Bill Steffen is the Chief Meteorologist for WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Living 30 miles or so east of Grand Rapids, I see Bill’s forecasts on occasion — most often at this time of year, when severe spring weather is rolling through.
But Steffen, an over 30-year meteorology veteran, has made some fine contributions to his field, most notably recently when he challenged the claims made in MSNBC’s four-part series called “Future Earth: Journey to the End of the World.”
Here’s just the beginning of Bill’s rebuttal to MSNBC’s program:
MSNBC is running a four-part series entitled Future Earth. On their website they say you can “find out why Earth’s climate machine — the North Pole — is melting alarmingly fast. Learn about our planet’s future, and how you can stop its decline.”
First, the North Pole is not “Earth’s Climate Machine.” There is far more heat and area in the Tropics than at the North Pole. Second, YOU can’t stop it’s decline (assuming it’s declining)! Nature is big - you personally are insignificant compared to nature. Don’t you wish you had the power to control icecaps!
[...]
The Antarctic icecap (which is much bigger than the Arctic icecap) has been growing. In Sept. 1979 (first year of satellite data) the Antarctic icecap was 18.4 million sq. km. In Sept. 2008, the Antarctic icecap was at 19.2 million sq. km. That’s a 30-year trend. By comparison, Michigan is 151,586 sq. km, so that’s an increase in icecover of over five times the area of Michigan.
MSNBC could instead be doing a story on the trend of cooling in Antarctica and possible falling sea levels due to ice accumulation in Antarctica. Keep in mind that if the Polar icecap (without Greenland) melted…it would hardly cause sea level to rise, because the icecap is currently displacing water in the Arctic Ocean.
Later, Bill touches on the biggie. The most offensive word you can use to describe the motivations of some “environmentalists” — the dreaded “c” word: “capitalist” greed (go to the blog post to access the links):
One last point, MSNBC is owned by General Electric. GE is already making money off the issue with their Carbon Credit Master Card (link from “Treehugger”, no less). Here’s CNN’s story on the new credit card.
Interesting note: In the fourth quarter of 2008 as GE/NBC stock fell 30 percent, GE spent $4.26 million on lobbying — that’s $46,304 each day, including weekends, Thanksgiving and Christmas. In 2008, the company spent a grand total of $18.66 million on lobbying.” Reviewing their lobbying filings, GE’s specific lobbying issues included the “Climate Stewardship Act,” “Electric Utility Cap and Trade Act,” “Global Warming Reduction Act,” “Federal Government Greenhouse Gas Registry Act,” “Low Carbon Economy Act,” and “Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act.” Do you think this “big business” is just concerned about the environment?
Read it all here.
Having previously worked in local television at the affiliate level for almost 20 years, I can say that there are many, many other meteorologists like Bill Steffen who simply are too intimidated, for whatever reason(s), to speak out about the scam of Gore & Company. Kudos to Mr. Steffen for speaking his mind. (h/t Newsbusters)
Fight Organized Crime... next election, elect no one. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"It was often pointed out during the election that Obama lacked management experience. While having a president with no experience is bad, it's not nearly as bad as having a president with experience as a community organizer."
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Last edited by jmichna; 05-01-2009 at 04:58 PM.
Reason: Improved formatting
"Plan 9 From Outer Space" definitely belongs... most of the others can be debated, IMO. How can any comprehensive "Ten Worst SciFi" movies list leave off "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" and "The Blob"?
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Fight Organized Crime... next election, elect no one. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"It was often pointed out during the election that Obama lacked management experience. While having a president with no experience is bad, it's not nearly as bad as having a president with experience as a community organizer."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm."
- James Madison, Federalist No. 10
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