Cold Irony: ABC's Sam Stuck in Snowfield for Report on Wind Power

Photo of Mark Finkelstein.

Mother Nature must have a wicked sense of humor. She forced ABC's Sam Champion to report on anti-global warming initiative . . . . while standing in a field of snow in late April.

Champion was there as part of Good Morning America's "Planet Earth 2007" segment, in which reporters chimed in from around the globe on various environmental initiatives. Diane Sawyer [badly alarmed by a warm spell in January] introduced the segment with a little bit of enviro-alarmist cheerleading, declaring it was "good news" that as per a recent Stanford poll 94% are ready to make a change to help the planet and that 73% are already taking steps to reduce energy consumption.

Champion -- not just GMA's weatherman but its chief global-warming activist -- was in Lowville, NY on the Tug Hill plateau, not too far from my upstate New York hometown of Ithaca, to report on a large wind turbine farm there. From a helicopter, Champion referred to wind power as "the fastest-growing form of alternative energy in the world." In the second half-hour, now down on the ground, Champion mentioned that there were "nearly 200 of these turbines, over 21,000 acres," providing power to 160,000 homes.

Not a peep from Sam about the buzz-killing snow by which he was surrounded.

Mark lives in Ithaca, NY, where there was heavy frost on this April 20th morning. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net

—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.


Comments Policy

All comments are owned by whoever posted them and are subject to our terms of use. They should not be assumed to represent the views of NewsBusters.

Viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Global Warming Solution

Remeber a few years back with the Cold War and everyone was talking about the posibility of a Nuclear Winter. Maybe these guys should suggest a limited Nuclear initiative to mitigate Global Warming. Possible targets - Tehran, Damascus, PRK........

It's snowing in Nevada, Monta

It's snowing in Nevada, Montana, Idaho, Utah and a wee bit in California if that's any consolation, hehehe  I was hoping for a little more than this but the day is still young.

“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” – Marcus Aurelius

A sane person can't help but

A sane person can't help but wonder if this guy has any clue about how foolish he looks.

Later in the same 1/2 hour, S

Later in the same 1/2 hour, Sam talked about houses in Newfoundland sliding down a hill and slipping into the ocean because "warmer temperatures softened the clay" ...But also, in a separate report, they talked about Ice Forces Evacuation of Canadian Seal Hunt Vessels Off Newfoundland. So, what is it this spring in Newfoundland; warmer or colder?

Did Sam mention how much ca

Did Sam mention how much carbon dioxide he emitted by travelling to Lowville, NY and taking a tour of their windfarm in a helecopter? Couldn't he have just stayed in GMA's studios and used stock footage? Hypocrite.

I was waiting - hoping - fo

I was waiting - hoping - for someone to point that out. But like all good liberals, Sam gets a pass. We're just selfish; he's doing it to Save the Planet!

I don't know, Mark...  I thi

I don't know, Mark...  I think this guy is ripe for a weekend captionfest.  Talk about MT headed!  That recent thing he did about having Green weddings was so bad, it was like an SNL skit.  He must be paid boatloads of cash to play this silly GW activist role. 

Texas leading in Wind power

Texas leading in Wind power. I don't suppose that would interest ABC, do ya Mark?

Looks like not only does Texas have more production in the ground, they have more under construction than CA has planned. 

The data:

Texas

Installed MW = 2739 MW*
Under Construction = 1013 MW*

California

Installed MW = 2,361
Planned MW = 565*
(Final total will be less due to re-powering projects)

I used Green Mountain Energ

I used Green Mountain Energy when I lived in Houston. They were a pretty good and popular company there, growing fast I believe.

ABC and Texas Wind Power

Gary,

I have been waging a a private effort to get the major media to admit that "Big OIL" Texas is also the leading Wind Energy State.  I even sent ABC a list of links related to this.  They sent me back an email stating that they would forward it to the appropriate departments for review.  Former Gov Bush was a proponent of Wind energy in Texas, and my guess is they do not want to see him get any credit like this.