Sylvia S Tognetti rounds up commentary on Broad's hit piece and puts it an a wider context:
The reason Al Gore has become a polarizing figure is not for any of the reasons given by Broad, who makes a crude attempt to paint him as an alarmist, but because of the kind of media invented tales found in the article itself, which is among the most irresponsible pieces of journalism I have seen. Lest Broad be unfairly singled out at what is considered "the newspaper of record" let us not forget that this report is "sadly typical of the work the New York Times has done on Gore for the past dozen years" and why, as Bob Somerby asks, "does a dimwit sit in the White House:"
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Some guy named Mulshine, who is apparently an ancient journalist (remember: generation is mindset, not age), penned one of those idiotic pieces for Wall Street Journal, willingly exposing his out-datedness and blindness to the world - read it yourself and chuckle: All I Wanted for Christmas Was a…
...and frankly, I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner.
Let me be clear: I have seen An Inconvenient Truth, and I found it almost entirely accurate. Gore has done a tremendous job of drawing attention to this issue and he gets the science right by and large. But my question as a point of strategy…
You know I have been following the "death of newspapers" debate, as well as "bloggers vs. journalists" debate, and "do we need science reporters" debate for a long time now. What I have found - and it is frustrating to watch - is that different people use different definitions for the same set of…
It's simple--as long as one doesn't criticize the press corps from the left (doing it from the right is ok and accepted--you get to be the house liberal. Bob Somerby:
For starters: We of course have no way of knowing why the Post has dumped Dan Froomkin. Let's repeat that: We simply don't know.…
Tognetti's analysis gets at the heart of the problem. Even though I was never a big fan of Gore, what the media has done is use this man as a staging ground for all the worst impulses in journalists.
Journalists need to constantly find something new to report about, thus the need for constant simplistic tales about Gore. I'm not defending the man, but let's be honest here. If there's one thing you can say about Gore it's that he is not the most dynamic person. So because he's fairly bland, the media needs to create exciting stories about him.
Then there's every journalist's need to distance himself from the possible label of "liberal." And this is really where Broad's turd of an article falls into place. By creating Gore as the fall man, Broad lets the whole world know that he is "firmly in the middle" on climate change.
The only problem for Broad is that he had to create this fantasy group of global warming experts, by turning people like Easterbrook into a knowledgeable expert; morphing blogger Kevin Vranes into a climatologist; and turning conservative favorite Roger Pielke Jr. into a disinterested pundit with no ties to the Cato Institute or the Republican party.
http://republicans.oversight.house.gov/hearings/Testimony.aspx?TID=16
It's only when you know the details that it all looks so ridiculous.
Anybody that seriously preaches a sea level rise in the near future of six meters is an alarmist.
"Anybody that seriously preaches a sea level rise in the near future of six meters is an alarmist."
Yes, but who would that be, exactly?
Hans, you're a real student of stupid. From a press release on a study released last year in Science.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-03/uoa-pmm031506.php
"This is a real eye-opener set of results," said study co-author Jonathan T. Overpeck of The University of Arizona in Tucson. "The last time the Arctic was significantly warmer than present day, the Greenland Ice Sheet melted back the equivalent of two to three meters (about six to ten feet) of sea level."
Contrary to what was previously believed, the research suggests the Antarctic ice sheet also melted substantially, contributing another six to 10 feet (two to three meters) of sea level rise. The new findings will be published in the March 24 issue of Science.
Tim, your title might be misconstrued as to imply something about the fair lady in the video below. You better be careful about that :)
Interesting that the (dupont) advert for strong glass runs exactly contrary to standard advice to open doors and windows to stop your roof getting blown off (to reduce the pressure difference).
So much for "science" :-)
OK, so my first attempt at googling found only repetition of an urban myth :-) My bad.
Eli just tagged Roger Pielke Jr.
http://rabett.blogspot.com/2007/03/dear-john.html
It's a pretty merciless analysis of the Republicans favorite little boy on climate change.
Actually it was in answer to John Fleck the beginning of an anlysis about how Roger is used by the denialists. But, to Hans' point, Bob Somerby pretty well has that tagged.
In the Wall St. Journal energy blog today, the denialist poster child and President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, got thoroughly rubbished for spouting of bunch of the usual nonsense ("it's just natural variation, we'll go broke trying to do anything, and we want to send everyone in Africa down our development path, carbon dioxide emissions included.)
Tim--know of any studies/models on the probability of Greenland and Antarctica melting?
what the media has done is use this man as a staging ground for all the worst impulses in journalists.
Maybe this is why?
Always go with the more mundane reason.
Great blog, I might stick around.
Redbeard,
The Antarctic and Greenland icecaps are complex and poorly understood.
Greenland has been melting very rapidly for the last couple of years, everyone is hoping this is a one-off short-term fluctuation because the alternative is extremely frightening.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn9717
"The world's second largest ice cap may be melting three times faster than indicated by previous measurements, according to newly released gravity data collected by satellites.
The Greenland Ice Sheet shrank at a rate of about 239 cubic kilometres per year from April 2002 to November 2005, a team from the University of Texas at Austin, US, found. In the last 18 months of the measurements, ice melting has appeared to accelerate, particularly in southeastern Greenland."
As someone else we know, Gore is a character right out of a Greek myth. Like Cassandra he is doomed to always being right and his knowledge always being ignored. Were Eli to engage in framing science policy he would paint that picture.
"why, as Bob Somerby asks, "does a dimwit sit in the White House:"
The problem is not so much the dimwit in the White House, it's the tens of millions of dimwits who put Bush in the White House.
Indeed, the fact that he sits on top of the World is pretty good proof that Bush is not as dimwitted as some believe.
"Bush is not as dimwitted as some believe"
He's pretty good at some things.
Yeah, and if you want to know what that might be, just take a look at all the people (including Americans) who have died since he became President.
If you are an American (or Brit) and believe you are not an idiot, take Scott Ritter's quiz:
"Explain the relationship between the Iraqi cities of Karbala and Baghdad as they impact the coexistence of Iraq's Shiite and Sunni populations."
When Gore was presenting his views to a Committee of the Senate, chaired until the recent election upset by Republican Senator Inhofe(Oklahoma) I noticed that in one of his interruptions of Gore, Inhofe started to refer to a news article about Oklahoma. Then he trailed off in a mumble. I wondered if perhaps what he had picked up off his desk did not help him attack Gore, so I checked recent news on the weather in Oklahoma:
"Oklahoma City, AP, March 23 Oklahoma set a recod for the hottest first six months of a year
from January through June, making 2006 the warmest start to any year since climate recods began in 1895."
The piece also described "This summer's blistering heat and dry coditions are sucking the water out of the barren soil, shriveling crops and draining the pocketbooks of farmers and ranchers."
The article also featured the views of the State climatologist.
Of course I have no idea what piece of news, exactly, that the Senator was lookng at, But this one sure is relevant, it is timely, it is Oklahoma, and he is supposed to give a hoot,at least about that place. Still, a year does not a climate make, and the Senator would never quote such a record to argue there is climate warming, if he held that view, now would he?