ABC's Sam Champion Hypes Global Warming for Eight Minutes

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"Good Morning America's" liberal meteorologist Sam Champion continued his crusade of turning the weather report into an environmental lecture on Friday. Champion, the man who once hosted a segment that warned "billions" could die from global warming, devoted over eight minutes of the program to climate change. Reporting live from Colorado, he promoted the Aspen Institute's conference on the environment.

Champion interviewed the executive vice president for the think tank, Elliot Gerson. (The Aspen Institute hosts seminars on various subjects, including environmental and economic.) And while Gerson promised a "diversity of opinions" at the conference, no such diversity appeared on "Good Morning America." Champion touted the conference throughout the show's entire two hours, but never once featured anyone skeptical of global warming's dire effects.

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Instead, Champion interviewed individuals such as Gerson, who also said that global warming can't be solved by scientists and politicians. "It has to be an engaged public committed to making changes in behavior," he claimed. Now, this could be construed as liberal code for cajoling Americans into using mercury laced light bulbs and other "eco friendly" devices. That hardly seems like a "diversity of opinions."

Also featured on GMA was biologist and National Geographic photographer Paul Miklin. Standing in front of a picture of a polar bear that he took, Miklin essentially admitted that the furry animals are avenues to promote climate change activism: "...Now I realize what I need to do is try and tell these stories though National Geographic magazine by using animals such as polar bears to hang this campaign on." And of course there was no mention of reports that indicate global warming actually stopped ten years ago.

In the 8:30 half hour, Champion narrated a segment about the mountain pine beetle and the damage it has created by killing trees all over the western part of the United States. The ABC weatherman dubbed it the "whole global warming and pine beetle issue." (The beetles thrive in warm temperatures and would be killed off with harsh winters.) Again, Champion presented no opposing view that warm winters, which are enabling the beetles, could simply be part of a warming/cooling trend. Simplifying the issue, he declared, "Add to that drought conditions, making the trees susceptible to the insects. Plus, warmer than normal winters, thanks to climate change. The beetles have thrived."

Champion has a long history on GMA of passing off extremist environmental opinions as reasonable. On June 25, 2007, Champion gushed over the "experiment" of a liberal environmentalist who was forgoing toilet paper.

A partial transcript of the final two segments, which aired at 8:32am, follow:

CHAMPION: We are lucky enough to be in Aspen. We're in this big room where the first ever Aspen Environment Forum will be here. Elliot Gerson who put the whole thing together with the Aspen Institute. Elliot, we've been talking about it, kind of leading up to it. But, you know, you get a bunch of people in a room and you're going to talk about the environment and maybe climate change, but why is it important just to kind of get these people together in one place?

ELLIOT GERSON (Aspen Institute): Well, Sam, this just isn't about talk. Everything we do here is about talk leading to action. We've got leading scientists, statesmen, scholars, business people and what makes this special, what makes it unique, is the diversity of opinions there and the fact that the kinds of challenges we're facing with the environment and environment [sic] and, and global climate change require an engaged public. So, it can't be solved just by politicians, just by scientists. It has to be an engaged public committed to making changes in behavior.

CHAMPION: And so, maybe in a place like this with everybody together talking, people will come up with ideas and they'll get the word out a little about it that you have a number of, by the way, thank you, for having us up and putting everything together.

GERSON: It's our pleasure.

CHAMPION: There are number of forums that are going to be going on throughout the day with experts that are from all different walks of life and different categories . One of them, I was really psyched to meet. Paul Miklin, by the way, very nice to meet you.

PAUL MIKLIN: Very nice to meet you.

CHAMPION: Who is one of the those amazing National Geographic photographers. Tell me a little bit about the pictures that you capture that show us evidence of global warming and climate change all over the world, but particularly in the arctic areas.

MIKLIN: Well, thanks, Sam. I grew up in these areas, ever since I was a young kid. So, I went on to be a biologist and then now I realize what I need to do is try and tell these stories though National Geographic magazine by using animals such as polar bears to hang this campaign on, to say that if we lose sea ice in the Arctic and projections are to lose sea ice in the next 20 to 50 years, we ultimately are going to lose polar bears as well.

