Global Warming and the media hearing

December 6, 2006
WASHINGTON, DC – Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Chairman of the Environment & Public Works Committee, said today’s hearing about the media and climate change revealed that “Scare tactics should not drive public policy.” The hearing’s purpose was to examine the media’s presentation of climate science and featured scientists and media experts.

“As the Democrats rush to pass costly carbon cap legislation in the next Congress, today’s hearing showed that the so-called ‘scientific consensus’ does not exist. Leading scientists from the U.S. and Australia denounced much of the media for becoming advocates for alarmism rather than objectivity,” Senator James Inhofe said.

“I was particularly interested in testimony by Dr. Daniel Schrag of Harvard University, who believes that manmade emissions are driving global warming. Dr. Schrag said the Kyoto Protocol is not the right approach to take and agreed it would have almost no impact on the climate even if all the nations fully complied,” Inhofe added. Currently 13 of the 15 EU nations are failing to meet the requirements of Kyoto.

During his opening remarks, Senator Inhofe stated, “Rather than focus on the hard science of global warming, the media has instead become advocates for hyping scientifically unfounded climate alarmism.” Senator Inhofe cited criticism from believers in manmade global warming who have slammed the media for presenting “a quasi-religious register of doom, death [and] judgment” and compared the media’s coverage to the “unreality of Hollywood films.”

Scientists testifying at the hearing described how much of the media has over-hyped the coverage of global warming and used scare tactics to garner public attention. Paleoclimate researcher Bob Carter of Australia’s James Cook University, who has had over 100 papers published refereed scientific journals, noted that “there is huge uncertainly in every aspect of climate change.”

“If you look at the ice core records, you will discover that yes, changes in carbon dioxide are accompanied by changes in temperature, but you will also discover that the change in temperature precedes the change in carbon dioxide by several hundred years to a thousand or so years. Reflect on that. And reflect on when you last heard somebody say that they thought lung cancer caused smoking. Because that is what you are arguing if you argue on the glacial time scale that changes in carbon dioxide cause temperature changes. It is the other way around,” Carter testified.

For full text of remarks for all witnesses go to:

http://epw.senate.gov/hearing_statements.cfm?id=266407

http://epw.senate.gov/pressitem.cfm?party=rep&id=266540

Hearing of Senate Environment and Public Works committee on Global Warming and the media to be held 9:30 a.m. December 6, 2006

The hearing couldn't be more timely - I'm starting Michael Crichton's State of Fear. Just getting through the footnotes and of course, reading internet buzz.

Media climate Inside Politics By Greg Pierce December 5, 2006

Sen. James M. Inhofe, Oklahoma Republican and chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, will hold a full committee hearing tomorrow on "Climate Change and the Media." The hearing will look at how the media has presented scientific evidence regarding predictions of human-caused catastrophic global warming, the senator's office said.
"Senator Inhofe believes that poorly conceived policy decisions will result from the media's nonstop hyping of 'extreme scenarios' and dire climate predictions," said committee Communications Director Marc Morano. "This hearing will serve to advance the interests of sound science and encourage rational policy decisions."
Among those who are scheduled to testify at the hearing are

geologist David Deming of the University of Oklahoma;
paleoclimate researcher Bob Carter of Australia's James Cook University;
Dan Gainor of the Business & Media Institute;
Naomi Oreskes of the University of California at San Diego and
professor Daniel Schrag of Harvard University.

The hearing will be held at 9:30 a.m. in 406 Dirksen Senate Office Building. It can be watched live on the Internet at

http://epw.senate.gov/epwmultimedia/epwmultimedia.htm

http://www.capitolhearings.org/

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http://netthetruthonline.blogspot.com/search?q=global+warming