You may recall NBC’s Today show sending out their correspondents to all ends of the earth to highlight “climate change”.
‘Today’ host Matt Lauer reported from Jakobshavn Glacier in the Arctic last year.
Ann Curry headed to Antarctica for ‘Today Heads to the Ends of the Earth’
Well, they are at it again. From the New York Daily News:
“Today Goes to the Ends of the Earth,” kicking off on Nov. 17, will have anchors Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira, Al Roker and Ann Curry headed to four different locations across the globe.
Each anchor’s location will not be revealed until the first day of the series, though Today show spokesman Jim Bell promises that anywhere is possible.
From my insider TV sources the TYSPY.com newsletter they tell me Ann Curry will be going to Mount Kilimanjaro:
Ann Curry, who spent much of Election Night traversing NBC’s “virtual rotunda,” will next climb Mount Kilimanjaro for a “Today” show sweeps stunt.
It’s an eight-day hike to the 19,340-foot summit, and according to NBC News, she’ll be there to report on the changing climate of Africa’s highest peak.
Place your bets now on if there will be mentions of these key words which actually are relevant to the true Kiliminjaro story: evapotranspiration, deforestation, sublimation.
Having done a number of TV weather live shots in remote places myself, including from atop the Sutter Buttes in the Sacramento Valley and from the fire tower at Sawmill Peak, I can tell you that preparation and backup equipment is everything. They may not actually be able to pull off the Kili stunt for technical reasons.
Alas, it will be spring there, so there will be plenty of “melting” to film, as there is every spring.
the enjvironment in those pictures lacks that warm and toasty look
Actually, I enjoy these well-intentioned, “if it bleeds it leads” stunts. I can see it now: Curry succumbs to copious amounts of snow and is unable to reach the summit. Global climate change is once again demonstrated in clear terms. Extreme weather events are part and parcel of human pollution. More at 11:00.
Do I have that right?
“Eight day hike to the top”?
Having been there I know that it is (or at least was) normally done in three days. You walk from the gate to the first camp on day one and to the second camp at ca 12500 feet on the second day, and start for the top before dawn on the third day, in order to be back to camp before it gets dark. Incidentally it’s walking all the way to the top – no real climbing. It’s a very challenging hike all the same, it’s very tough even walking at that altitude, especially if you aren’t acclimatized. Many people simply cannot handle the thin air.
[…] wattsupwiththat added an interesting post today on Another dumb climate stunt from NBC – climbing KilimanjaroHere’s a small readingAnn Curry, who spent much of Election Night traversing NBC’s “virtual rotunda,” will next climb Mount Kilimanjaro for a “Today” show sweeps stunt. It’s an eight-day hike to the 19340-foot summit, and according to NBC News, … […]
“oh my goodness folks! just look at all the snow and ice!….the climate is changing so rapidly that the snow and ice is melting and forming at the same time! oh the humanity!….”
-Ann Curry
Oh great! NBC, the propaganda arm for Green Earth will once again be giving us the green bird. Head for the hills!
Um, Kenya is North of the equator, so it will be fall there, still, not spring.
NBC’s Jim Bell says “I guess we’re throwing logic out the window this year.”
I guess so. What little they had to begin with, anyway.
I wish these people all the bad luck in the world! More than anything I hate the propaganda spewed by corporate flacks pretending to treat the masses as family! What a laugh. They all live behind iron gates to keep out the riffraff.
It would be a great story to hear one or more of them needed to be rescued from a winter storm.
Perhaps Kilimanjaro will awaken from its long slumber at the precise moment they reach the summit and give them a REALLY good “If it bleeds, it leads!” exclusive? (Due, of course, to AGW’s effects on the Earth’s innards.)
Well, at least it’s not a credible news organization pulling this stunt.
3 days to hike. 8 days to haul the cameras, makeup, water, food, toilet paper, and transmission energy, up the side of a mountain.
More of a stunt, than a public service.
More about getting ratings and increasing ad revenue, than saving Planet Earth.
I prefer “news organizations” to at least act like they have some integrity. And not put on a pretentious show, whose main theme is a fear-guilt message, directed to the weak minded.
It wasn’t long ago, when journalist’s, were disgraced by taking advocacy stances, in their work. We have lost that, and it has been a great loss.
Well you don’t really imagine that Ann Curry is actually going to climb Mt Kilimanjaro do you ?
