On Sunday, Sept. 21, a Peoples’ Climate March took place in San Luis Obispo in support of climate change efforts being discussed at the UN Climate Summit.
To their credit, a local news broadcast covered the event. The newscaster describing the march said, “Critics counter that global temperatures have dropped every year since 1999, and the Antarctic ice is at a record high level.”
When our media quotes these critics, they are communicating that there is a debate about global warming. There is a 97 percent consensus among international climate scientists that global warming is happening, and that it is being caused by human actions. There is no debate.
It is irresponsible and dangerous for our media to mislead us. To imply there is still a debate about this important issue exacerbates public confusion.
Please, media in our area, stop allowing deniers a forum. Let’s focus on the discussion about what we can do about it.
— Steve Pax – San Luis Obispo
This article appears in Oct 2-9, 2014.
