Shocker on CBS: Earth ‘Not As Warm…As the Climate Models Predicted’
On Friday’s CBS Evening News, a NASA scientist made a surprising admission about climate change during a report about an erupting volcano in South America. Correspondent Michelle Miller turned to Dr. Allegra LeGrande, who detailed how the gases from a volcanic eruption can lead to a reduction in the amount of sunlight that reaches the Earth. Le Grande added that “this is a small component of why we’re not as warm today as the climate models predicted we would be seven years ago.” [video below]
All three broadcast network evening newscasts aired full reports on the back-to-back eruptions from the Calbuco volcano in Chile. However, only CBS Evening News mentioned the possible impact on the climate. Miguel Almaguer zeroed in on the disruption of airliner traffic on NBC Nightly News. On ABC’s World News Tonight, Matt Gutman spotlighted how the ash fall is impacting the region’s inhabitants.
Weeks earlier, ABC, CBS, and NBC’s morning and evening newscasts all hyped NASA and NOAA’s reports that 2014 was the warmest year on record. As the MRC’s Julia Seymour pointed out, this was “despite scientists who showed it was ‘statistically meaningless.’…there was only a 48 percent chance 2014 was actually the warmest on record, based on NOAA’s own data. NASA’s probability was even less: just 38 percent.”
