Environmental Law

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS REACHES NEW HEIGHT OF BIAS

By STEPHEN HOLZER

     In an article labeled "Obama left with little time to curb global warming", theAssociated Press once again reveals that it is not the press service of record, but rather the Left's press service of record.  AP accomplishes this task by trying to convince us of the equivalent of up is down and down is up-- i.e, it's been getting colder, that's why it's been getting warmer.

      When Bill Clinton took office in 1993, global warming was a slow-moving environmental problem that was easy to ignore. Now it is a ticking time bomb that President-elect Barack Obama can't avoid.

    ***

    Ironically, 2008 is on pace to be a slightly cooler year in a steadily rising temperature trend line. Experts say it's thanks to a La Nina weather variation. While skeptics are already using it as evidence of some kind of cooling trend, it actually illustrates how fast the world is warming.

The average global temperature in 2008 is likely to wind up slightly under 57.9 degrees Fahrenheit, about a tenth of a degree cooler than last year. When Clinton was inaugurated, 57.9 easily would have been the warmest year on record. Now, that temperature would qualify as the ninth warmest year.

(emphases added)

     The AP's article, of course, leaves out the abundant contradictory evidence that was available to--but ignored by--the author.  For example, see my Post of November 30, 2008, wherein it was pointed out:

It's not even science any more; it's anti-science." [David] Bellamy [an Australian botanist] notes that official data show that "in every year since 1998, world temperatures have been getting colder, and in 2002, Arctic ice actually increased." Exhibit B: MIT Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Sciences Richard S. Lindzen recently wrote, "There has been no warming since 1997 and no statistically significant warming since 1995.

     As another example, see this from my Post of July 12, 2008:

Late last month, some leading climatologists and meteorologists met in New York at the Energy Business Watch Climate and Hurricane Forum. The theme of the forum strongly suggested that a period of global cooling is about [done], though possible concerns for a political backlash kept it from being spelled out  However, the message was loud and clear, a cyclical global warming trend may be coming to an end for a variety of reasons, and a new cooling cycle could impact the energy markets in a big way. 

     Need more?  OK-see my Post of November 10, 2007:

Fact:  Per ABC News, August 25, 2007: "Was 1998 the hottest year in United States history, as most reporting on climate change has presumed? Or was that record set back in 1934 before ?global warming? became a scary household phrase?..A corrective tweak to National Aeronautics and Space Administration's formulation shows that the hottest year on record in the United States indeed was back during the Dust Bowl days."

     Why did none of this evidence and respectable scientific opinion made its way into this AP analysis?   Can you say "agenda"?  The AP's credibility is declining to zero.  Now, maybe that's a temperature reading AP can undesrtand.

Full post as published by Environmental Legal Blogs on December 14, 2008 (boomark / email).