Like the nag of a dripping faucet, the liberal news media spent years warning about melting glaciers and ice caps because of global warming.
Media outlets predicted an “ice-free” Arctic time and again, and so far have been wrong. But with all the panic about melting glaciers, or sea ice, or ice at the poles the media have reported, one would imagine good news about increasing ice would at least get some attention.
Not from the broadcast networks anyway. In the past year, they’ve ignored data showing increasing ice in Antarctica, presumably because it did not fit perfectly with their climate agenda, instead choosing to hype melting Arctic ice repeatedly.
Between October 2014 and November 2015, NASA released two separate studies, both showing that ice in Antarctica is growing faster than it is melting. In May 2015, Antarctic ice was at a record high level. Yet between Nov. 4, 2014 and Nov. 11, 2015, the broadcast network’s evening news shows never mentioned either study.
During that same time however, the broadcast network’s evening news shows specifically mentioned melting ice in the Arctic 12 different times. All of those were on CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News. But additional stories on all three evening shows implied that melting was occurring in polar regions because of global warming or climate change.
Jim Axelrod, the CBS national correspondent, included a frightening report in the July 21, 2015, Evening News, saying, “ever warming oceans melting polar ice could raise sea levels fifteen feet in the next fifty to a hundred years, NASA’s former climate chief now says. Five times higher than previous predictions.”
Axelrod then showed dire graphics of Miami, Seattle and New York City, all being flooded as a result of melting ice.
“The melting ice would cool ocean surfaces at the poles even more, while the overall climate continues to warm. The temperature difference would fuel even more volatile weather,” he warned.
In August, all three networks also turned to President Barack Obama to help draw attention to polar melting. On Aug. 3, ABC and NBC both aired Obama’s “personal plea” to cut emissions.
Obama said, “I don’t want my grandkids not to be able to swim in Hawaii or not to be able to climb a mountain and see a glacier because we didn’t do something about it.”
Not to be outdone, CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley hyped the climate change focus of Obama’s trip to Alaska on Aug. 31, saying, “Tonight as the president visits Alaska, we’ll take you to the Portage Glacier to show you the dramatic effects of climate change.”
The next night Pelley continued the same refrain saying, “The president hiked today to Alaska’s Exit Glacier, which is melting. A sign marks where it stood in 1951. It shrunk a quarter of a mile. Proof, according to the president, that time is running out to reverse climate change.”
Pelley’s bias on the subject has been evident for years. He famously defended his decision not to include climate skeptics saying in 2006, “If I do an interview with Elie Wiesel, am I required as a journalist to find a Holocaust denier.”
NBC has devoted significant resources to show climate change. On Sept. 15, 2015, Nightly News host Lester Holt said, “NBC News has spent the past four months traveling to the Arctic” to cover melting ice.
Holt cited a NASA study released that day that claimed that the Arctic “has recently seen the most sea ice melting since NASA began keeping track in 1978.”
Pelley highlighted the same story the next night saying, “Scientists say that the ice cap shrank to the fourth smallest area on record. The ice was measured by satellite in 1979, and since then it has decreased 38 percent.”
Although Nightly News and Evening News eagerly and quickly reported those NASA claims, less than one month later they refused to cover another NASA study showing ice grown happening in Antarctica.
That Oct. 30, 2015 report from NASA showed that snowfall accumulation in Antarctica had been “adding enough ice to the continent to outweigh the increased losses from its thinning glaciers.”
“The research challenges the conclusions of other studies, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) 2013 report, which says that Antarctica is overall losing land ice,” NASA said.
CNN published the story online on Nov. 3, reporting, “Antarctica is gaining more ice than it has lost.”
In May 2015, Antarctic sea ice was at record levels, but the networks also ignored that. The very liberal Guardian (UK) newspaper reported that ice was growing so much that it was “making it harder to resupply and refuel research stations” that were hosting sea ice forecasting workshops. Yet the networks refused to cover it.
Even earlier, NASA reported in October 2014 that Antarctic sea ice growth was at a “record high extent this year, covering more of the southern oceans than it has since scientists began a long-term satellite record to map sea ice extent in the late 1970s.”
“On Sept. 19, 2014, the five-day average of Antarctic sea ice extent exceeded 20 million square kilometers for the first time since 1979,” NASA said.
All that Antarctic ice growth stalled a research expedition to Antarctica full of scientists looking for proof of global warming In December 2013. The expedition became stranded when the sea ice froze so thick around their ship that a chinese rescue vessel couldn’t break through to reach them.
Methodology: MRC Business searched ABC, NBC, and CBS evening news show transcripts between Nov. 4, 2014 and Nov. 11, 2015 for the terms ice, glacier, polar, Arctic, Antarctic, and/or Antarctica. Within those stories, MRC Business evaluated all reports which focused on the long term growth or melting of ice in the polar regions. Reports discussing “Arctic blasts” or freezing lakes and rivers due to winter weather were not included.
