The Truth About Global Warming
On Sunday, the Seattle Times devoted a mind-boggling number of column inches (3+ pages, no ads) to its lead story, The Truth About Global Warming. The author, Sandi Doughton, was prompted to research the story after attending a forum for science writers in 2004, where "several speakers involved with climate science complained that skeptics of global warming get equal treatment in news coverage, as if scientists are hopelessly divided on the question. The speakers insisted they are not."
Doughton decided to explore the claim. "I didn't accept it at face value as I went into the story," she says; in the process, she reversed her prior belief that scientists were in disagreement about global warming:
As one study after another has pointed to carbon dioxide and other man-made emissions as the most plausible explanation, the cautious community of science has embraced an idea initially dismissed as far-fetched. The result is a convergence of opinion rarely seen in a profession where attacking each other's work is part of the process. Every major scientific body to examine the evidence has come to the same conclusion: The planet is getting hotter; man is to blame; and it's going to get worse.
This investigative piece is more approachable than the three-part New Yorker series that ran this spring.
Doughton begins with the "reluctant" conversion of University of Washington climate researcher John M. Wallace. In 1994, he politely tried to dissuade Vice President Al Gore from global warming; Wallace did not then believe that greenhouse gases were changing earth's climate. Today, Wallace says: "With each passing year the evidence has gotten stronger — and is getting stronger still." Wallace and colleagues launched RealClimate.org in December 2004, providing "commentary site on climate science by working climate scientists for the interested public and journalists."
Statistics are sobering:
1995 was the hottest year on record until it was eclipsed by 1997 — then 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004. Melting ice has driven Alaska Natives from seal-hunting areas used for generations. Glaciers around the globe are shrinking so rapidly many could disappear before the middle of the century. (charts, photos)
Many scientists criticize mainstream American journalism, which usually gives equal coverage to "fringe" voices as well as "well-funded industry" voices. "You get the impression it's 50-50, when it's really 99-to-1," Eric Steig, a University of Washington geochemist, protests. Four sidebars explore the more common misconceptions:
- Setting the Record Straight: Blame the sun
- Setting the Record Straight: "Hockey stick" broken?
- Setting the Record Straight: Satellite puzzle solved
- Setting the Record Straight: Urban heat island
Read ... and pass it along.
Technorati Tags and Profile
Global Warming,
Politics