Blogosphere fires on AP for alarmist article on global warming

Please note the correction to this article regarding the asteroid Apophis. Within the story the deletion is noted within brackets and the adjusted odds are noted in bold. We thank our readers for setting us straight. See the 'Comments' section below.

Earth, our home planet, has oceans of liquid water, and continents that rise above sea level. NASA scientists combined satellite photographs with surface data to create this detailed image of Earth's land masses and oceans. The swirling mass of clouds west of Mexico is a large hurricane. [Image credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center]I read the header (‘Obama left with little time to curb global warming’) and then I read the descriptive: “a ticking time bomb.” And I swore to myself I’d ignore this latest appeal by an alarmist writer who, not surprisingly, writes for the Associated Press which means his work will be memed and taken for gospel around the world. As might be expected, the writer in question, Seth Borenstein, is an environmental apostle of Al Gore's theology. He noted Gore’s influence on President-Elect Barack Obama after a meeting the twosome had, with Obama emerging to declare, “The time for denial is over.” Gore has issued environmental epistles since Bill Clinton was president. If you think about the threesome, and their expertise, we have one with an expertise in government, one with some experience as a community organizer and lawyer, and another whose major was journalism. These three men are influencers on global energy policy. And the blogosphere is having a ball with their 'end of days' warnings.

I’ve written repeatedly about scientists and the hundreds of other experts who disagree with current politics about global warming theology. I’ve pointed out the EPA suggests we now call the phenomenon climate change, something that, if other experts are to be believed, has been around for billions of years depending on whose theory you buy into about the age of our planet.

In its long life, Earth has hosted a number of animal species and plants no longer with us—on North America alone, woolly mammoths, giant sloths, saber-toothed cats, camels, lions, tapirs and the teratorn, a condor with a 16-foot wingspan, among them. Any parent with a kid has gone through the life stage we parents might call the “dinosaur age.” Those dinosaurs, as we further know, were wiped out. We’re not sure what zapped the creatures, but many say man wasn’t around at the time. The Bible makes reference to giants. As a child, I spent many navel-gazing moments wondering where all those went.

The politically fixed focus on global warming aka climate change will likely do little to help the environment and may even harm the cause. For one thing, China and India aren’t so willing to work on emissions—it will cost them money at a time when their dense populations, the largest in the world, can ill afford it. That’s why China loves to base emissions on per capita measurements. It will cost every family in the U.S. money because the incoming Democratic administration is of the halleluja school of thought on global warming.

Sadly, one would hope that a writer for the Associated Press would quote at least one distinguished scientist who believes man has nothing to do with climate change. That isn’t the case with Borenstein. He is a global warming aka climate change (would someone please tell him the proper reference) advocate. My only quibble is that he should present himself that way, rather than as a reporter. Reporters should ask questions of experts from both sides. And that I realize is a statement akin to a pipe dream.

Whatever the case, there are wonderfully insulting comments on all manner of blogs about Borenstein’s advocacy piece. Those comments by the way are far more entertaining to read than the alarmist piece, another in a long line of diatribes based on political consensus rather than sound science. I base that statement on the more than 600 experts who disagree with Gorian theology. I can’t prove it or disprove it, personally. I majored in English. But at least I know my limitations. Would that politicians and so-called reporters do the same. I know I swore I wouldn't write about this. But I dislike deception and that alone spurred my keyboard into action.

I confess, among other environmental concerns such as lack of habitat and very unwise use of our resources, asteroids worry me. {DELETE THIS: In April, a 13-year-old German student corrected some of NASA's math calculations about asteroid Apophis. }That is cause for alarm, considering all those wooly mammoths, according to Science Daily, may have been wiped out by comets or meteorites hitting our fair planet. You'd think these politicians might look into that. There's a 1-in-450*[NASA corrects this to 1/45,000]chance Apophis will hit Earth. You'd think that worthy of a headline, wouldn't you?

 [For related articles and additional reading about climate change, click on 'Links' below.]

Comments

[codehead]

Oh, bad news (well, good news) about the Apophis situation. It came out almost immediately (meaning back in April when the German boy story came up) that in fact the kid had erred--NASA was correct. Somehow, it had been reported that NASA agree that they were mistaken, but that was not true. I hadn't read of it before, but the "1 in 450" odds posted here seemed pretty unlikely--a search revealed the truth.

[Kay B. Day, Editor]

We stand corrected on odds for the Asteroid Apophis to hit Earth. NASA disagrees with the German schoolboy, We did not look for an update to the original Agence France Presse story. NASA has a statement at its website.

Ironically, even at 1/45,000 odds for my home planet to get slammed, I'm not very comforted. If the odds went against themselves, it wouldn't be a pretty picture.

The email we received from our reader is below. I withheld his name for privacy purposes.

Codehead and the reader who wrote to us by email, thanks.

--Editor/The US Report

_________________________

Letter to Editor received Dec. 22, 2008

I enjoyed your article on Seth Borenstein (and agree whole heatedly), but the comment about Apophis is not true. NASA issued this statement on April 16:

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/apr/HQ_08103_student_asteroid_calculations.html

More details about the asteroid can be found here:

http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/apophis/

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