On Thursday, ABC News took global warming hysteria to a new level.
After Chris Cuomo and Bob Woodruff previewed an upcoming environmental scare piece on "Good Morning America" as previously reported by my colleague Scott Whitlock, an article was posted at the network's website asking (emphasis added throughout):
Are we living in the last century of our civilization? Is it possible that all of our technology, knowledge and wealth cannot save us from ourselves? Could our society actually be heading towards collapse?
Following this irresponsibly alarmist opening paragraph, the article continued:
This September, in Earth 2100, a dramatic ABC News 2-hour broadcast, the greatest minds across the globe will join together in a countdown to the year 2100 to tell us what we must do to survive the next century … And what may happen if we don't.
As Whitlock transcribed for your review Thursday, here were some of the key moments of hysteria on that morning's "GMA" (video available here):
CHRIS CUOMO (ABC NEWS) (Off-camera) All right, thank you, Sam. Now we will have a dramatic preview for you of an unprecedented ABC News event called earth 2100. We're asking you to help create a story that has yet to unfold. What our world will look like in 100 years if we don't save our troubled planet. Your reports will actually help form the backbone of a two-hour special airing this fall. ABC's Bob Woodruff will be the host, he joins us now, pleasure, Bob.
GRAPHICS: EARTH 2100
BOB WOODRUFF (ABC NEWS) (Off-camera) You too Chris. You know, this show is a countdown through the next century and shows what scientists say might very well happen if we do not change our current path. As part of the show today we are launching an interactive web game, which puts participants in the future and asks them to report back about what it is like to live in this future world. The first stop is the year 2015.
CLIP FROM "EARTH 2015"
UNIDENTIFIED MALE #1: The public is sleepwalking into the future. You know, sort of going through the motions of daily life and really not paying attention.
JAMES HANSEN (NASA/AL GORE SCIENCE ADVISOR): We can see what the prospects are and we can see that we could solve the problem but we're not doing it.
[Graphic: Welcome to 2015]
PETER GLEICK (SCIENTIST/PACIFIC INSTITUTE): In 2015, we've still failed to address the climate problem.
JOHN HOLDREN (PROFESSOR/HARVARD UNIVERSITY): We're going to see more floods, more droughts, more wildfires.
UNIDENTIFIED "REPORTER:" Flames cover hundreds of square miles.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: We expect more intense hurricanes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE #5: Well, how warm is it going to get? How much will sea level rise? We don't know really know where the end is.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE #2: Temperatures have hit dangerous levels.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE #3: Agriculture production is dropping because temperatures are rising.
HEIDI CULLEN (WEATHER CHANNEL/CLIMATE CHANGE EXPERT): There's about one billion people who are malnourished. That number just continually grows.
Interesting how only alarmists are being used as "experts." As is typical, it doesn't appear that ABC is at all interested in offering some balance to this program by getting contrary views from scientists who don't buy into the hysteria.
Maybe more important, as you can see, actual science is likely to be irrelevant in this scare piece. After all, as the current warming phase appears to have peaked in 1998, and the sun's inactivity is presaging continued cooling until solar cycle 24 begins, such cataclysmic predictions for the next seven years are completely without foundation.
This is compounded by a recent report from NASA which found that "while the La Niña was weakening, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation—a larger-scale, slower-cycling ocean pattern—had shifted to its cool phase." The study suggested that this could produce cooler ocean temperatures for the next 20 to 30 years, a concept clearly lost on "Earth 2001" producers and contributors.
And, as is typical of such alarmists, predictions of a global warming related increase in hurricanes despite evidence to the contrary are another indication of just how divorced from actual science this program will be.
Will this madness ever stop?
—Noel Sheppard is the Associate Editor of NewsBusters. Follow him at Facebook and Twitter.
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Comments Policy
They did the same thing
June 13, 2008 - 09:53 ET by kgThey did the same thing with the nuclear holocaust back in the early 80's all just to get people in an uproar.
"Forget change, I want improvement!"
Kooks!
June 13, 2008 - 09:57 ET by iveseenitallEven the media used to call these people kooks and charlatans. Now the media ARE the kooks and charlatans. Sad.
Who is Barry Sotero?
NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"
Can we say, Deja vu?
June 13, 2008 - 10:12 ET by ontheright...does anyone remember the much ballyhoed Y2k debacle? This has the same "earmarks", but the brunt of this unfounded and criminal ruse will be paid by the USA and its hard working, tax paying (legal) citizens. What a shame that the snake oil salesmen are still able dupe the general public. It is criminal.
