‘Long sad history of AP reporter Seth Borenstein’s woeful global warming reporting’

By Marc Morano

August 21, 2009
9:40 am

Climate Depot Exclusive

As part of Climate Depot’s continuing role as the ombudsman of the Fourth Estate, the below is a small sampling of the long sad history of Associated Press reporter Seth Borenstein’s woeful global warming reporting: (See also “Related Links” below for sampling of good and bad media climate reporting.)

1) AP’s Borenstein in a PANIC: ‘Obama left with little time to curb global warming’…’cooling trend illustrates how fast the world is warming’ – December 14, 2008

2) Scientists Denounce AP’s Borenstein For Hysterical Global Warming Article – December 15, 2008

3) Say it ain’t so! AP’s Borenstein Reports: ‘The Wind seems to be dying down…the cause may be global warming’ – June 10, 2009 – Excerpt: Scientist mocks wind claims: ‘How can they have more intense storms from the same effect that is lessening winds?’

4) Two dozen prominent scientists denounce AP’s Borenstein’s article promoting sea level fears in the year 2100 – September 24, 2007

5) AP’s Borenstein excludes scientists and peer-reviewed studies countering claims of allegedly ‘melting’ Antarctic – March 27, 2008

6) AP’s BORENSTEIN INCORRECTLY CLAIMS SCIENTISTS PRAISE GORE’S MOVIE – June 27, 2006

7) AP’s Borenstein inaccurately described scientist as “one of the few remaining scientists skeptical of the global warming harm caused by industries that burn fossil fuels’ – July 27, 2006

8) Kudos to AP’s Seth Borenstein for writing the most balanced of all the media’s articles about this new Antarctic study – January 21, 2009

9) Arctic Scare! AP’s Borenstein out of control (again) – Warns of ‘Tipping Point’ – Quotes James Hansen, Bob Corell & a Greenpeace ‘scientist’ – August 28, 2008 – Excerpt: More ominous signs Wednesday have scientists saying that a global warming “tipping point” in the Arctic seems to be happening before their eyes: Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is at its second lowest level in about 30 years. […] Five climate scientists, four of them specialists on the Arctic, told The Associated Press that it is fair to call what is happening in the Arctic a “tipping point.” NASA scientist James Hansen, who sounded the alarm about global warming 20 years ago before Congress, said the sea ice melt “is the best current example” of that. […] On top of that, researchers were investigating “alarming” reports in the last few days of the release of methane from long frozen Arctic waters, possibly from the warming of the sea, said Greenpeace climate scientist Bill Hare, who was attending a climate conference in Ghana.

10) Analysis: ‘Borenstein’s AP Sea Surface Temp Article Is Misleading…Factually Incorrect…Raises Alarmism to Ridiculous Levels’ – August 21, 2009

[Marc Morano Rebuttal to AP Reporter Seth Borenstein’s Shoddy and Incomplete Arctic Article – Note: Associated Press reporter Seth Borenstein pulled out all the gadgets for this comical article on Arctic sea ice dropping to ‘record level’. He got to use the phrase “tipping point” , he quoted James Hansen and Greenpeace ‘climate scientist’ Bill Hare (Greenpeace International describes Hare as it’s “Climate Policy Director”) Borenstein’s citation of Bob Corell as a neutral researcher completely ignores the fact that Corell is an environmental activist who works for Teresa Heinz Kerry’s The Heinz Center, (yes the same ones who gave Hansen $250,000 award before Hansen endorsed Teresa Heinz Kerry’s husband John Kerry for prez in 2004) Corell was embarrassed in 2007 by a his unsupportable claims about Greenland. Corell’s assertion in a September 8, 2007 UK Guardian article that earthquakes triggered by melting ice are increasing in Greenland was rebuffed by University of North Carolina’s Jose Rial. Rial is a prominent climatologist/seismologist working on glacial seismic activity in Greenland. Corell’s erroneous claim prompted Rial to take the unusual step of writing a letter to the UK Guardian. “I also know that there is no evidence to suggest that these quakes ‘are happening far faster than ever anticipated’ [as Corell claimed,”] wrote Rial in a September 13 letter. Rial criticized the newspaper for presenting a ‘falling-sky’ alarmist perspective and added that “it will take years of continued surveying to know whether anything here [in Greenland] is ‘accelerating’ towards catastrophe, as the article [featuring Corell] claims.” See: Rial’s critique of Corell here]

More Borenstein: AP’s Borenstein at it again: Claims Greenland ice crack result of AGW despite reporting it is ‘normal’ – [Note: For real story on Greenland and how temperatures there have actually COOLED or stayed the same since the late 1930’s and 40’s before 80% of man-made CO2 was released see here: Latest Scientific Studies Refute Fears of Greenland Melt – July 2007 -]

Borenstein claim: “In northern Greenland, a part of the Arctic that had seemed immune from global warming, new satellite images show a growing giant crack and an 11-square-mile chunk of ice hemorrhaging off a major glacier, scientists said Thursday.”

