Let's turn our critical thinking skills on yesterday's Fox News coverage of climate change. (We all know Fox News is "Fair & Balanced," right?)
The article in question is titled: 'Archaic' Network Provides Data Behind Global Warming Theory, Critics Say. The article is neatly summarized for those without the time or interest to read in further detail: "Critics are questioning the accuracy of a 120-year-old weather station network that measures surface temperature in the U.S. by tallying paper reports from volunteers whose data is rife with human error."
If a "120-year-old weather station network" doesn't ring out with enough empirical clarity for its readers, Fox puts things in historical perspective in its opening paragraph: "Crucial data on the American climate, part of the basis for proposed trillion-dollar global warming legislation, is churned out by a 120-year-old weather system that has remained mostly unchanged since Benjamin Harrison was in the White House."
Now I might be reading things into a factual and unbiased piece of professional journalism, but I cannot escape the feeling that this article's title, summary, and opening paragraph clearly are leading a reader by the nose toward the following conclusion: Tremendously expensive U.S. global warming legislation is pending based solely upon terribly archaic and error-ridden data. Let's examine these assumptions in more detail with a little fact-checking.
First, let's look at author Joseph Abrams -- who has penned other such Fair & Balanced pieces as "Obama 'Most Powerful Writer Since Julius Caesar,' Says NEA Chief," "Army of the Lord? Obama Seeks Health Care Push From Pulpit," and "Obama's Science Czar Considered Forced Abortions, Sterilization as Population Growth Solutions." An author's use of adjectives and other bits of color can be used to paint (supposedly) empirical facts in entirely new hues. In his opening paragraph, Abrams tells us that citizen climate data is crucial to the scientific consensus that the planet is warming, and that this data is being churned out by a 120-year-old weather system.
Wait; I thought Fox News blamed faulty computer models for global warming? No, wait, Fox clearly lent support to the belief that global warming is a grand conspiracy intentionally foisted on a gullible world by a secret cabal of thousands upon thousands of scientists worldwide. Nope; turns out it's just citizen reporting errors that led the world's greatest climate scientists to conclude that the world is warming. (Uh, why are all the errors biased in a "plus" direction? Shouldn't bad data be more randomly distributed, with an approximate equal number of high and low errors, given a large enough sampling population?)
Earth to Fox News readers: If you don't want to believe what Al Gore or citizen temperature data tells us about global warming, then throw it all out! Really; there is much more than ample evidence from satellites, ocean measurements, and other modern, high-tech, accurate, and up-to-date scientific instruments that has been checked and re-checked by knowledgeable and independent sources worldwide. All of this evidence tells us that climate change -- more accurately termed global weirding than global warming -- is here, now, and driven by human emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Or simply start your own citizen weather/gardening log and see if, indeed, the general trend is for spring to arrive earlier and hardiness zones to migrate steadily northward.
I might add that the "critics" cited in this article, namely, one Anthony Watts, is a meteorologist (not a climate scientist), an outspoken critic of climate change, and has a vested interest in selling weather stations to correct all these temperature record anomalies he keeps mentioning.
In closing, let's contrast Fox News coverage with other articles related to climate change from other media outlets. Yesterday, UPI.com posted in its Science News section that "Global warming is real, despite snowfall" and The Christian Science Monitor posted the following opinion piece penned by Walter Rodgers, former senior international correspondent for CNN: "War over the Arctic? Global warming skeptics distract us from security risks." But, of course, it is always dangerous to get your science summarized (accurately or not) from mass media outlets. Best to go to the source and do your own fact-checking!
PS: Ever-helpful Fox News recommends the following similarly Fair & Balanced articles for your further global warming information and edification: "U.S. Climate Data Compromised by Sensors' Proximity to Heat Sources, Critics Say" and "Gore Feels the Heat, Comes In From the Cold." Thanks, Fox!
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