Newsweek Science Editor on Global Warming: This Year's Weather Extremes 'Reached Biblical Proportions'
NewsBusters readers are quite familiar with the frantic hyperbole that often come from the keystrokes of Newsweek's so-called science editor Sharon Begley.
On Saturday she penned another breathless doozy with the Hitchcockian sub-headline "In a world of climate change, freak storms are the new normal. Why we’re unprepared for the harrowing future":
Even those who deny the existence of global climate change are having trouble dismissing the evidence of the last year. In the U.S. alone, nearly 1,000 tornadoes have ripped across the heartland, killing more than 500 people and inflicting $9 billion in damage. The Midwest suffered the wettest April in 116 years, forcing the Mississippi to flood thousands of square miles, even as drought-plagued Texas suffered the driest month in a century. Worldwide, the litany of weather’s extremes has reached biblical proportions. The 2010 heat wave in Russia killed an estimated 15,000 people. Floods in Australia and Pakistan killed 2,000 and left large swaths of each country under water. A months-long drought in China has devastated millions of acres of farmland. And the temperature keeps rising: 2010 was the hottest year on earth since weather records began.
From these and other extreme-weather events, one lesson is sinking in with terrifying certainty. The stable climate of the last 12,000 years is gone.
The climate has been stable for the last 12,000 years? Yeah, that Little Ice Age between the 16th and 19th centuries was the picture of stability.
And though this has been a very active tornado season, it's hardly biblical as well as likely caused by this year's La Niña according to a majority of meteorologists on both sides of the global warming debate.
Alas, science really isn't important to this "science editor" who also seemed to miss an obvious point with her hyperventilation "The Midwest suffered the wettest April in 116 years." That means 116 years ago, when there was far less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the planet was a bit cooler, the Midwest suffered a wetter April.
But such inconvenient truths weren't getting in the way of Begley's paranoid delusions:
Picture California a few decades from now, a place so hot and arid the state's trademark orange and lemon trees have been replaced with olive trees that can handle the new climate. Alternating floods and droughts have made it impossible for the reservoirs to capture enough drinking water. The picturesque Highway 1, sections of which are already periodically being washed out by storm surges and mudslides, will have to be rerouted inland, possibly through a mountain.
Wow. So in just a few decades, all the orange and lemon trees in my state will be gone, there won't be enough drinking water, and much of the gorgeous Pacific Coast Highway will be kaput.
That's going to wreak havoc with property values.
But on a more serious note, what should really bother readers - as well as Newsweek's real editors if they care about facts - is how fast and loose Begley played with them.
Consider the following:
Scientists disagree about whether climate change will bring more intense or frequent tornadoes, but there is wide consensus that the 2 degrees Fahrenheit of global warming of the last century is behind the rise in sea levels, more intense hurricanes, more heat waves, and more droughts and deluges.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the entire rise in global temperatures between 1850 and 2005 was 0.76 degrees Celsius. That's 1.37 degrees Fahrenheit, meaning that Begley overstated the increase by almost 50 percent.
Did I mention that she's Newsweek's science editor?
But there's more:
Because of the CO2 that has already been emitted, we're on track for an additional 5 degrees of warming...New York, which is looking at an average temperature increase of up to 3 degrees Fahrenheit by 2020, is planning to paint 3 million square feet of roofs white, to reflect sunlight and thus reduce urban heat-island effects.
It took 155 years for temperatures to rise 1.37 degrees Fahrenheit. If we continued at this pace it would take 565 years for us to rise another five degrees.
Yet this so-called "science editor" claimed New York could see its temperatures increase by as much as three degrees in only nineteen years.
It's this kind of mathematically-challenged forecasting that gives junk science a bad name.
Which is why Newsweek should be ashamed of itself for allowing such nonsense to be published.
If only the folks associated with this publication possessed such a thing called shame.
*****Update: As Ace notes, this pathetic excuse for journalism is actually Newsweek's cover story!
- Noel Sheppard's blog
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Comments
To repeat my as yet unanswered question:
Submitted by hbnolikeee on Mon, 05/30/2011 - 11:46pm.
The earth has gone through 6 ice ages. That's the planet has transitioned from hot to cold and back 6 times. All that before man walked the earth and burned his first piece of coal.
So, how is it now caused by man?
And the cricket chorus begins to chirp.
Short version
Submitted by Jerry Mack on Mon, 05/30/2011 - 11:49pm.
Short version of her "STORY". The earth is on Fire.
They're really doubling down
Submitted by ant on Mon, 05/30/2011 - 11:51pm.