CHAMPION: Because we see these pictures. There gorgeous pictures of these polar bears. But this one was kind of in distress. [Motions to picture of polar bear.]

MIKLIN: This-- Well, not really. It was just a moment where I was not really thinking clearly. We got so hung up in taking the photograph that I was ten feet away, lying on my belly and this bear is shaking water. And he was just-- He took a lunge at me, basically. But as he lunged up and was coming down on me, the ice broke and got away. And my first thought was I knew I had the shot, so I was really excited that this show would help tell the story that I wanted to tell about melting ice.

CHAMPION: Absolutely beautiful pictures.

MIKLIN: Thank you very much.

CHAMPION: And thank you so much. And there are so many more that are in the magazine to see. And, of course, we'll have some on our website as well.

[Weather report]

8:35

CHAMPION: While we were out here for the Aspen Environment Forum, one of the things we stumbled on is a story that's been making headlines all over the west and out in the papers again today. It's the warming cycle that's been in the western state also a pine beetle infestation that's killing trees by the millions, six million acres of trees dead because of this beetle, in western America and 20 million acres in Canada. This is a big problem and this is what it looks like with the whole global warming and pine beetle issue. The American west is under attack by a silent killer that's causing some of the worst destruction ever to hit our nation's forest land.

SANDY BRIGGS (Forest Health Task Force): People are looking out their windows now and seeing a lot of dead trees where they were green before.

CHAMPION: This is the tiny terror to blame, the mountain pine beetle. It may be small, but it's big in numbers, an epidemic of them exploding across the west, wiping out acres of large pole pines.

CLINT KHYL (Incident Commander, U.S. Forest Service): We're seeing about one and a half million acres of tree infested. Just last year, we had 500,000 additional acres infested.

CHAMPION: That's in Colorado and Wyoming alone. The destruction zone, twice the size of Rhode Island. The epidemic began in 1996, but it's in the last year, it's really taken off. Just look at the damage from this. [Before and after photos of forest appear onscreen.] To this. In just the last two years. And an image repeated over and over

KHYL: The tree's response to the beetle boring into the bark. The tree actually tries to pitch the beetles out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE VOICE [close up of glass with beetle in it.]: The black thing floating there, that's actually the beetle.

CHAMPION: Five years now, all of Colorado's large pine pole forests will be wiped out, state forestry officials say. And it's just one of eight states across the west impacted. That's six million acres of forest land destroyed, with another 20 million in Canada. And that number will grow. Officials say the beetles are expected to infest the entire west over the next 15 years.

BOB CAIN (Forest entomologist, U.S. forest service): The forest conditions are just right. We had the older forests with lots of larger diameter trees. The bigger trees produce more beetles so it really expanded quickly.

CHAMPION: Add to that drought conditions, making the trees susceptible to the insects. Plus, warmer than normal winters, thanks to climate change. The beetles have thrived.

—Scott Whitlock is a news analyst for the Media Research Center.


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ok we are now at the point where they are losing it

all the socialists and their mouthpieces are going into a zone that their meds aren't going to help them. they are recklessly freaking out about global warming now that people are finding out that it's a fraud and they don't know what to do but stamp their feet, cross their arms, and pout like a child that is caught in a lie and refuses to admit it.

so can we send them all to their rooms for the next dacade without any dinner.

lunaticcringeradio

Jump the Shark

The term "Jump the Shark" means going so far that you begin to lose audience.   With the reports earlier this week about ice actually breaking away at the end of summer in Antarctica and an 8 minute rant by Sam, these people are rapidly approaching lunacy.

Lunacy 1. insanity; mental

Lunacy

1. insanity; mental disorder.
2. intermittent insanity, formerly believed to be related to phases of the moon.
3. extreme foolishness or an instance of it: Her decision to resign was sheer lunacy.
4. Law. unsoundness of mind sufficient to incapacitate one for civil transactions.