Y2.09K
June 13, 2008 - 10:30 ET by SickofLibsRight OTR. At least Y2K had a finite end to the story. Everyone on the planet knew to the second when the great meltdown would occur.
I'm way more worried about Y2.09K.
Y2K was a legitimate problem
June 13, 2008 - 20:15 ET by PopularTech...for say Nuclear Reactors, just not the average home user.
Computer problems hit three nuclear plants in Japan
Software updates prevented many more potential problems.
The Anti 'Man-Made' Global Warming Resource
A Virulent Threat to Freedom
June 13, 2008 - 10:18 ET by allanfI think ABC fails to recognize a force more destructive than "global warming". It is liberalism. If anything tears apart the Untied States it will be liberalism. This virulent disease puts us all at risk.
"For a wind speed of 10mph,
June 13, 2008 - 20:29 ET by Indiana Joe"For a wind speed of 10mph, it would take 1000 commercial wind turbines to replace a 40Mw plant."
And 40 Mw is dinky! We have a co-gen facility at our steel mill that is capable of 160 Mw. And we still have to buy power from the grid.
I wonder if the phenomena of
June 13, 2008 - 09:56 ET by KillgraveI wonder if the phenomena of doomsday cultism is somehow hard-wired in us, since it keeps popping up. Throughout history there have been lunatic fringes that stridently asserted that all of mankind was coming to a bad end.
I'm guessing it has something to do with projected self-hatred. Hatred towards oneself gets projected to humanity as a whole, and the destruction of it becomes a sick fantasy.
it's the Baby Boomers, that's all
June 13, 2008 - 13:55 ET by wizardjrThe Baby Boom Generation is looking for relevance because when they look in the mirror they see the most irrelevant generation in American history looking back. In their youth they took the cowards way out (as a group) during the Viet Nam war. When they weren't busy showing their yellow stripe they were doing such worldly important things as smoking grass and singing along with Pete Seeger or Phony Joanie. Then they discovered the BMW, Armani suits, and Upper West Side morality. So they sat around drinking wine they didn't like, smelling their own flatulence, and impressing us with their superior intellects while the rest of the country went about actually producing something useful. Now they look in the rearview mirror and see emptiness and long for Relevance. Saving the planet is the vehicle in their wine and drug sodden minds. If they can only save the planet they'll be Remembered. God save us all.
...that was
June 13, 2008 - 14:37 ET by Killgrave...that was beautiful...
It's a broad brush, but I'll slap it as well. I can't stand the Boomers, particularly when it comes to Social Security. As we speak, these folks are in front of the buffet line, loading their plate mile-high, and demanding another plate. Meanwhile, saps like me are in the back, paying ever more money for the privilege of standing in line, and hoping that there might be a dinner roll left up there whenever/ifever it comes my turn.
Freak'n boomers... don't get me started.
The Worst Generation
June 13, 2008 - 15:02 ET by Tom PaineAs a Baby Boomer myself, I must reluctantly agree that many of the cohorts of my generation have been among the worst our country has produced. Our parents who lived through the Depression wanted to make things better for us. They sacrificed for us to have a good life and we repaid them by arrogantly rejecting the things they tried to teach us.
We ran up debt to live the same lifestyle it took them a lifetime to achieve. We indulged and spoiled our children making them selfish and self-centered with no sense of duty or responsibility to anything other than their own gratification. We took every drug known to man and now get upset over preservatives in potato chips. Finally, thanks to a baby boomer ex-president, we now have young people who believe oral sex isn't really sex.
We took everything and contributed nothing. I hope our kids can correct our mistakes.
its not the whole story, though
June 13, 2008 - 17:42 ET by wizardjrThere are many 'good' Baby Boomers that did good and great things. When I was in the military there were many brave and valorous Boomers serving. It's just that these people were the exceptions that proved the rule I'm sorry to say.
Agreed
June 14, 2008 - 19:03 ET by Tom PaineI like to think that I overcame the hedonism of my generation and I know others who did as well. It is sad however that my generation will forever be known by the self indulgent hippies who never grew up .
Noel, I won't be alarmed at
June 13, 2008 - 09:59 ET by taterNoel, they can't scare me with all about the catastrophic weather predictions they are making...heck I'm a weatherman and I tell people straight up after 3 days it's a crapshoot as far as predicting. However with those crazies in Congress plus the fact there are many people out there thinking it's the big bad Republicans causing high gas and food prices and continue to elect Democrats...it wouldn't surprise me to see 9 dollar gas or 13 dollar milk if we don't get some (hate to use the Obama word) change.
www.theholyrosary.org
"There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we can not resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary." -Sister Lucia
Holy Cow!
