NEW YORK, Nov. 5 (EnergyTribune) -- Network television and other media are using global warming to sell the news. I’ve been a television meteorologist for 29 years, and have been affiliated with CBS, ABC, NBC, and PBS. Over nearly three decades of weather forecasting on television, I have seen many changes. The least of these changes have been in the atmosphere. By far the greatest changes have been in the television industry itself. The major television networks, newspapers, magazines, and other media are not in the truth business – they are in the news business. This is not to say they are in the lying business however, what they consider to be news and truth is blurred due to the need to produce a profit in a “climate” of shrinking revenues. There’s an old maxim in the business: “If it bleeds it leads.” If a story has blood and drama it will be the first one on the news. Global warming stories are now bleeding all over the headlines. What I’m saying is this: all those stories you’ve seen about drowning polar bears, bigger hurricanes, more droughts, increased wildfires, and melting polar caps may not be true. News is by nature a compilation of dramatic, captivating, and often tragic events. Without these events, a newscast would be rather boring. Dramatic pictures of life and death events make news exciting and compelling. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has given news organizations plenty of new material. It has predicted that by 2100, global temperatures will rise 4 to 10 degrees. It’s only natural for network news managers to look at these forecasts as newsworthy. After all, we’re talking about melting ice caps that will first drown polar bears and then flood coastal cities. The I.P.C.C. says hurricanes will become more powerful and devastating. Droughts will spread across the globe. Hundreds and then thousands of animal and plant species will become extinct as temperatures climb. It’s a gripping story of global change that will rock nature and society. All of these events are bad news for humanity and the planet but good news for the news business. News organizations are in the bad news business.