They're really doubling down on Algore's cult dogma lately. I figure either these tornadoes have given them a perfect excuse to re-ignite the fear-the-weather mongering or "Climate-gate" has passed the appropriate time threshold that they believe is required for people to have forgotten. Pssst! Guess what? Not forgotten.
Weather is not climate
Submitted by MadRat on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 4:25am.
There's something Sharon Begley also failed to mention. As Begley's fellow climate change proponent and science editor (for the Liberal blog Boing-Boing), Maggie Koerth-Baker, reluctantly pointed out the tornado tragedies are not a trend and therefor not part of climate change. http://www.boingboing.net/2011/05/27/tornadoes-climate-ch.html
The tornadoes = global warming argument reminds me of something I read over and over during the past several winters of sever cold and snow: "Weather is not climate." The faith Warmers chanted this phrase as if it were The Mantra Against Facts, every time someone pointed out that climatologist didn't predict the cold weather we've been getting until after we started getting it. But as soon as a weather related tragedy strikes they immediately and hypocritically ignore what they said a few months ago and started bleating, "IT'S CLIMATE CHANGE!! IT'S CLIMATE CHANGE!!"
The AGW cultists are definitely fighting back
Submitted by Galvanic on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 8:14am.
As the credibility of AGW science and researchers diminished, the AGWers have been looking for anything to reverse the momentum; the tornados are just latest. The idea is to pick spectacular weather events and claim that they are evidence of AGW.
But as others have duly noted, climate is about changes in weather over time, and AGWers are reluctant to illustrate trends since the infamous Hockey Stick graph was discredited by scientists and dropped by the IPCC which had earlier held it up as the irrefutable scientific proof.
Case in point was the hurricane season of 2005, which included Hurricanes Katrina (a Category 3 when it hit New Orleans) and Rita. AGWs warned that the hurricane seasons were going to get worse. Yet the very next year (2006) saw no one hurricane hit the US. At a loss to explaining this, they merely skipped the fact and kept referring to Katrina (again, a Cat 3) as a harbinger of storms to come.
Remember
Submitted by Texndoc on Mon, 05/30/2011 - 11:58pm.
I remember being a high-school student in the 70s and you actually went to Newsweek or Time for NEWS. Now it's just Pravda for the tinfoil hat wearing extreme lefties.
And when Jon Meacham and his smug mug appears on the Morning Joe panel - don't you dare mention he was the Chief Editor of Newsweek who drove it into the hole! He works for Random House now or something. Always did, apparently.
Tex
Submitted by Model850 on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 5:58pm.
I remember being a high-school student in the 70s and you actually went to Newsweek or Time for NEWS.
Then you probably also remember that many of the media "chicken littles" back then were bloviating about an impending ice age, just as belligerently as today's buffoons do about man-made global warming/climate change/climate disruption or whatever the hell it is they're calling it this week.
Newsweak.
Submitted by big.league.slider on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 12:27am.
The Sierra Nevada snow pack is greater than any time in the past 20 years. Northern California dams, such as lake Shasta, are releasing water. But it's a drought?
I'm an engineer. If someone like Sharon Begley tried to spout these types of nonsensical statistics to a group of real engineers or scientists, she'd be laughed out of the room.
As for deaths in Communist China, Chairman Mao and his Cultural Revolution killed 20 million..
Hell,
Submitted by killa37 on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 12:29am.
Hell, bigleague..............it rains all the time over here on the north shore of an outer Hawaiian island...........we're wondering how the world can have a water shortage. Actually, I do think that there is the same amount of water here on this earth as there was back BEFORE all of us earth-destroying humans - give or take a small percentage.
Since 'global warming' IS, in
Submitted by killa37 on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 12:27am.
Since 'global warming' IS, in fact - a religion.................I really think they need to keep it separate from the Bible references. Next thing you know, they will be blaming Noah and his ark on 'global warming'...........after all, it does fit the template!!!
and from THEIR "bible"
Submitted by spepper on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 8:33am.
And from THEIR "gobal warming bible" you would read something like this:
"Since the record of Noah shows him as having spent 120 of his 900 year lifespan cutting down huge swaths of forestation to build his "boat", it clearly heated up the earth to produce his self-fulfilling prophecy......"
Liberals have it all figured out
Submitted by c5then on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 8:45am.
They will tell you that none of the Bible is true, except for those parts that they want to be to make a particualr point.
Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it!
Hahahahahaha!
Submitted by almostacowboy on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 11:40am.
That's my response anytime any Prog/Lib refers to The Bible, mis-quotes The Bible, or even says the words "The Bible".
