A balanced view does not reflect the scientific consensus on climate change.
Credit: iStockphoto
MELBOURNE: Airing the views of climate change sceptics in the media may only be serving to keep the global warming controversy boiling, argue scientists.
Leading climate change experts have warned the World Conference of Science Journalists in Melbourne, Australia, that a balanced view does not always reflect the consensus of the research community.
Kevin Hennessy, a lead scientist with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said yesterday that media attention on "the view of a handful of climate change sceptics" amplifies their opinions and "implies that there is little agreement about the basic facts of global warming".
Hennessy is also with the marine and atmospheric division of Australian government research body, CSIRO.
Speaking in a session about climate change reporting, he said editors and journalists have a duty to ensure that facts are presented in context. Balanced reporting, he said, "perpetuates the public's perception that scientists are in disarray, which is misleading in the case of climate change".
Geoff Love, secretary of the IPCC and former deputy director of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, said that IPCC assessment reports from 1990 through to this year are strong evidence of "the coming together of the scientific community."
Emphasis on the sceptic view does not help public understanding of climate change, said Love.
Media coverage has not always reflected the consensus of the majority of the scientific community, said Ian Lowe, president of the Australian Conservation Foundation a non-profit environment group. "That only makes the public and political discussion more difficult," he said.
The problem is compounded by a lack of reporting on climate change, according to Chris Mooney, a U.S.-based science journalist attending the conference. Although the 2006 hurricane season attracted a lot of media attention, Mooney presented statistics from the United States showing that climate change has never been a priority in the media.
The situation is similar in Africa, said Ochieng' Ogodoa a Kenyan correspondent for London, U.K.-based news web site SciDev.Net. Articles about deaths caused by floods or other natural disasters, and political scandals related to climate change tend to get precedence, he said.
Solutions....
That picture leaves me parched! I'm dying of thirst!
So, what can we do?
We've got too much heat from the sun causing the polar ice caps to melt and raise the level of the oceans.
Meanwhile there are places that have dried up (see picture).
So, why don't we come up with a solar powered distilling plant and pump the effluent to this poor tree?
I'm just a concept/big-picture guy; somebody else will need to work up the design.
If you make money on this you can send a check to Denny G!
The world isn't run by "experts":
Seems these IPCC guys are saying:
-They are the only ones authorized to decide if there’s a problem
-They have decided there is a problem
-The rest of us should shut up and get used to it
My answer to these worthy scientists is: Sorry guys. The reality is a bit different…
-You have not been anointed as the only experts
-We, the people, have not yet decided if there’s a problem
-We’re not going to transform our lives at your direction
Ignore the experts?
So, if you some day get cancer shall we ignore the doctor's diagnosis and wait for 'we, the people' to decide if you have it or not, and then let 'we, the people' decide on the best way to deal with it?
The IPCC (and others in this field) are not so much authorised as qualified i.e. they have spent many years learning about climate and studying climate. Scientists and scientific bodies cannot force anything on anyone, all they can do is share their findings and recommendations.
Your idea of letting the people decide is almost comical - yet it is also what is happening. Right now, 'we, the people' are deciding through government (yes, we vote them in) and our own inaction.
But this is not Australian Idol, we don't cast our vote to decide if it is happening or not.
When in the US almost half the population believes the earth was created in 6 days about 4,500 years ago, I don't have too much faith in the collective wisdom of 'we, the people'.
I don't think that climate change is our only problem, nor necessarily our biggest problem.
Global Warming is a Pack of Lies
Another storm forming on Jupiter.
Ice caps on Mars melting. (No aliens there I suppose, unlike what most Americans believed in the 1930s vis a vis "War of the Worlds").
So what is the explanation? The Sun is increasing its energy output.
That's all.
And that volcano that erupted in the Philippines, in one day it released more of these so called dangerous gasses into the atmosphere than every car and factory in human history combined. I pity Al Gore.
Be it Aids, South Africa, global warming, guns, abortion, (a baby has a heartbeat and fingerprints in under two months!) whatever the liberal crusade of the hour is, you know the transnational elite and their media whores will be spouting lies for their own benefit.
almost half the population believes.......
half of the U. S. Population believe the Earth was created about 45000 years ago? Where might I ask did you come up with this bit of moronic nonsense? Has global cooling frozen your brain? Oh, wait, that was last year. This year the wacko left has a new religion. Global warming. Has global warming cooked your brain?
I am an Agnostic and have no axe to grind regarding religion. Only with ignorance.
Ask Newsweek
Polls by Newsweek suggest around 45% of people in the United States agreed with the statement that, "God created man pretty much in his present form at one time within the last 10,000 years."
Yes, it's moronic, but it isn't nonsense - quite scary actually. As is the level of ignorance surrounding climate change data.
What a wonderful thought that the world has as its major super power and biggest polluter a religious fundamentalist state. What hope is there for rational argument?
Newsweek Poll
Newsweek! Now there's a source for you. Good grief!
I have lived in the United States all my life and the idea that half the population of the United States believes that the world is 4500 years old or even 10,000 years old is ludicrous.
As for your knee jerk anti Americanism? I say the same to you that I said to my misguided British and European friends in the 60's. Ho hum, Booorrring.....
Journal of Religion and Society?
http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/2005/2005-11.html
This one suggests that at least 30% take the Bible literally.....that includes the creation story.
Have you got any sort of figures to refute it?
For the record, I have some wonderful US friends. I have nothing against citizens of the US generally. I do have a dislike for close-minded idiots whatever their nationality.
Cuba or North Korea
If you dont like people thinking for them selves get a plane ticket to a COMMUNIST DUMP.
Nice one Cleetus. Now, back
Nice one Cleetus. Now, back in your trailer. Hurry! The reds are comin' to getchya!
You don't like me thinking for myself - unless I agree with you. There's some real twisted logic there.