June 13, 2008 - 10:00 ET by okiehawk44I read this in total amazement.
I am almost dumbstruck trying to get my mind around the ideas promulgated by these people. What is there in their new belief system fostered by Al Gore et al that allows them to even get up every day? Why not just kill your family and then yourself?
I agree with them that there is a "perfect storm" brewing, but it concerns liberals and their unbelievably dark visions of the world's future.
They were all so correct in their predictions 20 years ago
June 13, 2008 - 10:03 ET by c5thenWhy on earth should we put any stock in their current predictions? Where are the flying cars and everyone running around in monochrome jumpsuites? Where are the automated houses? Where is the automated public transit system?
The day that "politician" became a career choice is the day we started losing the Republic. Let's get it back! Alan Keyes '08.
Also
June 13, 2008 - 15:05 ET by Tom PaineWhere is my personal jet pack????
Unless someone is
June 13, 2008 - 10:09 ET by taterUnless someone is predicting based on what God is telling them...nobody can predict the future. All they are doing is taking the current worries now...and making them 10 times worse in the future to make the sheep worry more. Why can't they just listen to the song "Don't worry, be happy." Heck in 2015 we could be well on our way to World War 3 with the Islamic countries just as much as the whole world could be living peacefully.
www.theholyrosary.org
"There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we can not resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary." -Sister Lucia
They can't accurately
June 13, 2008 - 10:11 ET by sublight68They can't accurately predict the weather two days out but somehow know what's going to happen 100 years from now? Please.
And I'm still waiting for someone to tell me how they figured out what the "right" climate of Earth is. How many cycles of heating and cooling had the planet gone through before humans even made the scene? Who's deciding what the temperature "should" be?
We've only been keeping reliable records for a blip of time in geological terms. How can you judge billions of years using a couple decades worth of data? That's like polling one person and extrapolating their views to represent those of everyone in the world.
The End
June 13, 2008 - 10:23 ET by iveseenitallTHE END IS COMING! GO TO THE MOUNTANS! BUILD AN ARK! Also, GIVE ALL YOUR POSSESSIONS TO AL GORE! ( before you drink the Cool Aid )
Who is Barry Sotero?
NEVEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"
Noel, there is an article
June 13, 2008 - 10:18 ET by bassndudeNoel, there is an article written by John Coleman, the guy that started the weather channel. It is very good and directly links the CO2 scam and the global warming hype and AlGore to the higher gas prices.
Save a SeAL, club a liberal!!
No apex in site for Cuomo
June 13, 2008 - 10:23 ET by SickofLibsMan, this twerp Cuomo is outdoing himself lately; he's making it onto NB every day.
Sheer hysteria is always a great headline.
May not be the 'last century of our civilization', but it's certainly shaping up to be last decade of the United States as we have known it.
But don't hold your breath waiting for THAT story.
I would like to see a 2-hour
June 13, 2008 - 10:55 ET by maggieqpublicI would like to see a 2-hour network special on the history of doomsday predictions.
The end of the world. Dates.
June 13, 2008 - 18:10 ET by danboHere are a few:
2800 BC - "Assyrian clay tablet dating to approximately 2800 BC was unearthed bearing the words "Our earth is degenerate in these latter days. There are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end. Bribery and corruption are common."
634 BC - "many Romans feared that the city would be destroyed in the 120th year of its founding. There was a myth that 12 eagles had revealed to Romulus a mystical number representing the lifetime of Rome, and some early Romans hypothesized that each eagle represented 10 years. "
389 BC Again Roman on above.
70 "The Essenes, a sect of Jewish ascetics with apocalyptic beliefs, may have seen the Jewish revolt against the Romans in 66-70 as the final end-time battle."
247 "Rome celebrated its thousandth anniversary this year. At the same time, the Roman government dramatically increased its persecution of Christians, so much so that many Christians believed that the End had arrived.
Other dates for the end of the world...
356, 380, 500, 4/6/793, 800, 806, 848, 3/25/970, and 992.
1000 (Lots of predictions for this one.)
