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

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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