Seizing on warmer than usual temperatures across the country, on
Wednesday's NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams ominously warned
viewers: "Much warmer weather can have a dark side, of course. And
tonight there is a new projection that rising seas due to
climate change could cause a whole lot of damage much sooner than anyone
had previously thought."
Correspondent Anne Thompson used recent weather events to drive the
point home: "The ferocious surge of the Atlantic powered by Hurricane
Irene last August moved a lifeguard tower...broke through a sea wall,
and sent water rushing into the streets of New York's Long Beach. A
scene that will become more commonplace, a new study says, because of
rising sea levels caused by global warming."
A sound bite followed of Benjamin Strauss from Climate Central [1], an global warming advocacy group whose mission statement reads:
The climate crisis isn’t just some far-off threat: it’s a clear and present danger. Galvanized by this sobering reality, Climate Central has created a unique form of public outreach, informed by our own original research, targeted to local markets, and designed to make Americans feel the power of what’s really happening to the climate. Our goal is not just to inform people, but to inspire them to support the actions needed to keep the crises from getting worse.
Thompson simply described the organization as a "non-profit group."
Reading from the Climate Central script, Thompson proclaimed: "Who's at
risk? By 2030, the 5 million Americans living on coastal land less than
four feet above high tide lines. By 2050, it expands to 6 million
people living less than five feet above high tide levels.... Loading the
dice, heat-trapping gasses from burning oil, coal and gas, melting
polar caps and glaciers and warming the ocean."
Some balance was provided in the otherwise slanted report as Thompson
cited "climate change skeptics" who "say you can't blame the rising
oceans all on global warming." Cato Institute Senior Fellow Patrick
Michaels explained: "The sea level rise caused by climate change is
actually less than the sea level rise caused from land sinking, and we
can't stop it."
On the January 31 Nightly News [2],
Williams and Thompson similarly used the mild winter to push the global
warming agenda, with Thompson even seeming to blame climate change for
two deaths.
In contrast, back on November 1 [3],
the broadcast saw an early snowstorm as evidence of climate change,
with Williams fretting: "Everybody out East said the same thing about
this freak snowstorm, 'This kind of thing didn't used to happen. This
never happened before.'"
Here is a full transcript of the March 14 report:
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Still ahead here tonight as Nightly News continues,
record highs across this country again today. But is it getting too warm
generally? A warning tonight about a growing threat from the changing
climate....
WILLIAMS:
You're looking at what is a very early start to the cherry blossom
season in Washington, D.C. It's early, but it's beautiful. And a lot of
people have hotel reservations for later in the year. And with
temperatures across a lot of this country with 20 to 40 degrees above
normal now, no surprise that the blossoms are out and blooming. National
Park Service, by the way, has been forced to move up the date for the
start of the official peak cherry blossom season.
This afternoon, the temperature in Chicago, Illinois, was the same as
it was way down in Naples, Florida, a balmy 81 degrees. Much warmer
weather can have a dark side, of course. And tonight there is a new
projection that rising seas due to climate change could cause a whole
lot of damage much sooner than anyone had previously thought. The report
from our chief environmental affairs correspondent Anne Thompson.
AL ROKER: That is one angry Atlantic.
ANNE THOMPSON: The ferocious surge of the Atlantic powered by Hurricane Irene last August moved a lifeguard tower...
ROKER: Woah, look at that! That house is taking off.
THOMPSON: ...broke through a sea wall, and sent water rushing into the
streets of New York's Long Beach. A scene that will become more
commonplace, a new study says, because of rising sea levels caused by
global warming. Benjamin Strauss of the non-profit group Climate
Central, says the odds of a hundred-year flood happening by 2030 doubles
for 2/3 of the places studied.
BENJAMIN STRAUSS: We found that once a once-a-100-year flood becomes a
once-a-decade flood fastest in southern California, where we expect to
see that within a couple of decades.
THOMPSON:
Who's at risk? By 2030, the 5 million Americans living on coastal land
less than four feet above high tide lines. By 2050, it expands to 6
million people living less than five feet above high tide levels. In New
York City, the danger is not just to the low-lying areas where millions
live, but to the very way people get around. The funnel-shaped New York
harbor could worsen storm surges that could flood the city's vital
subway system. Loading the dice, heat-trapping gasses from burning oil,
coal and gas, melting polar caps and glaciers and warming the ocean.
Measurements taken in Bermuda show 58 years of increases.
TONY KNAP [BERMUDA INSTITUTE OF OCEAN SCIENCES FORMER DIRECTOR]: The
temperature will be in red, there's more heat in the top couple of
meters of the ocean than in the atmosphere.
THOMPSON: But climate change skeptics say you can't blame the rising oceans all on global warming.
PATRICK MICHAELS [CATO INSTITUTE SENIOR FELLOW]: The sea level rise
caused by climate change is actually less than the sea level rise caused
from land sinking, and we can't stop it.
THOMPSON: A future dependent on the ocean and threatened by it. Anne Thompson, NBC News, New York.
-- Kyle Drennen is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. Click here [4] to follow Kyle Drennen on Twitter.