No NBC will charter some local war lord’s hi tech helicopter, and take her up there for the photo op, and then get her down before she overheats internally from wearing too much clothing.
But I’m with you Anthony; a total waste of time and effort.
I’d be more impressed if Curry actually moved her site to a more interesting place, perhaps one of current political interest like say Alaska and its Denali National Park. (how many times bigger than Delaware is that park ?)
Let’s see Ann Curry climb Mt McKinley to showe how the climate changes as you go up there.
NBC-T may simply be trying to keep up with Scott Pelley over at CBS-60min.
I’ve said before and i’ll say it again.I don’t trust the media ,liberal media NBC,ABC,CBS,CNN,and MSNBC.they are in the tank together with the global warming crowd.What you see on one channel you will see on all of them .They are getting there pockest lined with all the global warming crowd.I wonder if they will do an episode this winter when it gets cold and snowy about how they are wrong and in fact we are entering a cooling cycle?I can answer that one myself .NO,NO,NO.
The three-day route up Kilimanjaro is notorious for inducing altitude sickness. Several trekking companies (e.g., Mountain Madness) have other routes that take a little longer but make the likelihood of summiting much higher.
Beings flatlander who lives at a few feet above sea level in NYC, it’s a good idea for Ms. Curry to take her time and allow for acclimatization. The last thing we need is for altitude sickness to be reported as “global warming-induced lack of oxygen”, there will be enough BS as-is.
tty,
Re: “Eight days to the summit…”
I also climbed it, about 20 years ago – and I’m still out of breath. I think we did it in about four days to Gilman’s Point (a slight depression of the lip of the volcanic rim).
So wrt Ms. Curry’s eight-day plan, we must keep in mind that making it to the summit is one thing. Having the breath to say something to folks back home is another kettle of fish. I wish I had taken that long, not only to acclimate, but to appreciate the mountain’s unique beauty.
Hopefully, she won’t go too political, but there are probably half a million people of the Chagga tribe who live around the flanks of the mountain, so that wherever they point the cameras there will be some deforestation. If she wants to go into social commentary, well, she’s got plenty of issues to deal with: sustainability, pollution, soil erosion, overpopulation, poverty, local and governmental corruption… Did I forgetting anything?
I like her hat. I wonder what kind of animal that is.
So are they going to publish the ‘carbon footprint’ for this cheesy stunt?
A dead one.
Just to build excitement. In Oregon, 2005 was a banner year for early snowpack. Most basins recorded WAY above average snowpack on November 11. I always use that as my comparison year to see if the past 4 years are inching back to that level. Certainly 06 was bad. Very little snowpack. 07 was very snowy starting around Thanksgiving (I remember it well because I was herding cows out of a pasture in blowing snow).
So what do we have this year on November 11th? 13 out of 16 basins are reporting a higher snowpack percent of average than 2007 did on this same day (meaning it is trending back up to average). And if 100% is the average and a SD is 15 points on either side, then in 07, only 1 basin was within two SD’s of the average. For 08, 4 basins are within two SD of the average. What are the minimum stats? Same thing. In 07, 3 basins had a single digit percent of average. 08 has none. What are the max stats? in 07 the max for this day was 77% of average. In 08, the max is 125% of average.
Noisy data? A one year blimp on a downward slide from 2005? Maybe. But then 2005 was a major deviation from average that was not repeated the year before or the year after. However, long term forecasts for snowpack indicate a repeat of 2007 plus some. That means plenty of water this summer in irrigation pipes and ditches. If the season is short and cold like it was this past summer, we can partially recover our loss by providing more water for that second cutting, thus increasing its yield (meaning more bales of hay per acre than in a dry, but longer summer with three cuttings).
Oregon is a notorious hyper-sensitive state to participation and temperature. If snowpack is trending up here, other parts of the western half of the US will also see more snowpack.
Tanzanians should speak for their own country and its problems. Linked below is an article by a man who lives in Moshi, one of many towns situated on the slopes of the mountain.
“Of Mt. Kilimanjaro ice waving us good-bye due to deforestation”
http://www.ippmedia.com/ipp/guardian/2008/09/05/121966.html
Umm.. Eric, Some of Kenya is north of the equator and some is south. 🙂
Just google – expeditions global warming 2009
A lot of adventure holidays
By the way, it is snowing on Kilimanjaro right now and teeth shattering cold:
http://www.snow-forecast.com/resorts/Kilimanjaro/6day/top