1033, 1184, 9/23/1186, 1260, 1284, 1290, 1306, 1335, 1367, 1370, 1378, 2/14/1420, 496, 2/1/1524, 2/20/1524, 1528, 5/27/1528, 1532, 1533, 10/19/1533, 4/5/1534, 1537, 1544, and 7/22/1556.
Also 4/28/1583, at noon.
1584, 1588, 1600, 1603, 1623, 2/1/1624, 1648,1654, 1656, 1657, 1658, and 1660.
1666 (any question why?)
1673, 1688, 1689, 1694, fall 1694, 1697, 1700, 1705, 1706, 1708, and 1716.
4/5/1719 the return of a comet was supposed to wipe out the earth according to Jacques Bernoulli, progenitor of the mathomitical Bernoulli family.
1734, 1736, 10/13/1736, 1757, 4/5/1761, 2/28/1763.
5/19/1780; On this date the sky in New England darkened, causing many to believe the end of the world had come. It was caused by a severe forest fire.
1789, 1790, 1792, 1794, 1795, 11/19/1795, 1801, 1805, 1814, 12/25/1814, 10/14/1820, 1832, 1836, 1843, 4/28/1843, 12/31/1843, 3/21/1844, 10/22/1844, 1845, 1846, 1847, 8/7/1847, 1849, 1851, 1856, 1862, 1863, 1867, 1868, 1869, 6/28/1870, 1872, 1874, 1880, 1881, 1890, 1891, 1895, 1896, 1899, 1900, 11/13/1900, 1901, 4/23/1908, Oct 1908.
May 18, 1910. Many though the world would end. That the return of Halley's comet had cyanide in it's tail, and it would poison the earths atmosphere. (Sounds familiar.)
1911, 10/1/1914, 1915, 1918.
12/16/1919. Meteorologist Albert Porta. A conjunction of 6 planets would cause great explosions on the sun which would engulf the earth.
1825, 2/13/1925, 1928, 1934, Sept 1935 (The world was going to go puff, and disappear. Makes as much sense as the above.) 1936, 1938, 1941, 1943, 9/21/1945, 1947, 1950, 1952, 1/9/1953, 8/1953, 12/21/1954, 4/21/1957, 1958, 4/22/1959, 1960, 2/4/1962, 1966, 1967, 8/20/1967, 12/25/1967, 8/9/1969, 11/22/1969.
There are many more.
"There is a clear attempt to establish truth not by scientific methods but by perpetual repetition."
- Richard S. Lindzen, Ph.D. Professor of Meteorology, MIT
Yow.. That's an impressive
June 14, 2008 - 00:44 ET by maggieqpublicYow.. That's an impressive list. At least now we have the opportunity to buy carbon credits so we don't have to worry so much about The End.
Other Predictions that failed.
June 14, 2008 - 07:17 ET by danboFrom Anthony Watts, and elsewhere.
“Telltale signs are everywhere —from the unexpected persistence and thickness of pack ice in the waters around Iceland to the southward migration of a warmth-loving creature like the armadillo from the Midwest. Since the 1940s the mean global temperature has dropped about 2.7° F.” — Climatologist George J. Kukla of Columbia University in Time Magazine’s June 24th, 1975 article Another Ice Age
“Stomach ulcers are caused by stress” — accepted medical diagnosis, until Dr. Marshall proved that H. pylori caused gastric inflammation by deliberately infecting himself with the bacterium.
“Space travel is bunk.” — Sir Harold Spencer Jones, Astronomer Royal of the UK, 1957.
“There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.” — Albert Einstein, 1932.
“Radio has no future. Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. X-rays will prove to be a hoax.” — William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, British scientist, 1899.
“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” — Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
“That virus is a pussycat.” — Dr. Peter Duesberg, molecular-biology professor at U.C. Berkeley, on HIV, 1988.
“The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives.” — Admiral William Leahy, U.S. Atomic Bomb Project.
“The earth’s crust does not move”- 19th through early 20th century accepted geological science.
Also from elsewhere.
"the oceans dead from DDT poisoning by 1979 and devoid of fish." (Hello Ted Danson.)
"200,000 deaths from "smog disasters" in New York and Los Angeles in 1973"
"U.S. life expectancy dropping to 42 years by 1980 because of pesticide-induced cancers, with U.S. population declining to 22.6 million."
The "President dissolving Congress "during the food riots of the 1980s".
"food shortages would drive the United States to using insecticides so damaging to the environment that a horrified world would launch a nuclear attack on our country, in order to forestall environmental despoliation of this magnitude."
I'm in my 60's. For my entire life I've been told we only had a few years of oil left.
