So eager are the shills at the George Soros-funded far-left website Think Progress to find evidence of global warming that on Thursday they falsely blamed melting street lights in Stillwater, Oklahoma, on the heat.
As originally reported by TP's Stephen Lacey:
Even as residents swelter in the relentless heat, Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe continued his tirade about man-made global warming during a Senate hearing yesterday, saying the science had “collapsed.”
It appears the only thing collapsing are the street lights.
That was in an article published Thursday hysterically titled "In Oklahoma, It’s So Hot The Street Lights Are Melting."
If you go to that link now, you'll find a completely different story with the headline "UPDATE: In Oklahoma City, It’s So Hot And Dry There’s Mandatory Water Rationing."
Way down at the bottom is this:
UPDATE: After we published this piece, we saw reports from people on the ground in Stillwater that the melting streetlights were due to a nearby fire. The person who took the photo, Patrick Hunter, described the scene: “Being the person that actually took this photo, I’d say that this was due to a fire semi-close by coupled with the unbelievable heat we are experiencing. Still an amazing photo and not fake as many are saying on here. Enjoy!”
They are some fine journalists at that Soros-funded propaganda outlet, aren't they?
Unfortunately, as so often happens with the garbage at TP, it makes its way to other left-wing publications.
Buzzfeed's Matt Stopera bought this nonsense hook, line, and sinker writing his own piece "It's So Hot In Oklahoma That Street Lights Are Melting." Gawker fell for it, too. So did Yahoo!.
Senator Inhofe's office issued the following statement:
Today the far-left blog Think Progress posted a photo (originally posted on KFOR's facebook page) of street lights in Oklahoma that had melted, they claimed, because of extreme heat. Global warming alarmist Bill McKibben took to Twitter immediately to publicize what he believed to be proof of global warming, tweeting to Senator James Inhofe (Okla.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, "Senator Inhofe, God may be trying to get your attention. Check out this picture."
Not long after the picture surfaced, Oklahomans posted comments on Think Progress' blog saying that these lights had melted due to a fire - which makes sense considering that the two front lights were melted while the two back lights remained unscathed.
Inhofe's office provided a picture of the fire:
"Poor Bill McKibben - he's been trying to get something to melt for ages but it keeps backfiring," Senator Inhofe said. "These alarmists never learn their lesson. Remember Bill McKibben was the one who was going to melt a giant ice sculpture in the shape of the word ‘hoax' on the national mall, but his group had to cancel because there wasn't enough interest. Now, after proclaiming that street lights in Oklahoma are melting because of global warming, we have confirmation that a fire caused this scene.
Pretty pathetic!
Anthony Watts observed:
I wonder if it ever occurred to these guys to check to see how many streetlights melt in Phoenix (or Riyadh and Baghdad) each year where the temperature routinely reaches 115°F and as high as 122°F ? Or why only two globes melted on one side?
Watts later identified that these globes are made of high density polyethelene with a melting point of 266 degrees.
Why should we expect a far-left propaganda machine to do research that might impede its agenda?
Soros must be pleased with the bang he's getting for his buck.
