Friday, October 3, 2008

This morning...

Wake with a sinus cold. Just what I did NOT need right now.

Confirmation that the world is watching our presidential campaign with interest. Last line in an email from an Australian friend of mine... [We are] taping the debate. Guess that means we get to yell at the TV tonight.

As if Rickrolling wasn't bad enough. This morning my Mister Obamarolled me. Ouch... my brain.

I switched the channel from KSTP morning news to WCCO after KSTP's "Truth Test" segment. On the very small number of things covered by the Truth Test segment, they included Biden's statement about climate change as "unknown", because of an unspecified quote from National Geographic saying that climate experts disagree. Rather than, say, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which has stated:
There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities.
And:
Furthermore, it is very likely that the 20th century warming has contributed significantly to the observed sea level rise, through thermal expansion of sea water and widespread loss of land ice. Within present uncertainties, observations and models are both consistent with a lack of significant acceleration of sea level rise during the 20th century.
Even the Republican platform includes language accepting that human activity is at very least contributing to global warming.

You can technically claim that there are still scientists who disagree on the causes of global warming. You can technically argue that there are scientists who believe in Intelligent Design, too. But giving someone a negative mark on a political fact checking segment (and that big question mark is effectively a negative since it contradicts what Biden was saying) because there are a few scientists who are still in disagreement with the majority of the scientific community strikes me as irresponsible and misleading reporting.

No comments: