Global Warming at WCCO

[CatholicEdHead]

We all remember how Paul Douglas was towards global warming, he said it is unproven by the scientific method but all signs point to it. Now the Strib has Mike Fairbourne today trying to deny it. We have battle of the WCCO meteorologists in the press now.

http://www.startribune.com/nation/19095579.html?location_refer=Homepage

Longtime WCCO-TV meteorologist Mike Fairbourne says that the environmental movement is practicing "squishy science" when it ties human activity to global warming.

Fairbourne's assessment Monday came on the same day that the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine appeared before the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., and announced that it has the signatures of more than 31,000 scientists -- including Fairbourne's -- who agree that the human impact on global warming is overblown.

Fairbourne, who joined WCCO in 1977 and has been a meteorologist for 40 years, said that while there is no doubt that "there has been some warming" of global temperatures in recent years ... there is still a pretty big question mark" about how much of that warming is from human activity.
.....
"We urge the United States government to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto ... and any other similar proposals. The proposed limits on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind."

[Love Bug]

1. I saw that

Read the comments -- the usual freep-toids are coming out, bashing Al Gore and anyone who thinks global warming is a problem to be addressed.

[CatholicEdHead]

3. I think this is a rating thing

The comments when Paul Douglas left/fired (whatever you consider it to be), had some bashing of Paul when he would talk about Global Warming on "DFL Don" Shelby's show (that is how they refer to him). WCCO/CBS knows this and want to bring these viewers and listeners back. Having this come out is one way to make peace in the GM's eyes and raise ratings during May sweeps.

[csorman]

2. Knuckle-draggers.

Plain and simple. These are people who cannot think critically and cannot grasp any kind of reality that isn't infused with divinity.

I was at the Al Gore presentation at the St. Paul Rivercentre a few years back where he gave his famous speech on global warming. Paul Douglas was in the back, taking notes, and a couple of times he nodded along with the crowd. He looked genuinely sad during the presentation. I think he has come around - he has always been sensible; doesn't seem at all like a hothead like Fairbourne.

Fairbourne can bite me. So can the rest of the dimwits at CCO. I don't watch that news or KSTP either (out of protest). KARE is all I can stomach.

[RL3AO]

4. Hes somewhat right.

Both sides of the argument are using some really shitty science.

[CatholicEdHead]

5. Big article in the Strib today on it

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/19162269.html
Mike Fairbourne and Paul Douglas worked side by side for years as meteorologists at WCCO-TV. But they couldn't have been further apart on the issue of global warming.

Douglas, who was dismissed last month in a cost-cutting move, has become a prominent speaker about the mounting evidence of human-caused climate change. Fairbourne, his predecessor and successor, once signed a petition opposing measures to combat climate change, and says he regards global warming as based on "squishy science."

Predictions of whether arctic ice caps will disappear don't typically come up during the TV forecast on whether it will rain this weekend.

"Broadcast meteorologists tend to avoid deep discussions on long term climate changes as that is really not our field of expertise," Claire Martin, chief meteorologist with CBS News in Canada and chairwoman of the International Association of Broadcast Meteorologists, said in an e-mail.

[dflprincess]

6. I seem to recall that, years ago, there was some controversy about Fairbourne

and his very public involvement with an antichoice group (it may have been a group within the Republican party, but I just can't remember this was probably 30 years ago). Anyway, my point is, Fairbourne has long had right wing leanings so I'm not surprised about his position on global warming.