First up is NBC’s green campaign that sent Matt to the snow, Al Roker to the Equator and turned off all the studio lights during the news.

NBC Goes to ‘Ends of the Earth’ to Explore Climate Change

In what the Today show billed as a “first,” anchor Matt Lauer — shivering in the bitter cold — reported live from the Arctic Circle, correspondent Ann Curry reported live from Antarctica and weatherman Al Roker was live at the equator.

“An incredible broadcast from three extreme locations,” Matt Lauer said at the top of the show. He also admitted he was “freezing my you-know-what off,” as he reported live from a boat off Greenland.

Lauer said the Today show would bring viewers “stunning images” as well as information “that’s going to make you stop and think about the state of our planet — how we’re treating it and how it’s going to treat us.”

Hot Air posted some video and a couple of intriguing observations:

At halftime, Bob Costas tossed to Matt Lauer, who was standing in a bleak vista in front of what appeared to be a pack of sled dogs somewhere in the Arctic Circle. The crew bathed Lauer’s set with what looks like several hundred square yards of dazzling light. Judging by the scale of the Huskies compared to Lauer, the light zone must go 50 or 60 yards straight back and probably at least a similar distance across. So that lit space alone probably offset the studio lights that some pinhead decided to turn off in the studio as a show of green power, dude. Then there were the heaters to warm up the on-camera divas, the power to run the cameras and comm gear, and floating soot in the air by burning the candles.

Then there’s all the jet fuel that got burned up flying NBC’s vapid anchors, Lauer, Al Roker and Ann Curry plus crews and gear to remote locations. Yeah, turning those studio lights off really saved one heck of a lot of energy, NBC.

Oh, and pay no attention to the gigantic video screen right over Bob Costas’ shoulder. Or the other video screens all over the set.

Ironic indeed, but the real interesting one was this:

 A Green is Universal Truther movement? It is odd that you can’t see Lauer’s breath in any of the clips. I just went back and watched the full resolution clip that I still have on my hard drive. No visible breath. Lauer claims that he’s out in 0 degree weather. Now, I happen to have some personal experience with shooting video in the Arctic. I shot video outdoors on Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska in subzero temps several years ago. Foggy breath everywhere. Also, the shortness of breath that the cold causes makes everyone sound breathless. Lauer sounds downright cozy.

I don’t think that NBC has Lauer on some secret moonscape set in Hollywood, but it is odd.

He is right.  I watched also and it is true, for being in 0 degree weather (his screen said -12), there would be steam on every breath, and he is talking way too steady and clear.  That kind of cold seeps into your skin and with his hood down, and his face so exposed, he should be chattering and shivering.  And not a breath of wind?  How convenient.

I think something is fishy.

It certainly is not getting all rave reviews:

TV Columnist Slams NBC’s ‘Green is Universal’ Campaign

One sure sign the media are taking global warming alarmism too far is when fellow press members begin eviscerating green reporting.

Such was the case Monday when TV and radio writer Tom Jicha published a scathing review of NBC’s “Green is Universal” campaign.

Rather than focus on the inanity of the cause - which Jicha did eventually address - the piece began by illustrating the delicious hypocrisy inherent in a major television network pretending to be environmentally friendly (emphasis added throughout, h/t NB reader Stu

You have to wonder if NBC is driven as much by guilt as altruism. Show business is gluttonous when it comes to the use of energy.



If you’ve never seen a sound stage, imagine a facility about the size of the Bank Atlantic Center, requiring round-the-clock heating and cooling to safeguard electronic equipment. Then imagine a few dozen of these. That would be one major studio. There are several spread around Los Angeles.

Let’s not forget the private jets used to ferry executives and performers hither and yon. When they hit the ground, stretch limos are waiting. Forget what you saw on Emmy night; show business uses hybrids only when cameras are around.

…

Unfortunately, there is ample evidence that Green Is Universal week is just another backdoor attempt to perpetuate the global warming hysteria embraced by many in Hollywood, even though they arrogantly fail to practice what they preach.

Indeed.  Hollywood is packed with spoiled rich people who talk a good talk and then clip into their limo’s and fly off on private jets to this weeks luxury vacation spot with not a care in the world.

The ‘co-winners’ of Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize are frankly just as guilty as Al of perpetuating this hoax…though one has put his foot down and asked to be excluded.

My Nobel Moment

I’ve had a lot of fun recently with my tiny (and unofficial) slice of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). But, though I was one of thousands of IPCC participants, I don’t think I will add “0.0001 Nobel Laureate” to my resume.

The other half of the prize was awarded to former Vice President Al Gore, whose carbon footprint would stomp my neighborhood flat. But that’s another story.

Both halves of the award honor promoting the message that Earth’s temperature is rising due to human-based emissions of greenhouse gases. The Nobel committee praises Mr. Gore and the IPCC for alerting us to a potential catastrophe and for spurring us to a carbonless economy

I’m sure the majority (but not all) of my IPCC colleagues cringe when I say this, but I see neither the developing catastrophe nor the smoking gun proving that human activity is to blame for most of the warming we see. Rather, I see a reliance on climate models (useful but never “proof”) and the coincidence that changes in carbon dioxide and global temperatures have loose similarity over time.

There are some of us who remain so humbled by the task of measuring and understanding the extraordinarily complex climate system that we are skeptical of our ability to know what it is doing and why. As we build climate data sets from scratch and look into the guts of the climate system, however, we don’t find the alarmist theory matching observations. (The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite data we analyze at the University of Alabama in Huntsville does show modest warming — around 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit per century, if current warming trends of 0.25 degrees per decade continue.)

