In an article titled (I’m not kidding!) “Weather Is Not Climate; Cooler Weather and Fewer Hurricanes Do Not Lessen Global Warming Trends, Say Scientists,” authors Clayton Sandell and Bill Blakemore began (emphasis mine throughout):
You probably noticed there were fewer Atlantic hurricanes this year. Melting Arctic sea ice came extremely close to but didn't break the record minimum of summer 2005. And today, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, announced two months of cooler-than-average temperatures across the United States.
So what happened to global warming?
Scientists who study climate say they get that question every time there's a cold spell. Their answer: It's important to keep in mind an important concept.
Weather is not climate.
I’m not kidding. Check the link if you don’t believe me. But, here was the pivotal sentence in this piece. Please pay close attention: “And that, said climate scientists, means the occasional cold snap is not inconsistent with global warming, just as a heat wave may not by itself indicate global warming.”
Actually, Sandell and Blakemore weren’t being completely honest with their readers. To be sure, they unquestionably felt that the occasional cold snap was not inconsistent with global warming. However, a heat wave certainly was a sign of the malady. Conveniently, they both forgot what Blakemore had reported on “Good Morning America” on August 4 of this year right after the hot July the nation suffered:
Yes. Chris, it's been 21 days of brutal heat, a coast-to-coast double heat wave leaving at least 186 people dead, massive damage to crops and livestock. And yes, it's got folks everywhere asking if it's part of global warming, and thus a sign that Earth will keep getting hotter. The scientists say yes, global warming is involved. First, it fits the pattern predicted 30 years ago, more frequent and intense heat waves. More than 50 cities just broke records.
Get the point? A two-month cold snap, including the earliest snowfall in Chicago history, doesn’t represent proof that the globe isn’t warming. But, any time temperatures rise above normal for a few days, the global warming myth must be fact. Isn’t that great?
Blakemore continued:
And scientists say it's global warming since it's in many countries. Here we viewed studies of Europe's 2003 heat wave, which killed more than 35,000 people, calculated that man-made greenhouse emissions had at least doubled the risk of a heat wave of that severity. A sign of worse to come? ABC News got a look at one of the main reasons scientists say so.
Did ABC do a report suggesting that such pressures might be waning as a result of the recent two-month cold spell which has likely stopped this from being the warmest year on record? Or discussed the fact that even though there are some scientists that contend the earth is warming, the hottest temperatures on record are still 72 years old?
What do you think?
What follows is a full transcript of this August 4, 2006, segment for your entertainment pleasure.
CONTENT: GLOBAL WARMING, EARTH, HEAT WAVE
CHRIS CUOMO (ABC NEWS)
(Off-camera) This morning, across much of the country, the heat wave has finally snapped. But these record setting temperatures have many people wondering whether global warming is to blame.
GRAPHICS: LOS ANGELES TIMES POLL
CHRIS CUOMO (ABC NEWS)
(Voiceover) Seventy percent of Americans say global warming is a problem. And 58% say the White House is not doing enough to fix it.
CHRIS CUOMO (ABC NEWS)
(Off-camera) ABC's Bill Blakemore more has been covering this story for us as part of our 'Global Warming" series and joins us now in Times Square with more. Bill?
GRAPHICS: GLOBAL WARMING: GLOBAL WARNING
BILL BLAKEMORE (ABC NEWS)
(Off-camera) Yes. Chris, it's been 21 days of brutal heat, a coast-to-coast double heat wave leaving at least 186 people dead, massive damage to crops and livestock. And yes, it's got folks everywhere asking if it's part of global warming, and thus a sign that Earth will keep getting hotter.
GRAPHICS: IT'S GETTING HOT IN HERE
GRAPHICS: NEW PROOF OF GLOBAL WARMING
BILL BLAKEMORE (ABC NEWS)
(Voiceover) The scientists say yes, global warming is involved. First, it fits the pattern predicted 30 years ago, more frequent and intense heat waves. More than 50 cities just broke records.
GRAPHICS: GLOBAL WARMING
GRAPHICS: 2006, HOTTEST YEAR YET
BILL BLAKEMORE (ABC NEWS)
(Voiceover) 2005 had the hottest temperature yet recorded. The four runners-up? The previous four years. 2006, on track for hottest yet. Nighttime temperatures across these years were especially high.
GRAPHICS: COURTESY: NASA
BILL BLAKEMORE (ABC NEWS)
(Voiceover) And scientists say it's global warming since it's in many countries. Here we viewed studies of Europe's 2003 heat wave, which killed more than 35,000 people, calculated that man-made greenhouse emissions had at least doubled the risk of a heat wave of that severity. A sign of worse to come? ABC News got a look at one of the main reasons scientists say so.
BILL BLAKEMORE (ABC NEWS)
(Voiceover) The government's immense super computer in Boulder, Colorado. One of 16 around the world working day and night to calculate the impact of man's carbon emissions, which they project on this big sphere. Starting in the 1960s, blue is cooler.
DOCTOR SANDY MCDONALD (NOAA)
Nice, pleasant temperatures. Then all at once by today, we see it warm up.
BILL BLAKEMORE (ABC NEWS)
(Voiceover) Yellow is warmer than normal. That's the entire planet in 2001, five years ago.
DOCTOR SANDY MCDONALD (NOAA)
And now, we look through time, and we can go through the decades.
BILL BLAKEMORE (ABC NEWS)
(Voiceover) Red is much warmer. That's only 45 years from now.
DOCTOR SANDY MCDONALD (NOAA)
North America is really warming up.
BILL BLAKEMORE (ABC NEWS)
(Voiceover) Today's toddlers barely into middle age. And it gets hotter. Washington legislators of both parties are scrambling for solutions, calling for action.
PAT ROBERTSON ('THE 700 CLUB")
I have not been one who believed in this global warming, but I tell you - they're making a convert out of me.
BILL BLAKEMORE (ABC NEWS)
(Voiceover) Even Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson who had called extreme weather a sign of biblical apocalypse, converted in this heat wave to more scientific language.
PAT ROBERTSON ("THE 700 CLUB")
The ice caps are melting and there is a build up of carbon dioxide in the air.
BILL BLAKEMORE (ABC NEWS)
(Off-camera) And, Chris, Pat Robertson there is just one of a number of, of, of people, a growing number who are saying they finally get it now about global warming.
CHRIS CUOMO (ABC NEWS)
(Off-camera) The science is starting to sway. And you brought something that shows the threat not just from above, but below the ocean surface.
BILL BLAKEMORE (ABC NEWS)
(Voiceover) Indeed, this is new footage from scientists diving off the coast of California of methane, a natural gas that's also a very strong greenhouse gas. It's bubbling up from enormous reservoirs of methane under the seafloor, frozen in under the seafloor. Scientists are worried that as the sea currents get warmer and warmer, which they are expecting to happen for at least the next 30 or 40 years, large amounts of this methane might get out and make the Earth even hotter. They believe it's happened in the past from natural causes and that's why they say that we have really got to stop this artificial burning of fossil fuels, of coal, oil and gas.
CHRIS CUOMO (ABC NEWS)
(Off-camera) So just to be very clear, this is something that we are contributing to, we're doing it? Not about the Earth?
BILL BLAKEMORE (ABC NEWS)
(Off-camera) The global warming in general. Yes, after about 40 years of debate, all of the credible scientists on the planet now say it's quite clear that man is making this much worse. And, in fact, most of them are saying that, if it weren't for burning fossil fuels, we would probably be now in a slight cooling period.
CHRIS CUOMO (ABC NEWS)
(Off-camera) Hmm. Bill, thank you for the education. Diane?
