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AP Runs Environmental Propaganda Piece as News
Another case of journalism by fax machine. For those of you not familiar with the phenomenon, it works like this. An environmentalist wakes up one morning and types up a "report" in the name of his "environmental group." They then fax that "report" to the media who runs it nearly verbatim. AKA Journalism by press release.
Consider this AP report which I took the unusual step of reproducing in its entirety. Read it critically, you might notice a few things missing:
Group Warns of Shrinking Glaciers' Effect
Science [-sic] - AP
By JONATHAN FOWLER, Associated Press Writer
GENEVA - The shrinking of Himalayan glaciers could fuel an upswing in flooding in China, India and Nepal, before creating water shortages for hundreds of millions of people across the region, a leading environmental group warned Monday.
In a report, the Switzerland-based World Wide Fund for Nature said the rate of retreat of the Asian mountain range's glaciers is accelerating because of global warming, and has now reached 33-49 feet a year.
"The rapid melting of Himalayan glaciers will first increase the volume of water in rivers causing widespread flooding," said Jennifer Morgan, head of WWF's global climate change program. "But in a few decades this situation will change and the water level in rivers will decline, meaning massive economic and environmental problems for people in Western China, Nepal and Northern India."
Himalayan glaciers feed into seven of Asia's biggest rivers: the Ganges; Indus; Brahmaputra; Mekong; Thanlwin, formerly known as the Salween; Yangtze and Yellow.
WWF noted that this ensures a year-round water supply to hundreds of millions of people in the Indian subcontinent and China.
As glacier water flows dwindle, the energy potential of hydroelectric power will decrease, causing problems for industry, while reduced irrigation means lower crop production, it said.
Nepal has an annual average temperature rise of .11 degrees Fahrenheit. The report said that flows have decreased in three of Nepal's snow-fed rivers.
In China, the report said, the Qinhai Plateau's wetlands have seen declining lake water levels, lake shrinkage, and the degradation of swampland. In India, the Gangotri glacier, which supports one of India's largest river basins, is receding at an average rate of 76 feet per year.
All the "journalist" did was send out the environmental group's press release. There was no checking to see if any of it was true. There was no interview from any scientist who might disagree. Nothing. Just a restatement of the so called "report."
I hope the AP got paid for that. The pr-newswire makes big money for publishing press releases. This is how environmental "science" reporting works today. An environmental group types up a "report" that can claim basically anything and the media runs it unchallenged. Science be damned, the media will report anything the environmentalists tell them to.
Now- If Halliburton released a "report" that said we had enough oil in the ground to last us another 100 years, do you think the AP would run that unchallenged? Liberal bias in the media? What liberal bias?
839-866.
Bullypulpit said:That's why I used the PAST TENSE.
Itsthetruth said:Careful. You can easily confuse some right-wingers with those highfalutin terms like past tense.
I once told a right-winger that the Bush government was guilty of spreading a lot of disinformation. He asked me: "So who heads up dis Information Department?"
Yikes!
Bullypulpit said:<blockquote>GOING, GOING, GONE!
Climate Change And Global Glacier Decline
References
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39 Rignot, E. and Jacobs, S.S. 2002. Rapid bottom melting widespread near Antaractic ice sheet grounding lines. Science 296:2020-2023.
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41 Van Vliet, G.B. 1993. Status concerns for the "global" population of Kittlitz's Murrelet: is the "Glacier Murrelet" receding? Pacific Seabird Group 20: 15-16.
42 Mueller, D.R. and Vincent, W.R. 2003. Break-up of the largest Arctic ice shelf and associated loss of an epishelf lake. Geophysical Research Letters 30(20):1/1-1/4.
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47 Hoegh-Guldberg, Ove. "Climate Change, coral bleaching and the future of the world's coral reefs." Marine Freshwater Research 1999
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Here is the link to the original story:
http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/climate_change/problems/impacts/glaciers.cfm
All of the references are provided above.
Kathianne said:Bully it's an incestuous study. Besides, they should not be releasing it as AP story, which AP does not vet itself.
You are the one that's gone...
musicman said:Ah, but that's the point of the exercise, no1. The hope is that the SYMBOLIC value of a large volume of words will trump the fact that these words are, basically, saying nothing. It's the oldest trick in the liberal handbook: When beaten on the facts of a matter, submit a ponderous (if meaningless) study, and watch the opposition melt away.
Kathianne said:Well not always!
rtwngAvngr said:Do you need me to whip you again?
Itsthetruth said:Sorry. You have me mistaken for someone else. I'm not into S & M. Have you sought help for this deviant behavior?
no1tovote4 said:Wow. Now you are busting on the kinksters? Is there no end to your abusive stereotyping?
no1tovote4 said:Clearly Kathianne is correct Bully, listing scientists and a "study" without peer review is disingenuous. The AP should vet the story by providing the peer review rather than reporting as fact the opinion of these scientists. There are groups of scientists with opposing opinion on this particular subject that should have been heard from rather than accepting an incestuous study without valid peer review as sooth.
musicman said:He's really quite intolerant, isn't he? We should consider posting, as a sticky, the admonitions contained in Psychobabble 101 According to Bullypulpit:
"Any criticism of a behavior necessarily indicates that you secretly wish to engage in said behavior".
no1tovote4 said:Wow. Now you are busting on the kinksters? Is there no end to your abusive stereotyping?
Bullypulpit said:Having spent some time searching for the quote you attributed to me, I keep coming up with a goose-egg.
musicman said:Aw, c'mon - work with me, Bully! At a bare minimum, you have stated, "I hate to tell you this, boyo, but raging homophobia of the kind you display has been scientifically proven to indicate latent homosexuality" TWO DOZEN TIMES in the year I've been on this board.
Itsthetruth said:Not at all. If you love a Mistress whipping the hell out of your backside Mr. no1tovote4, go for it! But, that's not my cup of tea.
Lot's of right-wingers are freaks. Like I said, different strokes for different folks.
Bullypulpit said:Then, it is the AP's problem, not that of the original article. As for peer reviewed studies, there are 928 accepting the fact global warming with 75% of these accepting, explicity or implicity, human activity as the driving force behind global warming and the other 25% taking no position on human activity and global warming.(1.)
Number of peer reviewed articles denying global warming - Zero, zilch, nada, none. (2.)
Citations:
(1.) http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/306/5702/1686
(2.) http://www.ems.org/climate/reports/cc_mg_97.06.18.html
Bullypulpit said:Then, it is the AP's problem, not that of the original article. As for peer reviewed studies, there are 928 accepting the fact global warming with 75% of these accepting, explicity or implicity, human activity as the driving force behind global warming and the other 25% taking no position on human activity and global warming.(1.)
Number of peer reviewed articles denying global warming - Zero, zilch, nada, none. (2.)
Citations:
(1.) http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/306/5702/1686
(2.) http://www.ems.org/climate/reports/cc_mg_97.06.18.html
