"Scientists say the world's temperature will rise about two degrees in the next 50 years no matter what we do, but if we act now it might level off after that," said ABC's Bill Blakemore on April 1.
Blakemore has said publicly that "civilization as we know it is over" because of global wamring.
But his report that warned as many as 1.5 billion people "might not have enough water" was no joke. Neither was Andrew Revkin's New York Times piece on the same day.
ABC's Blakemore made it clear at the end of his broadcast that the poorest nations will suffer the most but stopped short of calling for more taxpayer dollars. But Revkin's article called for rich nations to spend even more because "tens of millions" isn't enough.
“[D]espite longstanding treaty commitments to help poor countries deal with warming, these industrial powers are spending just tens of millions of dollars on ways to limit climate and coastal hazards in the world’s most vulnerable regions,” wrote Revkin.
The Times writer quoted Kevin Watkins, director of the United Nations Human Development Report Office, who said the $40 million that is being spent on adaptation projects in the most vulnerable places “borders on the derisory.”
Instead of criticizing government decisions that keep underdeveloped nations from adapting, such as the EU's opposition to selling genetically modified grains in Africa which Revkin buried in the last column of his article, the Times reporter suggested wealthy nations were being selfish.
