ABC: Accept Global Warming or Violate 'Moral Imperative'
By Mark Finkelstein | November 18, 2007 | 10:23
If you don't buy into a Goresque view of global warming, you're not just wrong -- you're immoral. That was ABC's implication this morning.
The notion came from Good Morning America co-anchor Bill Weir at the end of his interview of Jim Gooch. The Dem state representative from Kentucky recently had the audacity to hold hearings with witnesses who cast doubt on global warming theories.
View video here.
You knew where GMA was headed by the set-up segment that preceded the interview. It was one long alarmist scare, with everything from the typhoon in Bangladesh to the wildfires in California being blamed on global warming. A scientist was shown advocating "forceful" government action to avoid disaster.
Then it was on to Gooch. Despite his flamboyant sartorial style, the state legislator came across as level-headed and well-informed. He didn't deny that there's been global warming, and even acknowledged that man has had an effect. But he warned that some of the legislative fixes being proposed could be disastrous, pointing out that the Chamber of Commerce has stated that the Lieberman-Warner bill could destroy 3.4 million American jobs and cost our economy $6 trillion.
That did nothing to assuage Weir's fury.
Pet Peeve Alert: In support of it's global alarmist theory, GMA aired not one but two clips, including this one, of calving glaciers. There's only one problem. Calving is a normal phenomenon which far from being evidence of global warming is the result of the growth of glaciers, not their shrinking. ARGH!
The notion came from Good Morning America co-anchor Bill Weir at the end of his interview of Jim Gooch. The Dem state representative from Kentucky recently had the audacity to hold hearings with witnesses who cast doubt on global warming theories.View video here.
You knew where GMA was headed by the set-up segment that preceded the interview. It was one long alarmist scare, with everything from the typhoon in Bangladesh to the wildfires in California being blamed on global warming. A scientist was shown advocating "forceful" government action to avoid disaster.
Then it was on to Gooch. Despite his flamboyant sartorial style, the state legislator came across as level-headed and well-informed. He didn't deny that there's been global warming, and even acknowledged that man has had an effect. But he warned that some of the legislative fixes being proposed could be disastrous, pointing out that the Chamber of Commerce has stated that the Lieberman-Warner bill could destroy 3.4 million American jobs and cost our economy $6 trillion.
That did nothing to assuage Weir's fury.
BILL WEIR [voice rising]: But according to all these scientists, the more hand-wringing we do, the more we dither on this, the worse it's going to get. And what if you're wrong? What if this in fact is a global catastrophe? Isn't it a moral imperative as a public servant to err on the side of planetary survival?That would appear to make people who don't accept Weir's moral imperative . . . immoral.
Pet Peeve Alert: In support of it's global alarmist theory, GMA aired not one but two clips, including this one, of calving glaciers. There's only one problem. Calving is a normal phenomenon which far from being evidence of global warming is the result of the growth of glaciers, not their shrinking. ARGH!
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