GMA’s Alarmist Nightmare: ‘Will Billions Die From Global Warming?’

January 31st, 2007 12:37 PM

"Good Morning America" weatherman Sam Champion has accomplished the impressive feat of turning the morning show’s meteorology segment into an opinion piece. On Tuesday, he approvingly reported on a new study that blames humans for the effects of global warming. During a follow-up piece on Wednesday’s edition, ABC included one of the most alarming graphics to grace American television screens:

ABC Graphic: "Will Billions Die from Global Warming? New Details on Thirst and Hunger"

Billions? Could that be a slight exaggeration? Co-host Robin Roberts began the segment, which aired at 7:14am on January 31, by reminding Americans just how subjective Mr. Champion is on the subject of global warming:

[ABC Graphic: Global Warming: Global Warning]

Robin Roberts: "This morning, we're hearing new information from those landmark, closed-door sessions on climate change. Five hundred of the world's top scientists meeting in Paris, joining forces to tackle global warming. The report is due out on Friday. Sam has been following the story. You know how passionate he is about global warming. Headline news everywhere. And I think one of the big headlines is that we could feel the effects of global warming sooner rather than later."

[Second ABC Graphic: "Will Billions Die from Global Warming? New Details on Thirst and Hunger"]

Champion: "Yeah. That's what's in this report and why everyone is trying to jump this report that officially comes out Friday, Robin. There are big, new headlines and some of them are coming out of Australia in media reports. Now, they say that those scientists in Paris will estimate that between 1.1 and 3.2 billion people will suffer from water shortage problems by 2080. That's not your grandchildren, that's your children. And between 200 million and 600 million more people will be going hungry. That means a very real possibility of food and water shortages much faster than we thought and even in today's 'USA Today' paper they’re talking about, uh, that the 2001 report said fossil fuel pollution by humans, used by humans-- likely. This report will say 99 percent sure."

Roberts: "How could the U.S. be impacted by what you just said?"

Champion: "Well, there are places in the map that we've all looked at in studies that say these are the places you'll see drought and problems. And you're talking about South America and northern India, western China, north-central Africa. In the U.S., It's Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico, already suffering from low snow pack and could have water shortages by about 2080."

Roberts: "Of course, global warming, hot topic on Capitol Hill this week and a number of hearings in the House, accusations of a White House cover-up?"

Champion: "And they're saying some reports were edited by some White House staffers. And Rick Piltz's is the big one who, his report and his testimony brought it out. So let's listen to what he had to say."

Congressman Stephen Lynch: "Did you ever get a plausible reason why he would remove that warning to Congress?"

Rick Piltz: "He called it speculative musing."

Lynch: "Speculative musing?"

Piltz: "Speculative musing."

Champion: "And he's a former senior official in climate research in Washington and now has left that post, of course. Now, it is so serious to a lot of people, we'll be watching this report out, in Paris one of the neat things I think you'll see come out of this, is that they'll turn the Eiffel Tower lights out just to announce this report and kind of make that impact dramatic."

It should be noted that no one exhibited any skepticism or questioning about the study’s findings. Furthermore, Rick Piltz, who, according to an approving piece in the liberal American Prospect, is a "political scientist by training," also received no questioning. Finally, Champion commented about the "neat" fact that the Eiffel Tower will go dark five minutes before the unveiling. Click here to see the Greenpeace sign currently hanging from the tower and demonstrating once again the support that the hard-left has given this global warming push.