On Saturday evening, the CBS Weekend News on CBSN seized on a report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to promote global warming alarmism and a push for more regulations to curtail melting in the Arctic.
Only one scientist, Rick Thoman -- who helped write the report -- was used as the primary source for the entire story, filed by CBS correspondent Roxana Saberi.
Host Irika Sargent set up the report: "The latest assessment of the once reliably frozen Arctic is causing alarm among climate scientists. In tonight's "Eye on Earth," CBS's Roxana Saberi reports the changes could ripple across the entire globe."
Saberi began: "The scientists say the changes they're seeing in the Arctic are undeniable and alarming. Snow and sea ice are rapidly melting. The long-frozen tundra is growing green. And on the highest point in Greenland's ice sheet, rain was recorded for the first time last summer."
The climate expert fretted:
THOMAN: Even if some records were broken, we did have parts of the Arctic, the warmest fall, 2020. The theme is really continued disruption in the Arctic.
SABERI: Disruption, he says, to the lives of Arctic animals [video of polar bears] and people.
THOMAN: Changes have already occurred. They can't be undone in short order.
CBS ignored the argument that the Arctic was already warming in the early 20th century, and ignored studies in recent years finding that the polar bear population up North is thriving.
PS: CBSNews.com also served as a press-release service for climate alarmism on Monday:
The past seven years have been the hottest ever recorded globally "by a clear margin," according to findings released Monday by scientists with the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service. Though 2021 was not quite as warm as other recent years, scientists warned that global greenhouse gas emissions are continuing to rise.
Transcript follows:
CBS Weekend News
January 8, 2021
IRIKA SARGENT, HOST: The latest assessment of the once reliably frozen Arctic is causing alarm among climate scientists. In tonight's "Eye on Earth," CBS's Roxana Saberi reports the changes could ripple across the entire globe.
ROXANA SABERI: The scientists say the changes they're seeing in the Arctic are undeniable and alarming. Snow and sea ice are rapidly melting. The long-frozen tundra is growing green. And on the highest point in Greenland's ice sheet, rain was recorded for the first time last summer.
RICK THOMAN, CLIMATE EXPERT: Should we be concerned? Absolutely.
SABERI: Climate specialist Rick Tolman helped write the annual report card -- the 16th released by the U.S. government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
THOMAN: Even if some records were broken, we did have parts of the Arctic, the warmest fall, 2020. The theme is really continued disruption in the Arctic.
SABERI: Disruption, he says, to the lives of Arctic animals and people.
THOMAN: Changes have already occurred. They can't be undone in short order.
SABERI: Even wildfires are scorching land that was once permanently frozen in Siberia, which the U.N. says hit a record high of around 100 degrees Fahrenheit in 2020.
THOMAN: The heat that we saw in Siberia in 2020 would have been almost impossible without climate change.
SABERI: The report warns, if we don't curb greenhouse gas emissions, the changes in the Arctic could fold elsewhere with melting ice and warming water raising sea levels that's speeding up global warming. So what can we do?
THOMAN: We have to reduce very dramatic the amount of carbon dioxide humans are causing to be put into the air. There's no doubt about that. It's late, but the best time to take action was 50 years ago, and the second best time is right now.
SABERI: The sooner we act to protect the Arctic, he says, the more we can keep dramatic disruptions there from cascading to the rest of the planet.
