Another stimulating PBS News Hour in which a right wing fanatic was able to bend truth to his own purposes with nary a peep of objection from Judy Woodruff or John Yang.
Robert Murray, of Murray Energy, claimed:
1/ Global warming is a hoax meant to enrich liberal elites
2/ CO2 is not a pollutant, as President Obama claimed
3/ The Earth has actually cooled, not warmed over the past 19 years
4/ The Antarctic ice shelf is at an all time high, proving global warming is a hoax
5/ 4,000 scientists say so.
Consulting Professor Google, which apparently neither Ms. Woodruff nor Mr. Yang had time to do, it turns out:
1/ The Antarctic ice shelf is at a high level, but that is beside the point--the Arctic is where the action is--and it is melting in prodigious fashion. The Antarctic is an ocean of ice but the Arctic is where the polar melting is occurring, where the polar bears are drowning and where the evidence of global warming is most evident.
Apparently, Mr. Murray does not understand the Antarctic is the South Pole with those cute, stoic penguins and the North Pole is polar bears, Santa Claus and melting glaciers.
2/ The Earth has not cooled over the past 19 years, but there have been measurements at various places in Greenland which have shown cooling; none of those measurements, which were misunderstood by the Daily Mail which picked up the chant, mean the earth is cooling. Some parts of Greenland are still cold.
3/ CO2 is a greenhouse gas not a "pollutant" in the sense of lead or mercury. Mr. Obama never characterized CO2 as a pollutant--it is after all the gas we all exhale. Mr. Obama did not say we are all polluting the atmosphere every time we breathe, much as Mr. Murray would like us to believe. This is the "distraction" technique and Donald Trump is better at it.
4/ The Alt Right can round up 4,000 graduates of Liberty College to say the Earth was made in 7 days just a few thousand years ago. Scientists one and all.
5/ Yes, as coal goes the way of the dodo, windmills and solar will likely make a lot of people money who are not coal mine owners, but the coal miners might get better jobs in clean energy than the coal miners every gave them.
Really, if ever there was a naked example of that old observation: It is difficult to bring a man to understanding if his salary depends on not understanding, than Robert Murray, I'd like to hear about it.
But nobody said anything about this on the News Hour. They had bigger stories, like the Harvey Weinstein affair.
For a more trenchant analysis of the argument for coal, look at John Oliver, below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw6RsUhw1Q8&t=235s
Here's Oliver on Mr. Murray:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwoAu_UiZvs
Robert Murray, of Murray Energy, claimed:
1/ Global warming is a hoax meant to enrich liberal elites
2/ CO2 is not a pollutant, as President Obama claimed
3/ The Earth has actually cooled, not warmed over the past 19 years
4/ The Antarctic ice shelf is at an all time high, proving global warming is a hoax
5/ 4,000 scientists say so.
Consulting Professor Google, which apparently neither Ms. Woodruff nor Mr. Yang had time to do, it turns out:
1/ The Antarctic ice shelf is at a high level, but that is beside the point--the Arctic is where the action is--and it is melting in prodigious fashion. The Antarctic is an ocean of ice but the Arctic is where the polar melting is occurring, where the polar bears are drowning and where the evidence of global warming is most evident.
Apparently, Mr. Murray does not understand the Antarctic is the South Pole with those cute, stoic penguins and the North Pole is polar bears, Santa Claus and melting glaciers.
2/ The Earth has not cooled over the past 19 years, but there have been measurements at various places in Greenland which have shown cooling; none of those measurements, which were misunderstood by the Daily Mail which picked up the chant, mean the earth is cooling. Some parts of Greenland are still cold.
3/ CO2 is a greenhouse gas not a "pollutant" in the sense of lead or mercury. Mr. Obama never characterized CO2 as a pollutant--it is after all the gas we all exhale. Mr. Obama did not say we are all polluting the atmosphere every time we breathe, much as Mr. Murray would like us to believe. This is the "distraction" technique and Donald Trump is better at it.
4/ The Alt Right can round up 4,000 graduates of Liberty College to say the Earth was made in 7 days just a few thousand years ago. Scientists one and all.
5/ Yes, as coal goes the way of the dodo, windmills and solar will likely make a lot of people money who are not coal mine owners, but the coal miners might get better jobs in clean energy than the coal miners every gave them.
Really, if ever there was a naked example of that old observation: It is difficult to bring a man to understanding if his salary depends on not understanding, than Robert Murray, I'd like to hear about it.
But nobody said anything about this on the News Hour. They had bigger stories, like the Harvey Weinstein affair.
For a more trenchant analysis of the argument for coal, look at John Oliver, below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw6RsUhw1Q8&t=235s
Here's Oliver on Mr. Murray:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwoAu_UiZvs
Mad Dog,
ReplyDeleteWas a bit preoccupied last week and had only my phone-which for some strange reason lets's me type but not post-so didn't get a chance to say your title "The Coal Miner's Dotard" is in a word-brilliant...
Maud
M,
ReplyDeleteThanks, but compared to John Oliver's treatment of Mr. Murray, I can only bow down in veneration.
President Trump might also qualify as a Coal Miner's Dotard.
Mad Dog