CNN Blames Fires On Global Warming

CNN Blames Fires On Global Warming
By Paul Detrick

CNN exploited a national tragedy on October 23 by finding a way to blame global warming for wildfires.

During the October 23 “Anderson Cooper 360: In the Line of Fire,” Cooper reported from Southern California saying, “People are wondering if these fires are a result of global warming in some way.”

Although Cooper admitted that, “no one really knows for sure,” the broadcast still took the time to predict the future with CNN’s Tom Foreman who warned of a possible “century of fires, just like what we're seeing now” as a result of global warming.

"Climatologists say, while we can't blame on fire on climate change, we can say that these factors are combining in that area [Southern California] to set up what could be a century of fires just like what we're seeing now," said Foreman.

Foreman cautioned viewers that, “greater periods of rain” that fuel “increased vegetation growth” over the next century may provide a “potential link between these fires and global warming.”

He then pointed to a map showing “plant growth is expected to double or even triple as a result of greater periods of rain, driven by climate change.”

Earlier in the broadcast Cooper also plugged CNN’s documentary:

“At the top of the next hour, as I said, the big picture. These fires are really a piece of it. Fire, drought, global warming, climate change, deforestation, it is all connected, tonight, 9:00 p.m. Eastern…‘Planet in Peril’ starts in just 30 minutes.”

But was there a source refuting the claims that global warming was to blame for the fires in California? Nope. Not one.

Alan Zarembo’s story in the Washington Spokesman-Review that was attributed to the Los Angeles Times asked a similar question to Cooper’s broadcast, “Are the massive fires burning across Southern California a product of global warming?”

But, Zarembo came up with a much different answer:

“Scientists said it would be difficult to make that case, given the combustible mix of drought and wind that has plagued the region for centuries or more,” said the reporter.

“Southern California is already perfect for wildfire, and the small changes from global warming are unlikely to make it much worse at this time.”

A climate scientist at the University of California, Merced, told Zarembo that these wildfires are the result of two “staples of the region's climatic history,” meaning “strong Santa Ana winds” and “a drought that turned much of the hillsides to bone-dry kindling.”

"Neither can be attributed to climate change," said the UC Merced professor.

The Media Research Center’s Brent Baker wrote on October 23 that "NBC Nightly News” also made the case linking global warming to the California fires.

http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2007/20071024110403.aspx

CNN MEMO: USE FIRES TO 'PUSH' 'PLANET IN PERIL' SERIES

According to notes from CNN's Monday news meeting network president Jon Klein tells employees to use the California fire tragedy to "push" their "Planet in Peril" special, but warns reporters not to "irresponsibly link" the fires to "Global Warming."

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash6.htm