Between the very cold winter in many places and everyone including Vanity Fair focused on the economic downturn, many in the news media took a vacation from global warming alarmism. But on April 6, NBC brought the hype back with yet another story about the threat of melting ice caps.
Anchor Brian Williams introduced an "Our Planet" segment by reminding viewers that the Obama administration was remaining active on the issue of climate change.
"The Obama administration is calling for greater protection of the earth's polar regions, including limits on tourism," Williams said. "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the proposals at a global summit in Washington. Coincidentally, it comes two days after a crucial ice bridge collapsed at the South Pole, effectively changing the map of that part of the world."
Then chief environmental affairs correspondent Anne Thompson went back to the well for an old standby - that polar bears and penguins were threatened by the thinning ice attributed to no other than climate change.
"From polar bears in the north to penguins in the south, thinning ice at the poles means more climate trouble for the planet," Thompson said. "In the Arctic Ocean a government report out today shows ice cover this winter was the fifth smallest on record, and the ice that's there was the thinnest ever. Ice accumulated over the years - the thick stuff marked in red on this map - makes up a record low 10 percent of the ice cover. The orange area is first year ice, thin ice, the vast majority of this winter's ice cover and most susceptible to summer melting."
And, as Thompson pointed out in keeping with the tradition of her one-sided climate change alarmist reporting, this could affect the weather for everyone all over the planet.
"It's a crisis that may seem far away, but the poles are like thermostats for the planet," Thompson said. "And changes there could affect the weather everywhere people live."
And what global warming segment would be complete without an activist from an environmental organization that wants urgent action to be taken to stop global warming?
NBC's story featured Neil Hamilton of the World Wildlife Fund who said, "The science is telling us that we are actually in a much worse situation than we would think we would otherwise be."
Thompson agreed and blamed man for shifts in climate saying, "A situation made worse by manmade global warming that now needs a manmade solution." Her report didn't include any voice of dissent, though many exist.
A report recently updated by the U.S. Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee includes more than 700 international scientists that dispute Thompson's claim - that global warming is a manmade phenomenon.
