Lautenberg to WP: Don't Discredit Climate Change!

[G_j]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A56421-2004Dec10?language=printer


washingtonpost.com

Don't Discredit Climate Change



Saturday, December 11, 2004; Page A21


Juliet Eilperin's Dec. 2 news story on climate change, "Humans May Double the Risk of Heat Waves," is the latest example of the media's "he said, she said" treatment of what reputable scientists say is one of the greatest threats to the human race. Even worse, the article countered the findings of the world's top climate scientists by quoting an oil industry-funded economist. Such reporting is not credible, nor does it illuminate a subject of significant importance.

The article began by citing a peer-reviewed study published in the revered scientific journal Nature, which reported that the risk has more than doubled for the type of lethal heat wave responsible for 35,000 deaths in Europe last year. But the last half of the article is squandered on the views of Myron Ebell, an economist -- not a climate scientist -- whose "studies" at the American Enterprise Institute are funded by Exxon Mobil. The article fails to mention this shameless conflict of interest.

The problem with this type of reporting was highlighted at a recent Senate Commerce Committee hearing. Robert Correll, senior fellow at the American Meteorological Society, warned, "The trouble with a debate of this nature is you put 2,600 against two or three or four ." Ebell is not in the same league as the qualified climate scientists who report that the climate is changing before our eyes; only the intensity and the speed of those changes are unknown. Your newspaper does an injustice to its readers by giving Ebell's caterwauling equal weight with the widely accepted views of reputable and unbiased scientists.

-- Frank R. Lautenberg

Washington

The writer is a Democratic senator from New Jersey

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. Thank You Frank!

[DeepModem Mom]

2. This is what's wrong with reporting today -- there are NOT 2 sides...

to every issue. Sometimes there is just the truth, and it is the duty of the press to tell it to the people! Thanks, Senator --

[G_j]

3. exactly

in responsible journalism one is not required to achieve "balance" by mixing truth with untruth.

[DeepModem Mom]

4. kick

[AZCat]

5. "Mathematicians Claim Two Plus Two Equals Four"

But we have managed to find a small child in New Hampshire who says that it is definitely "five", so we are going to give him equal coverage. After all, we have to be "Fair and Balanced".
</satire>

Sheesh. A politician is now instructing newspaper reporters on how to tell the truth. Snowballs, get yourselves to hell - now's your chance!

[KT2000]

6. More of this

This is exactly what needs to be done - call them on their idiot "reporting."
Democratic politicians should do more of this letter writing to set the records straight.
This is great - thank you Senator.

[G_j]

8. agreed

and when a Congressperson writes a LTTE, the chances are it will be published. For a small effort this can be very effective.

[bklyncowgirl]

7. That's my Senator, Thank you Frank, we'll miss you buddy. nt

[hatrack]

9. But re. WH - how can you discredit what doesn't exist?

Glad he brought this up. Corpo-whores like Ebell don't "do" peer-reviewed science. They don't have to - they're think tanks.

Not that this will make a damned bit of difference. After all, Michael Crichton has a new book to sell, and that proves that climate breakdown doesn't exist. John Stossel vomits forth his swill night after night on prime time TV, and that proves that climate breakdown isn't happening.

And when the Ross Ice Shelf breaks up, and when the NAC breaks down, and when Ireland turns to Greenland in ten years, Bush will call for more studies. Science just can't be too sound, you know! :mad:

[G_j]

10. "Science just can't be too sound"

unless of course, it is being used to develop new ways to kill and destroy while making a bundle of money for weapons contractors.