Tale of Two Truths

It is very very rare indeed when I use a television anymore.

Almost all of my information and entertainment at home and office,

is delivered by a computer.

However this weekend, there are two programs

which have or will soon cause a stir.

One is the climate change liathon from Fox.

Here is the story from Media Matters

Summary:

On May 21, Fox News will air a one-hour special, Global Warming: The Debate Continues, in which host David Asman will "speak with scientists who are skeptical of what they view as alarmist fears about climate change." Among the roster of contributors are several global warming skeptics with ties to the energy industry and records of misinformation on the issue.

Among the roster of contributors are several global warming skeptics with ties to the energy industry and records of misinformation on the issue.

In each case, their statements or studies questioning global warming theory have been debunked or proven misleading by the scientific community.

Patrick J. Michaels

According to an October 11, 2005, Seattle Times article, "Michaels has received more than $165,000 in fuel-industry funding, including money from the coal industry to publish his own climate journal."

Michaels also has ties to the George C. Marshall Institute (GMI), described by Congressional Quarterly as "a Washington-based think tank supported by industry and conservative foundations that focuses primarily on trying to debunk global warming as a threat." Formerly a visiting scientist at GMI, Michaels recently participated in a February 24 roundtable discussion there.

He is also the editor of Shattered Consensus: The True State of Global Warming (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005), a collection of essays advertised on the Institute's website as raising "serious doubts about whether policies to 'fight' climate change are warranted at all." The Exxon Mobil Foundation donated $80,000 to GMI's Climate Change program in 2002.

Moreover, Michaels's employer, the Cato Institute, has received substantial financial support from energy companies such as Chevron Companies, Exxon Corp., Royal Dutch/Shell, and Tenneco Gas, as well as the American Petroleum Institute, Amoco Foundation, and the Atlantic Richfield Foundation.

Bjørn Lomborg

In his book, The Skeptical Environmentalist (Cambridge University Press, 2001), Lomborg purported to conduct a "non-partisan analysis" of environmental data in the hope of offering the public and policymakers a guide for "clear-headed prioritization of resources to tackle real, not imagined, problems."

His conclusion was that the concerns of scientists regarding the world's environmental problems -- including global warming -- were universally overblown.

But in January 2002, Scientific American ran a series of articles from four well-known environmental specialists that lambasted Lomborg's book for "egregious distortions," "elementary blunders of quantitative manipulation and presentation that no self-respecting statistician ought to commit," and sections "poorly researched and ... rife with careless mistakes."

John Christy

John Christy is the director of the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama-Huntsville. Christy and fellow University of Alabama professor Roy Spencer co-authored a 2003 global warming study based on extensive data from weather satellites. Their report, which concluded that the troposphere had not warmed in recent decades, was ultimately found to have significant errors.

As The New York Times reported, when their miscalculations were taken into account, the data used in their study actually showed warming in the troposphere.

The Good news about this kind of reporting is this.

Some percent of the Fox viewing public will see this for what it is,

Propaganda from those who are recklessly endangering our climate.

And, they will see through this mendacious malicious misuse of the

public trust.

And Fox, will have their tight asses sued to their ankles some day.

In the meantime, Fox is losing viewers almost as fast

as the administration is losing its support.

Moreover, this kind of panic from the polluters,

shows that their molding of public opinion on climate change,

is losing ground in the minds and views of a growing concerned public.

The only honest debate about climate change these days is,

How bad and how fast?

On another network, HBO is showing Baghdad ER.

Here is the blurb:

12-time Emmy® Award winner producer/director Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill capture the humanity, hardships and heroism of the US Military and medical personnel of the 86th Combat Support Hospital, the Army's premier medical facility in Iraq.

Sometimes graphic in its depiction of combat-related wounds, BAGHDAD ER offers an unflinching and honest account of the realities of war. "

There is a lot of real estate between these two network shows.

One is full of lies, the other is full of real life.

One represents the views of those who would continue to wage

war on the earth.

The other shows what war on earth looks like

in the Emergency Room

in Baghdad.

One network should be sued for reckless endangerment.

The other should get a medal for showing the truth.

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