiral.
It appears as though CTV is trying to outdo CBC on the propaganda scale as well. All one needs to do is look at the likes of Question period with Giggles Taber and side kick Craigie Oliver.
Unless Harper gets booted out there is no chance in hell any media people will get the GG post, it'll go to someone worthy of the post, some loyal Canadian who has contributed to the Country.
But it is a lie with a very profound underpinning. If they can convince everybody that it is true, the big industry players will reap billions.
Incandescent bulbs are too inefficient they say, but wait, GE has the answer, high effeiciency flourescent bulbs brimming with mercury that will, at the end of their life cycle, have to be treated as hazardous waste. Break one in your house and you have to call in a hazmat team.
Gas and coal fired power plants emmit CO2, hydroelectric plants are mean to fish. Our saviuors at GE will provide us with windmills and solar cells. The coal fired plant operators are begging for carbon trading, then they will modernize, make their plants more efficient and not only get paid by governments, but also have gobs of credits to sell. Enron was the king of carbon credit demands, too bad (for them) that they coldn't manage to cook the books long enough to strick pay dirt.
DuPont modernized its operations in the adipic acid production side and gained tons (literally) of carbon credits for reducing CO2 emissions. We did the right thing, now pay us for it.
Chirac said that Kyoto was a good first step towards true global governance. And who would be the governed? He and others, like Gore think that they should do the governing and th rest of us can eat cake.
That school kids are getting only one side of the debate is unethical and immoral. How are these kids supposed to develop an ability to weigh arguements, do their own research and make their own decisions? Oh, right, we don'd want that.
End of rant.
Could it have something to do with the broadcast MSM wanting to follow their dead tree brothers into irrelavance?
Smellya later CTVers.
Sorry about that, wrong thread
"Akin is unfathomable on this topic. Either he is completely clueless when it comes to basic science (in which case, someone else should be assigned the beat) or he's intentionally misleading the viewers. In which case, he ought to look himself in the mirror and ask if a different occupation might be a better fit."
A different occupation?? C'mon Kate. Socialist trough feeders know no other occupation. And you and I are paying for it!
Florida phoning....tropical storm Barry was nothing more than appreciated rain for a day and a few thunderstorms, it's been drier and cooler this spring than usual down here. What's with all of the weather hype and obsession? Before the advent of the Church of Global Warming it wouldn't have made news beyond local. I guess in a world of media addled envirno lemmings it was an event.
Penny....in Florida, and finding hilarious any hyped news coverage of this non-event.
Of the 20 "scientists" or so Solomen has profiled, its interesting to ask how many have complained about how he has misrepresented their views. So far the number is four deniers who claim they are not in fact deniers, with one (Nigel Weiss)threatening to sue for libel. And that threat drew an abject, grovelling apology out of Solomen and The Post which can still be seen above the web version of the original story.
Hmm. One in five say Solomen slandered them. What does that say for his credibility?
Of the 20 "scientists" or so Solomen has profiled, its interesting to ask how many have complained about how he has misrepresented their views. So far the number is four deniers who claim they are not in fact deniers, with one (Nigel Weiss)threatening to sue for libel. And that threat drew an abject, grovelling apology out of Solomen and The Post which can still be seen above the web version of the original story.
Hmm. One in five say Solomen slandered them. What does that say for his credibility?
Hmm. One in five say Solomen slandered them. What does that say for his credibility?
Only one is suing for libel, that would be one in twenty is saying he was slandered.
The other 3 claim Solomen pulled a Micheal Moore on them.
Hey Penny...we had a t'storm last night. OMG...are we going to get hurricanes in northern Alberta now?? LOL
We will have to watch the media keep a running count of the record number of hurricanes this year, which I am sure will exceed the record number last year, which was more or less zero.
Of course, if it doesn't, then we will hear that this abnormality is due to global warming.
What is David Akin and is it important?
jnicklin, do not be so hard on the large multi-nationals. Capitalist enterprises aim to please their customers, not kill them or otherwise jerk them around.
If the customer wants stupidity, they will sell them stupidity.
Troll Grim Reamer, you post merely demosntrates that this is a political, not scientific, issue.
Penny in Florida, .. exactly !!
The media would like many more calamities to occur. Then they could zoom (literaly) in on more people having hardships. Sell paper. That is nothing new.
The big news, in this day and age, is that the Internet and blogs allow ordinary citizens to get the real story out to the masses. We can now be truly informed.
The media is just begging for a Cat lV cane to make landfall. The more 'Gore-y' the better, in their eyes.