Close, but no cigar.  See, this intermittent insanity doesn't actually have anything to do with the moon or any other real factor. Instead, it seems to onset when the lunacy sufferers perceive some sort of trend in global temperature change, typically a delusion. We've seen it before with stories of a coming ice age catastrophe, we see it now in the AGW nonsense, and we'll see it again the next time some blowhard(s) decide to push for forced redistribution of wealth in the name of the environment.

Anyone who honestly buys into the AGW crap is naive or truly insane, anyone who hypes it up for money should be sued, and anyone who plays along for political power should be shot.

www.rhjunior.com Great comics with a hefty dose of Christian and anti-nutjob goodness.

"With your mind as high as Mt. Fuji you can see all things clearly. And you can see all the forces that shape events; not just the things near to you." -Miyamoto Musashi

A practical question: Did

A practical question: Did Sam Champion walk from New York to this conference in Colorado?

They DO tolerate diverse opinions on GW

 "THE EARTH IS DOOMED"

and on the other end of the spectrum:

"THE EARTH IS TOTALLY DOOMED SOONER RATHER THAN LATER"

 Now THATS "diversity" in the global warming debate!

 It's the warming cycle

 It's the warming cycle that's been in the western state also a pine beetle infestation that's killing trees by the millions, six million acres of trees dead because of this beetle, in western America and 20 million acres in Canada.

   The infected trees should just be logged out and made into products.  They aren't useless.

  There is NOTHING that anyone can do to change the current temperatures.  We should just do what nature does, introduce a successful tree species, one that does not appeal to the beetle.

That's IT!

It's those filthy, Global Warming-Causing Republican Beetles!

Shoulda known!

The climate alarmist are

The climate alarmist are always quick to point out the pine beetle in British Columbia and how it is the fault of climate change (even if climate change plays a roll it doesn't prove AGW). What they never seem to tell you is the main difference in the last 100 years is that today we put out forest fires. Every year there are literally thousands of forest fires started by lightning. Traditionally these fires would burn themselves out after destroying millions of acres. These fires would not only kill pine beetles but would also provide natural "breaks" between forests making it harder for the pine beetle to spread. Today we spend millions of dollars putting out forest fires which in turn saves pine beetles and making it easier for them to spread.

 

Logging the cure to the pine beetle problem

The Colorado State University Extension Service has an interesting article about the beetle here.  A quick scan reveals that "extreme cold" would be required to kill off the beetles, implying colder-than-normal conditions.

One short paragraph caught my eye:

Chemical control options for MPB larvae have been greatly limited in recent years. At present, there are no labeled pesticides for use on MPB.

A couple of paragraphs later, the article states:

An important method of prevention involves forest management. In general, MPB prefers forests that are old and dense. Managing the forest by creating diversity in age and structure with result in a healthy forest that will be more resilient and, thus, less vulnerable to MPB. Most mature Colorado forests have about twice as many trees per acre as those forests which are more resistent to MPB.

I'm no expert, but it seems to me the cure for the mountain pine beetle epidemic is responsible logging.  The logging industry would thin the forest and plant new trees, taking care to raise them in optimal conditions for their well being.  After all, they'll need trees in the future as well.

As usual, the environmentalists are promoting harmful policies in the name of helping the environment.

When you put the clowns in charge, don't be surprised when a circus breaks out.

Thumbs up NK!

What continually amazes me is that some people here are willing to do the research for free that others have failed to do, but are still getting paid to do it all the same.

-PJ 

"Trake: Your lofty convictions are another blemish on the rump of congregational sectarianism." -Tumbler 5/15/07

They do

They do, we here in La also have the Pine Beetle problem. The tree Co.'s here seem to do a pretty good job of managing their lands. They thin at 7yr 12yr and then cut at 24-7yr. The Beetle down here seem to attack trees sporadically. You can drive down the road and tell witch ones they have gotten, but (my observations only) they might get about 4-10 and acre. I was talking with the a forestry guy about it once and he suggested that they were getting into the weaker trees. Seems some of the new hybrid trees grow faster but don't have as much anti pest stuff (sap I am thinking). They crop dust them every 5-8 yrs or so.

