It just wouldn't be Earth Day without a catastrophic global warming segment from the network news, so ABC correspondent Bill Blakemore delivered just that April 22.
Blakemore warned viewers of "World News with Charles Gibson" that carbon emissions were causing disastrous changes in the air and the sea and blamed the United States in his one-sided report, even though the U.S. recently dropped to second place in global carbon output.
"To understand the state of the planet today, you need to look at the air and under the water," Blakemore said. "The air is getting warmer, faster. Carbon emissions are now rising faster than worst-case scenarios projected just a few years ago. China just surpassed the U.S. as the biggest culprit, though China's got four times as many people."
Blakemore continued his dismal report by warning that glacial melt spurred by global warming would eradicate an alarming 10-to-20 percent of the earth species
"Glaciers from the Andes to the Himalayas that provide water for many major cities are vanishing at rates far faster than scientists projected just five years ago," Blakemore continued. "Species are vanishing too because of the heat and habitat destruction. Ten to twenty percent of all the planet's species are expected by scientists to be gone by mid-century."
Blakemore ignored dissent in his report, as he as often done in the past. Some scientists argue the earth is in a cooling trend, suggesting that glacier melt could be reduced in the coming years. Others dispute the claim that atmospheric carbon has a large impact on the earth's climate.
A report released by the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee Dec. 22, 2008 revealed more than 650 prominent scientists questioning the hype surrounding global warming alarmism, but not one was quoted in his ABC piece.
Blakemore also blamed global warming for changes in the earth's oceans.
"Under the sea, those same carbon dioxide emissions are making sea water more acidic, punishing sea life in many ways, hampering reproduction, weakening corals," Blakemore said.
He cited changes in a Florida coral reef over the past 20 years as evidence that global warming will cause all the earth's reefs to be gone by mid-century.
But according to a recent report from Dr. Craig Idso, the founder and chairman of the board of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, coral reefs survived have survived through periods of the earth's history when temperatures were as much as 10-15° C warmer than at present, and atmospheric CO2 concentrations were 2 to 7 times higher.
While Blakemore excluded critics of global warming alarmism from his story, he did include Obama's recently confirmed administrator of NOAA, Jane Lubchenco, who The Washington Post called a "radical" departure from those who have traditionally run NOAA. The Post was referring to Lubchencho's record of advocacy on the issue of anthropogenic global warming.
"Climate change is already disrupting the world as we know it," Lubchenco told "World News." "It is one of the largest challenges to humanity right now."
Blakemore wrapped up his report with a plea for mankind to lower emissions.
"Can it be stopped?" Blakemore asked. "Maybe, but not say scientists unless humans can agree on how to reduce all that carbon dioxide."
