Reporter John Broder completely swallowed an alarmist White House study on global warming for Tuesday's report, "Government Study [1]Warns Of Climate Change Effects [1]."
The impact of a changing climate is already being felt across the United States, like shifting migration patterns of butterflies in the West and heavier downpours in the Midwest and East, according to a government study to be released on Tuesday.
Even if the nation takes significant steps to slow emissions of heat-trapping gases, the impact of global warming is expected to become more severe in coming years, the report says, affecting farms and forests, coastlines and floodplains, water and energy supplies, transportation and human health.
Broder doesn't cite any skeptics of the study, issued by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, a group of federal agencies and the White House required to issue a report on the environment every 10 years. Instead Broderrelayed their extreme assertions as unchallenged fact:
Some of the effects being seen today and cited in the report are familiar, like more powerful tropical storms and erosion of ocean coastlines caused by melting Arctic ice. The study also cites an increase in drought in the Southwest and more intense heat waves in the Northeast as a result of growing concentrations of carbon dioxide and other climate-altering gases in the atmosphere.
Reduced mountain snowpack means earlier melt-offs and reduced stream volumes across the West and Northwest, affecting residential and agricultural water supplies, habitats for spawning fish and reduced hydroelectric power generation, the study found.
Marc Morano at Climate Depot rounded up some skeptical views that Broder [2]managed to ignore [2]. Among the accusations: Selective, misleading interpretation of data, and the use of an activist public relations firm to juice up the findings.