BTW I know a few years ago there was a healthy reward for the Spotted pine Beetle, I think it is a more destructive bug. If you ever see a tree dieing of these guy's, hold your ear to it, some noise they make.

 

"Always do right. This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest". Mark Twain

There was a bad pine beetle

There was a bad pine beetle infestation about 12-15 years ago around one of Louisiana's state parks. It was a mature second growth forest.

The state of Louisiana decided to let nature take it's course. That forest is gone. Neighboring private land owners decided to spray.

It's easy to say where state and private land begins.

AGW it likely just something to blame for bad forestry decisions. Likw wildfires.

"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

Pine Beetle Outbreak in 1705 caused by SUVs?

History of Southern Pine Beetle Control 1705-Present (Bark and Wood Boring Beetles of The World)

"Disastrous bark beetle outbreaks occurred in Germany during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. So severe was the problem that a special prayer for the protection of forests from wind and insects was included in a prayer book printed in 1705. Gmelin (1787) reported that over a million-and-a-half trees were killed in the Hercynian Mountains alone between 1781 and 1787."

The Anti 'Man-Made' Global Warming Resource

After feast on B.C. forest, pine beetles face famine

After feast on B.C. forest, pine beetles face famine 

They ran out of food.

"Beetles in the western side of the Rocky Mountains have fundamentally eaten themselves out of house and home,"

"Instead of being worse and worse each year now, the populations are beginning their downward cycle, which is what we expected to happen." Quote from B.C. Forestry Minister Rich Coleman

<sarc> What can be done to save the bug that lost his house give him some carbon credits and send him on his way.</sarc>

Pine Beetle or Global Warming?

Pick the culprit!

"There's no question it (Pine Beetle/Global Warming) seems to have peaked and has flattened and is probably going down now."

"We have had (Pine Beetle/Global Warming) outbreaks that we're aware of since
the turn of the century. These cycles, they happen over the centuries,".

Actually both are from the Pine Beetle article, but isn't it funny how those statements apply perfectly to scary ol' GW?

But you can't control business, lifestyles, money and power without terror of GW. Pine beetles? Meh! They come... they go...

It's just a cycle.  

ok when will the housing market be blamed on global warming

oh i'm surprised the writers strike in hollywood wasn't blamed on global warming, the botched michigan and florida caucuses were a result of global warming,

oh oh oh that's why you couldn't see hillarys flak jacket on under her coat in bosnia because it was global warming didn't exist back then.

lunaticcringeradio

.....National Geographic

.....National Geographic magazine by using animals such as polar bears to hang this campaign on, to say that if we lose sea ice in the Arctic and projections are to lose sea ice in the next 20 to 50 years, we ultimately are going to lose polar bears as well.

  Polar bears are blood thirsty animals and a danger to humans.

Video of woman attacked.

and this of a man who lived in spite of an attack.

polar bears are thriving now as compared to the 70s

they were on the endagered list because there were so few of them in the 70s, but they bounced back so well that they were taken off. appaerently there are approx 25k more polar bears now and the biggest problem they have is now competing for food and territory because their population has exploded.

do buy that polar bear lie, what do environementalists expect there to be as many polar bears as say insects on this planet, if that were the case we'd be walking on layers of polar bear hundreds of miles deep. these liberal disinformation scare tactics are unbelievable. the polar bear and carabou are doing just fine.

lunaticcringeradio

Sam Champion is not a

Sam Champion is not a meterologist!! He has a BA in broadcast journalism from Eastern Kentucky University.I doubt he took enough science courses to understand the issues involved (especially statistics)

But ..

But he looks good in a suit.

fruit cake

this guy is a clown. He can't even predict the weather inside a Greenwich Village bar

When Columbus and his crew

When Columbus and his crew were about to starve to death and the indians wouldn't help them, he looked at his navigation tables and saw that a lunar eclipse was to occur on February 29, 1504. On the evening of the eclipse, he called on all the native leaders and told them that God was displeased with the way that the natives had treated him and his crew. He told them God was so angry at them for this that he would make the moon to disappear. Then the eclipse came and the natives were terrified and promised all the food and provisions he wanted if he would bring the moon back. Then he said God had forgiven them and so Columbus was now fat and happy and the moon reappeared after it's natural cycle. Al Gore and his crew of alarmists want to be fat and happy as well and if you don't do as they say then they will heat the earth. They just have a merry band of useful idiots to spread the word to a lot more indians.