This "storm" only gave Florida some welcome rainfall. Too bad jurnos.
media dorks are to stupid to run their own companys so they work for peanuts and tell grandiose lies all day long or run with whatever b.s. handed to them from every friends of diddly squat or pembina institute types as gospel truth. They really are to be pittied as the rest of us pull down big bucks contributing something to society, they get paid peanuts to try to tear down society, looks good on them, like akins and his ilk.
The media would like many more calamities to occur.
You are right on that. They would love me dead to prove their point.
Last year I rode the hype out on 6 little bottles of water, 5 candy bars and a bottle of bourbon. It was my best plan after a lot of hard thinking.
I made it through.
I would encourage david Akin to limit his CO2 output to zero.
For an hour or so would be OK
Thanks, Conrad.
While I am completely on board the good ship "Can we have real science and no Gore'isms" and agree that the media love a good disaster (saves them from having to actually think and all), I think I understand why some situations seem like saturation broadcasting to us and never enough to the reporters.
After Katrina, I grew pretty tired/immune to the unstoppable broadcasting of the damage and suffering. Everyone has a limit I guess. I figured that the prime reason for the 24 hour coverage was the ratings, and for the part of the editors and owners I am sure it was. After seeing Biloxi first hand, three weeks after the storm, I think I understand the motivation of at least some of the reporters. No matter what they showed, no matter what story they told and no matter how they presented it, they just could NOT do it justice. There is no way to accurately present a 300 foot long, 6 story barge casino sitting over a kilometre inland on top of a car dealership. No way to present 10s of kilometres of beach side property that looks like pristine beach, but was 10s of kilometres of businesses a few weeks earlier. Utterly gone, no trace. I think that for some of the reporters it was a case of trying to do the impossible of describing what really happened there.
I think if they had used the phrase a guy I know used they might have been able to get the point across to the rest of us. "It's a war zone, the only thing missing are the craters from the bombs".
Wimpy Canadian: Ok, so I was a little hard on the multinationals and you're right, people have a right to be as stupid as they choose to be and have products aimed at that stupidity.
"even if we reduced C02 levels to zero, temperatures would continue to rise for the next 100 years"
This is the case. Poorly phrased but true.
He would have been more clear if he had said "even if we reduced C02 emission levels to zero". The temperature rise would obviously be much smaller if we stopped adding CO2 to the atmosphere than if we continue to increase the rate of emissions but he's not wrong.
Full stop.
It is not true. It was not "poorly phrased". It was flat out inaccurate information. When reporting on matters of science and technology it is imperative that information be delivered precisely and accurately.
If Akin made a slip of the tongue, then why didn't he recognize and do another take? Or correct himself immediately?
It was a taped segment with Lloyd Robertson - not something that slipped out in a live interview with a third party.
And something else is deeply troubling about the way this issue is reported. Journalists like Akin, who are utterly unqualified, often make declarations about climate change from the authority position - they do not cite a named source for quotes such as "if we do not reduce...", they simply declare it as a statement of fact. They often rely on "a majority of scientists", and on those occasions when they do cite a named source, they won't reveal (as in the case of one IPCC report on species loss) that the two scientists named and quoted across the media were a psychologist and an ornothologist.
Surely they can google? Or are they afraid to?
"I tip my hat to Vaclav Klaus, the Czech PM who has gone against all of the EU on Climate Change and continues to proclaim Global Warming a fraud. He's one of the last few out their among the politicians doing it. And, he is wildly popular in the Czech Republic as a result.
Perhaps Mr. Howard and Harper could learn a thing or two from him."
They must be a lot smarter in the Czech Republic than they are here.
KP
Has anyone noticed it is the Kyoto cultists who are trying to keep the denier thing going. Harper has accepted the science, that something will be done. When it is clear he will outflank left on environment, even Kyoto, then "but he is denier" crap comes out. Hey, Dionsky is even on record as saying Kyoto won't work. He and his Grit buddies did nothing. Notice how apparently Harper shouldn't bring up past. How convenient for thieving, lying Liberals who did nothing on Kyoto.
Kate, 4;01 PM -- Bingo !!
Too many of todays jurnos are nothing more than snake-oil-salespersons on a soap box(pail). Some of them are on a $Billion taxpayer funded soap box. A powerful(wrongly) one.
TV interviews with these loosers are set up with misleading props such as;
"Expert", "Consultant", "Leading", "professor", "Well Known", "Respected".
And then they introduce a;
"Flunky", "Fanatic", "Looser", "Professional Protestor", "Anarchists", "Out-of-his-field"
Pathetic. And criminal to the nth degree.