"There is a clear attempt to establish truth not by scientific methods but by perpetual repetition."
- Richard S. Lindzen, Ph.D. Professor of Meteorology, MIT
If BHO wins, civilization may disappear in this country
June 13, 2008 - 13:20 ET by szampIf BHO wins,
Education will go down hill.
The economic system will be break down.
People will not be able to do things by themselves. They will depend on the government.
That may be the end of civilization.
We will be just a bunch of sheep controlled by BHO's his friends .
...cats and dogs living
June 13, 2008 - 13:29 ET by balboa...cats and dogs living together, etc.
heh heh Actually, with the
June 13, 2008 - 13:43 ET by Killgraveheh heh
Actually, with the Obimessiah, the lions will lay with the lambs ;)
Mass Hysteria!
June 13, 2008 - 13:50 ET by jefflebowskiI believe it is going to get real ugly for all of us no matter who wins. Outside of foreign policy, McCain is Obama Lite.
If we keep bowing to our savage enemies, who have no problem killing Americans anywhere and anytime....yes, it is possible to see civilization as we know it end. And I'm ready for it! It is not politically correct not to hate our enemies and kill them. We must treat them with the same rights we have as US citizens. We can no longer kill our foes, we must free them or bring them to justice. In my opinion, we need to be less civilized. I'm so sick of Bush saying we will "bring them to justice." Once I'd like him to say, we're going to do everything in our power to kill him, anytime, anywhere."
Can you see any of the current "leaders" in DC having the guts to do whatever it took to win WWII? Me neither. You cannot fight a civilized war against an uncivilized enemy.
Jeff Lebowski
www.angrywhitedude.c...
Jeff you are so right but,
June 13, 2008 - 16:02 ET by SlicksterYou seem to forget that Obama has two secret weapons he'll use to save us, the teleprompter and the UN. Obama=UN control of the US.
Looking into the future.
June 13, 2008 - 16:53 ET by WR JonasI am just amazed how liberals apply collective logic,
A local radio station has been breathlessly forcasting gasoline prices nearing $5.00-$6.00 a gallon before the end of summer.Then the announcer seriously lowering his voice advises ," that we should be prepared to expect this because there isn't a thing we can do about it ".
But compare that logic to the global warming crisis. The solution is to throw billions of our dollars at a problem that doesn't even exist.
So, liberal logic in comparison :fuel crisis =no solution possible, climate crisis=solution by spending billions.
I think I smell a (lotta) liberal Democrats fouling the logic pool.
Diety's predicting the Future ? Oh...It's the MSM.
June 13, 2008 - 20:34 ET by JayTeeThe END of TIMES....we must be getting close to the Last Hurrah of Global Warming...of course they did pick a Year so far ahead no one watching now would be alive, or remember.
Truly, I think this is a Last Gasp Effort by MSM....and a feeble one at that. GW ain't Selling, no one's buying it.
They had to wait till Summer to start the GW Push....as Spring was too Cold to be believable.
They're Beating a Frozen Horse.....
The Republican Revolution will not be Televised
Repent! Repent - for your Carbon Sins to the Planet!
June 14, 2008 - 00:19 ET by PopularTechGore Uses Religion to Attract 'Global Warming' Converts (CNSNews)
Environmentalism as Religion (Michael Crichton, A.B. Anthropology, M.D. Harvard)
"Most of us have had some experience interacting with religious fundamentalists, and we understand that one of the problems with fundamentalists is that they have no perspective on themselves. They never recognize that their way of thinking is just one of many other possible ways of thinking, which may be equally useful or good. On the contrary, they believe their way is the right way, everyone else is wrong; they are in the business of salvation, and they want to help you to see things the right way. They want to help you be saved. They are totally rigid and totally uninterested in opposing points of view. In our modern complex world, fundamentalism is dangerous because of its rigidity and its imperviousness to other ideas.
I want to argue that it is now time for us to make a major shift in our thinking about the environment, similar to the shift that occurred around the first Earth Day in 1970, when this awareness was first heightened. But this time around, we need to get environmentalism out of the sphere of religion. We need to stop the mythic fantasies, and we need to stop the doomsday predictions. We need to start doing hard science instead."
The Anti 'Man-Made' Global Warming Resource
...excellent Crichton
June 14, 2008 - 08:04 ET by Schnikeys...excellent Crichton quote.
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"It could be the answer to our age-old, philosophical question, 'Why are we here?' PLASTIC!"