1) Borenstein does at least reveal a counter view of the issue in the article: Excerpt: University of Colorado professor Konrad Steffen, who returned from Greenland Wednesday and has studied the Petermann glacier in the past, said that what Box saw is not too different from what he saw in the 1990s: “The crack is not alarming… I would say it is normal.”

2) But, Borenstein, cannot let Steffen’s comment that the ice crack is “normal” go unchallenged so he plays the old “consistent with” climate change game.

3) Borenstein: “Scientists don’t like to attribute single events to global warming, but often say such events fit a pattern.”

Climate Depot’s Media Related Links:

NYT and Reporter Revkin Issue ‘Correction’ – Admit ‘Error’ in Front Page Global Warming Article Touted By Gore! – May 2, 2009

All Hail the Planet! ‘Immorality of climate-change denial’: NYT’s Krugman accuses Congressmen who voted against climate bill of ‘treason against the planet!’ – June 29, 2009

‘Desperation Time’: NYT Promotes ‘National Security’ Climate Fears – But claims are merely ‘a redux of 1970’s laughable scares about famines and resource scarcity’ – August 9, 2009 – Climate Depot’s Inconvenient Rebuttal to ‘National Security’ Climate Argument

Media Spin: New York Times Blames 2009’s Record Cold on Natural Factors — But Blamed Record Warmth in 2000 on Man-Made Global Warming! – August 3, 2009

Shock! NYT’s Moment of Clarity: ‘Nobel Halo Fades Fast for UN IPCC Climate Change Panel’ — ‘It could quickly lose relevance’ – August 4, 2009

Climatologist: ‘It just feels like the IPCC has gone from being a broker of science to a gatekeeper’

Video: Does Katie Couric just take press releases from Gore and read them? – august 3, 2009

Not this again! Chicago Tribune compares ‘conspiracy theory’ that the ‘moon landing was a hoax’ to global warming skeptics – August 4, 2009

Moment of Clarity: BBC Wakes Up To Benefits Of Warming — And To Climate Skepticism! – July 30, 2009

LA Times Shocker: ‘Global warming is not necessarily always bad’ – July 28, 2009 – Excerpt: ‘Warmer temps ‘helped fuel Incas empire, giving access to more cultivable, fertile land’

BBC’s Moment of Clarity on Climate! ‘4000 years ago, Earth was significantly warmer than it is now’ – July 26, 2009 – Excerpt: ‘When excitable climate campaigners claim Greenland’s ice sheet is ‘melting’…it is advisable to take a deep breath and ponder the complexities of the ice’

Shock from NYT: Missing Its Spots: ‘Sun may be on verge of falling into an extended slumber’ — could cause ‘extended chilly period’ – July 20, 2009 – Excerpt: ‘Cosmic ray levels correlate well with climate extending back thousands of years’

NYT movie critic suggests mankind ‘does not deserve to live anyway’ if we don’t heed global warming warnings! – July 20, 2009

Fmr. Time Mag. Editor Slams Skeptics! ‘Here’s what their philosophy boils down to: Let me keep my riches now. Screw my children. Screw my grandchildren’

Newswire joins warming promoters: ‘Help Reuters Fight Global Warming…Through education and offsets we can reduce our carbon footprint and solve climate change problems’

Wash. Post’s Moment of Clarity: ‘Carbon emissions will not be reduced by international bureaucrats sitting in a room and signing a piece of paper’ – Excerpt: ‘They will not be reduced by public relations campaigns or by Oscar-winning documentaries…or by a complex treaty that neither the UN nor anyone else can possibly supervise’

Anchor exposes bias: ‘It is now effectively BBC policy to stifle critics of man-made climate fears — those views should not be heard’

Climate Bill Rebellion: Et Tu, Time Mag? ‘Waxman-Markey bill is an excellent candidate for euthanasia’ – Excerpt: ‘A weak, inelegant cap-and-trade system…It is Potemkin legislation, designed to give only the appearance of dealing with a problem’

LA Times: Skeptics promote ‘crackpot theories’! ‘Clamor from global-warming deniers…Trotting out long-discredited hypotheses, such as solar activity’

Katie Couric of CBS News on Climate Bill: ‘Change can be scary, but the consequence of doing nothing is even scarier’

BBC’s Richard Black Sees The Light — Asks ‘Does climate cloud the bigger picture?’

Spoof: NYT in 2019: Scientists Now Say Global Warming Fears Fading Away – Claim There Never Was Warming Consensus

BBC caught ‘pre-writing’ story using climate activists info before event occurred