102 times out of 99 they will misquote it, misrepresent it, take it out of context, or just make up stuff. Seriously, how many Prog/Libs (I'm sure there are the exceptions) have ever studied...."STUDIED"...The Bible?
SHARON BEGLEY
Submitted by Dr. Ron on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 12:38am.
LET'S SEE...BA FROM YALE..IN WHAT? ONLY DOCTORATE IS AN HONORARY ONE...NO MA'S.
HAS WRITTEN ABOUT NEUROBIOLOGY, WITH HELP FROM THE DALAI LAMA.
MY GOODNESS, WITH SUCH CREDENTIALS, WE ALL SHOULD BE PAYING HEED TO THIS "SCIENCE" WRITER, WHO REALLY IS WRITING SCIENCE FICTION...NO, SHE HAS CREATED A NEW GENRE: IDEOLOGICAL SCIENCE FICTION. SHADES OF L.RON HUBBARD WHO AT LEAST KEPT HIS IDEOLOGY OUT OF HIS SCIENCE FICTION WRITINGS.
It's always telling
Submitted by HockeyKid on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 7:09am.
when someone includes their alma mater in their bio (especially an Ivy), but leaves out their major and/or degree. What's to hide?
Digging a bit, I found an entry from a UNC honorary degrees program that said Begley's degree from Yale was in "combined sciences". That's a degree that Yale apparently doesn't offer anymore, but it was popular in the '70s, allowing the student to choose a cafeteria plan of courses in chemistry, biology, physics, geology, etc. In other words, you get a wide selection of 100-level courses, but no depth--just enough to qualify you (maybe) to be a science editor at Newsweek. Which is exactly what Begley did, straight out of college. No experience in science at all--she just reads it like the rest of us, but then she pontificates in her column.
Penn Jillette was right back in 2008--she's a "non-scientist".
Note to Critics: the combined sciences program at Yale was often used by pre-meds to tailor their chem/bio programs for their desired field and advanced degrees. Obviously, not every student who used that program was a Begley.
"Beauty is only skin deep, but liberal's to the bone." - me
Noel - Correction Needed
Submitted by Thunder Lizard on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 3:01am.
Sorry to bring it up Noel, but you made a spelling mistake. It's Newsweak, N-E-W-S-W-E-A-K not Newsweek. :-)
Climate change is real - get over it. And it is responsible for
Submitted by acaiguana on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 6:42am.
My cat (really still a kitten) demonstrating unusual behavior by starting at 5:00 am demanding to go outside; five minutes later demanding to come inside; five minutes (or less) later demanding to go outside -0---
Goes on until about 7:30 when he naps until about 4:00 pm.
Very unusual.
ACA
...
Quoted from: 'Acaiguana notes from the Underground' (Soon to be at theaters near you)
Oh, good grief!
Submitted by motherbelt on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 7:06am.
Liberals' new definition of "biblical" is apparently "unusual."
Yes, there was a lot of "unusual" weather in biblical times.
There was the Great Flood, the seven-year drought.....
And let's not forget that freak storm that blew up on the Sea of Gallilee when Jesus was out in the boat with His disciples.
Do these propagandists really believe that the earth's climate has been stable for millions of years, but only NOW is "changing"?
Don't forget, mom....
Submitted by almostacowboy on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 11:49am.
....that Elijah prayed for it not to rain and it didn't rain for 3 1/2 years. Then, he prayed again and it rained. (James 5:17-18)
No, they don't "believe" the Earth's climate has been stable. This is just one more thing on which they (the Left) wan't to impose their will on those of us who would rather live free.
Sharon Begley
Submitted by HockeyKid on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 7:13am.
Junk Science Editor at Newsweek...
"Beauty is only skin deep, but liberal's to the bone." - me
No...
Submitted by adamsmith on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 7:26am.
It's just another predictable "La Nina" Pacific weather pattern...Why do Communists have to always cry that the sky is falling?
Hasn't she gotten the word.
Submitted by danbo on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 7:27am.
Hasn't she gotten the word. The urban heat island effect isn't important. Therefore it's no big deal to toss out the readings from rural thermometers, or homogonize them by averaging them with urban stations. And ignore the urban growth around stations.
"You lie!" Rep. Joe Wilson R-(SC)
If today's severe weather
Submitted by motherbelt on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 7:42am.
If today's severe weather events are caused by man-made climate change, what were they caused by in biblical times?
James 5:17-18
Submitted by almostacowboy on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 11:48am.
.
It's all been said already...
Submitted by DumbCanuck on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 8:07am.
...so I have nothing to add to the above, except my bi-line...
"There... Are... Four... Lights!"
biblical era
Submitted by Agnostic on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 12:03pm.