Try colder than normal Winters

2007, Coolest Winter Since 2001 For U.S., Globe, According To NOAA Data (Science Daily)

"The average temperature across both the contiguous U.S. and the globe during climatological winter (December 2007-February 2008) was the coolest since 2001, according to scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.

During January alone, 170 inches of snow fell at the Alta ski area near Salt Lake City, Utah, more than twice the normal amount for the month, eclipsing the previous record of 168 inches that fell in 1967. At the end of February, seasonal precipitation for the 2008 Water Year, which began on October 1, 2007, was well above average over much of the West.

Mountain snowpack exceeded 150 percent of average in large parts of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Oregon at the end of February. Spring run-off from the above average snowpack in the West is expected to be beneficial in drought plagued areas.

Record February precipitation in the Northeast helped make the winter the fifth wettest on record for the region. New York had its wettest winter, while Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Vermont, and Colorado to the West, had their second wettest.

Snowfall was above normal in northern New England, where some locations posted all-time record winter snow totals. Concord, N.H., received 100.1 inches, which was 22.1 inches above the previous record set during the winter of 1886-87. Burlington, Vt., received 103.2 inches, which was 6.3 inches above the previous record set during the winter of 1970-71."

The Anti 'Man-Made' Global Warming Resource

Wow. Lots of good posting

Wow. Lots of good posting and information here. Y'all deserve a radio pat on the back.

In reading about this conference that Sam (I am) Champion was promoting, I recalled back to days when I was in Amway in the mid-80's. I went to some Amway conference in Norfolk which was about the equivelent of a high school pep rally. It was a real "soapy" experience. Well this whatever conference sounds about the same. Except with brainyer people with nothing better to do.

That's the way I feel about this global warming, rah-rah sis boom bah experience. It's for liberals who have time to kill. By the way, I've always been a big fan of the beetles. I didn't know they ate trees though.

The Debate is not over

At least according to his article in, of all places, the LA Slimes:

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-greenhouse28mar28,1,3781940.story

EPA director, Stephen Johnson, apparently says not so fast on CO2 being characterized as "a pollutant" last year after the Supreme Court caved to the fruitcakes last year.  Johnson wants, (gasp!) some genuine old-fashioned scientific analysis of the subject.

Henry Waxman "D" is already attacking Johnson over this and probably buying lots of Imodium as well.

Way to go, Mr Johnson!  But you'll most likely be replaced by whoever wins the presidental election......unfortunately that includes McCain who is a true believer in the AGW hoax.

The Debate is not over

At least according to his article in, of all places, the LA Slimes:

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-greenhouse28mar28,1,3781940.story

EPA director, Stephen Johnson, apparently says not so fast on CO2 being characterized as "a pollutant" last year after the Supreme Court caved to the fruitcakes last year.  Johnson wants, (gasp!) some genuine old-fashioned scientific analysis of the subject.

Henry Waxman "D" is already attacking Johnson over this and probably buying lots of Imodium as well.

Way to go, Mr Johnson!  But you'll most likely be replaced by whoever wins the presidental election......unfortunately that includes McCain who is a true believer in the AGW hoax.

Seems the more we know

Seems the more we know about global warming. The less we care and the less we believe it's our fault.

A new survey of  1000.

Maybe that's why the rush to claim the debate is over.

"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

Sam's old thinking

In the mid 90's when Sam Champion did the weather for the local NYC ABC affiliate, he spent a good five minutes one night describing how the natural sun / earth cycles etc meant that we were heading into a warming trend that would last for the next decade or so.  Funny how back then his predicition was spot on, but his reasoning behind his analysis wouldn't square with his thinking today.