It is my turn to cringe when I hear overstated-confidence from those who describe the projected evolution of global weather patterns over the next 100 years, especially when I consider how difficult it is to accurately predict that system’s behavior over the next five days.

Mother Nature simply operates at a level of complexity that is, at this point, beyond the mastery of mere mortals (such as scientists) and the tools available to us. As my high-school physics teacher admonished us in those we-shall-conquer-the-world-with-a-slide-rule days, “Begin all of your scientific pronouncements with ‘At our present level of ignorance, we think we know . . .’”

And that my friends is the honest truth.  Had Al and his ilk any intellectual honesty, they would say the same thing.  Instead we get self serving Hunk Science and supression of dissent nearly equal to the Old Soviet Union and its disinformation campaigns.

Al responded:

Al Gore, Comedian: Media’s Global-Warming Coverage Too Balanced

Did Al Gore win his Nobel for “peace,” or did it perhaps come in a new category: comedy? I ask in the wake of his rib-tickling routine on this morning’s “Today.” Al, that inveterate card, actually claimed that the MSM’s coverage of global warming is . . . too balanced.

View video here.

MEREDITH VIEIRA: You know you shared the prize with scientists from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and one of those scientists, John Christy, wrote an Op-Ed last Thursday in the Wall Street Journal in which he criticized your dire predictions about the impact of global warming [in a flashback to Gore's disastrous 2000 debate with George Bush, Al could be seen and heard shaking his heard and uttering a loud "tsk"], he wrote: “I see neither the developing catastrophe nor the smoking gun proving that human activity is to blame for most of the warming that we see.” So what do you make of his assessment?

That’s when Al launched into his comedy routine.

AL GORE: Well, he’s an outlier. He no longer belongs to the IPCC, and he is way outside the scientific consensus.

Neat.  So when he part of the evil alliance he was ok, but now that he dares to disagree, her is an outsider not to be trusted.  All that pesky scientific training suddenly irrelevant.

But Meredith, part of the challenge the news media has had in covering this story is the old habit of taking the “on the one hand, on the other hand” approach. There are still people who believe that the earth is flat.

Note that he didn’t actually compare GW deniers to Flat Earthers, but the implication is there….

But when you’re reporting on a story like the one you’re covering today, where you have people all around the world, you don’t take, you don’t search out, for someone who still believes the earth is flat and give them equal time.

Implying that it is hard to find challenging opinions, when in fact there are thousands of Scientists who continue to try and speak out and are silenced.

And the reason the IPCC was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the thousands of scientists who make up that group, have for almost twenty years now created a very strong scientific consensus, that is as strong a consensus as you’ll ever see in science, that the climate crisis is real, human beings are responsible for it, the results will be very bad for the United States and for the entire world community, all human beings, unless we do something about it. And there is still time to solve it.

Considering that most of the IPCC’s reports do not support his movie, he should watch being so buddy buddy.

New York City Mayor closes this week out in a good/bad fashion.

CBS’s Smith too Bloomberg: ‘Manhattan Will Be Underwater by 2050′

On Monday’s CBS “Early Show,” co-host Harry Smith interviewed New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg. The liberal mayor has followed in the footsteps of Al Gore and implored the government to take action to address an impending environmental crisis, saying “We need to do something now.” To match Bloomberg’s alarmist rhetoric, Smith added “Manhattan will be underwater by 2050.” Amusingly, even Bloomberg thought that assertion went too far, “There’s a — I don’t know that Manhattan will be underwater, but certainly the environment’s going to be a lot worse that we leave our children.” Smith also pressed Bloomberg on a possible 2008 presidential run.

Nice to know he has limits.

But his real news is his proposal to deal with the problem:  Taxes of course.

The interview began with Smith asking about Bloomberg’s proposal to impose a national carbon tax. Smith asked, “Who gets taxed?,” to which Bloomberg responded, “People who generate carbon and put it into the air, that pollute the air that you breathe, and that I breathe, and that’s causing worldwide changes over the long term in our environment.” In other words, everyone. Far from challenging Bloomberg on how people would react to such a plan, Smith instead followed up with, “Something similar to this has been advocated for a long time, the sort of cap and trade…Why is yours better than theirs?” Smith’s assumption that Bloomberg’s plan is “better” is an interesting way of challenging such a policy.

..

At the end of the segment, both Smith and co-host Julie Chen showed their approval of the environmentally friendly Bloomberg:

SMITH: Yeah, yeah. Alright, Mayor Bloomberg, thanks so much for being with us.

BLOOMBERG: Thanks for having me.

SMITH: Really appreciate it. I’m breathing easier already. Now here’s Julie.

JULIE CHEN: Deep inhale.

All that breathing could be harmful to the environment and may be subject to tax under Bloomberg’s plan.

Sure, don’t those people know that breathing is the second largest contributor of CO2?

What really makes me disgusted is how many people intone “carbon” in a sonorous voice and have no flipping idea what it is.

Lets eliminate all that nasty carbon…and kill every plant on earth.  Then we can all die, since those plants convert the carbon to the Oxygen we breathe.

Fools.

 Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, The Virtuous Republic, Perri Nelson’s Website, , Right Truth, The Populist, The Amboy Times, The Bullwinkle Blog, Big Dog’s Weblog, Conservative Cat, Pursuing Holiness, Adeline and Hazel, Conservative Thoughts, Allie Is Wired, DragonLady’s World, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, CORSARI D’ITALIA, High Desert Wanderer, Right Voices, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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