If not mistaken 'Biblical times' would cover many, many generations while the global warming/change theories only cover the time period associated since the prediction of the last ice age with would put it 35-40 years old. Not exactly comparing apples to apples.
truth is,
Submitted by spepper on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 8:23am.
Truth is, these levels of severe weather has been occurring long before "America" showed up on the scene-- we just happen to be here now to record it, and sadly sometimes, sit directly in its path.
There will always be alarmists like Begley (whether Sharon, Ed Jr. or others) who use their respective forms of media outlets (written, film, etc) to advocate their position on various subjects-- for whatever reason-- and they all consistently become very "touchy" when anyone attempts to challenge them to produce evidence for their "advocacy"-- and when they cite their sources of evidence such as the IPCC, Mann/Penn State, or (ahem) ALGORE, then you know they are all working from the same set of marching orders given to them-- which, if you follow the money, repeatedly leads back to "Evil Inc." bosses like George Soros......
Saul Alinsky strikes again...
Submitted by c5then on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 8:28am.
Never let a crisis go to waste.
The leftwing nutroots always take a crisis and attribute it to whatever they want to forward their political agenda. Facts and science and logic be damned.
I guarentee you that this discussion will occur again when the first Hurricane forms in the Atlantic this season. It will occur again when the first Hurricane makes landfall in the US. It will occur again everytime another one is formed and/or threatens inhabited areas. They have proven that if they repeat a lie enough times a good portion of the uneducated masses will believe them as fact.
Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it!
The Sahara Desert
Submitted by ronny117 on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 8:57am.
A few days ago, the cable channel, History International showed a program detailing the history of the Sahara Desert. During the first 30 minutes of the 2 hour long program, the show debunked the entire "man made" global warming theory. The program was very interesting and informative in describing the regions physical, cultural and religious development of the area..... A very good program.....
Shouldn't New York City be underwater now?
Submitted by Red Jeep on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 9:53am.
"Future Democratic star Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 1969 urged a global system of monitoring carbon dioxide, and worried that CO2 would rise 25% by 2000. "This could increase the average temperature near the earth's surface by 7 degrees Fahrenheit," he wrote. "This in turn could raise the level of the sea by 10 feet. Goodbye New York. Goodbye Washington, for that matter.
Moynihan received a response in a January 26, 1970 memo from Hubert Heffner, deputy director of the administration's Office of Science and Technology. Heffner acknowledged that atmospheric temperature rise was an issue that should be looked at. "The more I get into this, the more I find two classes of doomsayers," he wrote. "One group says we will turn into snow-tripping mastodons because of the atmospheric dust and the other says we will have to grow gills to survive the increased ocean level due to the temperature rise." Nixon established the EPA and approved the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970."*
The sky is falling! the sky is falling! Give me money I can stop it! Wolf! wolf! Give..., Give... We need tax money!
* http://www.newser.com/story/94582/as-nixon-aide-moynihan-warned-of-clima...
Rising 25%?
Submitted by jon_torlin on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 10:09am.
So a rise in CO2 of 25% makes it go from 0.033% to 0.042%? (I know it didn't happen, just saying hypothetically)
Wow!! Who knew that the Earth could be THAT delicate??
-Jon
Don't stomp on the ground too hard...
Submitted by Red Jeep on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 11:37am.
...you might break through the earth's crust and burn your foot.
And, when you get to China...
Submitted by almostacowboy on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 11:50am.
...I'll have the spicy pork.
Two words for ya, Begley:
Submitted by Beukeboom on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 11:47am.
Two words for ya, Begley: Chicken Little
Dumb question: is this woman related to Ed Begley, Jr. either by blood or by marriage?
How about by cluelessness?
Submitted by JeffC... on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 12:15pm.
Or gullibility? On the other hand, at least Ed lives like an environmentalist. I can't fault him for living simply.
When Begley starts out with the line
Submitted by UltraC on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 1:49pm.
"Even those who deny the existence of global climate change"
you know it's agenda-driven journalism. If she were being somewhat fair, it would read
"Even those who express skepticism at the effects of human activity on global climate conditions"
Alas, it's too much to hope for that a journalist even try to be impartial.
Every time one of these acolytes calls someone a "denier", there needs to be someone to correct them with the word "skeptic". Calling someone a "denier", because they don't readily and uncritically accept conclusions drawn from flawed data and models by scientists with suspicious motives, all the while ignoring or smearing scientists whom disagree with those conclusions (going so far as to characterize them as in the employ of those "evil" oil companies), says much more about the inflexibility of their own position.
All together now:
Submitted by phryingphish on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 3:34pm.
I believe in Mann made global warming.