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.
I’m a long time lurker here and want to say thanks to Anthony and others working on this site as well as to the commenters for the quality of the information and discussion here. I thought I’d pass along this article, which is sort of on topic regarding institutional investors and their push to encourage industry to cut greenhouse gas emissions. I think it’s just the beginning:
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE4AA1CM20081111
Haven’t seen this over here.
Ryan Maue posted this dumb stunt over at CA.
http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=4224#comment-311164
“”Bill P (12:58:24) :
There is an old legend about …
Thought you were going to tell us the story about that leopard at the top.
Who is Cordell Hull anyway? “”
Well bill your youth is showing.
Cordell Hull was Secretary of State dring the Roosevelt presidency in 1941, and is the chap who received the Japanese ambassador moments after receiving the news of the Pearl Harbor attack; when the Ambassador presented what amounted to a Japanese Ultimatum; that was supposed to have been delivered to the US BEFORE the Pearl Harbotr attack happened. Due to a screwup in decoding the messages arrived and were translated too late, and so the Japanese message was not in time.
Admiral Yamamoto was mighty steamed that the Japanese Samurai tradition, of waking up your enemy before you killed him, had not been complied with.
Cordell Hull’s statement to the Japanese Ambassador (who himself didn’;t know of the attack’s occurrence) was a masterpiece of Diplomatic language.
So that is who the hell Cordell Hull was.
Those of us who have looked at the CO2 data and the lack of compelling scientific evidence that CO2 drives global warming scratch our heads when we see articles like the one Mary M pointed to. How could so many opinion leaders world-wide (they must be intelligent to be in the positions they are in) come to the conclusion that these drastic measures to reduce greenhouse gases are a wise and effective thing to do?
I was very struck by Michael Crichton’s 2007 interview with Charlie Rose that Cathy pointed to (thank you Cathy!). In it, he was talking about how interesting it is that no one wants to look at data. That everyone just wants to read polical summaries and make policy from those. He mused that perhaps people are turning away from science. That science is not viewed as important as it used to be viewed. He was also expressing chagrin about the increasing tendency to devalue human life in favor of “saving the planet.”
It is a tragedy that Michael Crichton has died and will no longer be around to present his ideas, such as those presented in “State of Fear.” He had the ability to present complex scientific issues in ways that were so entertaining that people would actually read and think about them.
I fear that the real agenda of the Envirnomental Elitists (OK read “wacko” if you want to) is this:
1) They want to prevent everyone in the world (including those of us in the US)from living the standard of living we enjoy today here in the US because they don’t think the global environment can tolerate that.
2) They want the world population growth to stop NOW, and even reduce. And they are not willing to wait around for this to occur gradually as third-world countries catch up to industrial countries regarding reduced fertility rates. So they institute a ban on DDT–that alone has reduced the world population by 10s of millions. They want to institute policies that drastically and artificially (through government regulation) increase the cost of fuel, thereby shutting third-world farmers out of the possibility of growing enough food to support their families and communities. Untold millions will fail to thrive and reproduce under this scenario–more positive results from the environmentalists’ point of view! They ignore genocide in Africa and let the horrible conditions there play out on their own, resulting in thousands or millions of premature deaths from starvation, disease, and death during war. All resulting in fewer mouths to feed today and in the future! Hurray!
Sounds cynical, but how else can you explain the complete abandonment of reasoned policy decisions based at least in part on scientific evidence?
OT, but some of you maybe interested in reading these articles from CNN and TIME.
New nano coating boosts solar efficiency
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/11/12/solar.coating/index.html
25. Thin-Film Solar Panels
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1852747_1854195_1854153,00.html
@Mark Smith.
Another possibility for the MSM to maximise advertising revenue once the “planet in peril” meme is exhausted, is to start on the “scandals in high places”.
Imagine the MSM beating it’s chest and declaring the return of “True Investigative Journalism” as they heroically hound down the purveyors of the AGW fraud. in that event there are sure to be be a few useful 2nd tier scapegoats to be thrown to the media wolves.
I’ll bring the popcorn.
@andrea vianello
If you want more immediate science news, check out http://www.physorg.com and http://www.slashdot.org. By the time the news filters to the major networks (CNN, Time, Fox, BBC), several days have passed.
@Bill P
Sorry, I’m a good 4 hour bus ride south of Kili and can’t see it. I’ve only been to Moshi a half dozen times in the two years I’ve lived in Tanzania and seen the mountain maybe 3 times due to clouds. I will note that this year was considerably cooler than last year and the coolness lasted longer (thank God! I thought I would die last year!). Of course, I don’t have even a cheapo thermometer so I can’t report actual temps, just how I felt.
A couple more interesting links:
Earth would freeze without AGW:
http://www.physorg.com/news145725882.html
Doubt about AGW caused amphibian die-off:
http://www.physorg.com/news145707986.html
@ur momisugly George Smith “Well bill your youth is showing.”
I’m 56, and should probably have recognized Evan’s reference, since I am ready enough to be appalled at other people’s ignorance of WW II and other history. Thanks for the refresher. I also appreciated Cordell Hull’s “diplomacy” in response to the waiting Japanese Ambassadors (who were unaware of the attack) on the Pearl Harbor attack. From Wiki:
Sean (16:20:33) :
kim (16:40:53) :
I see the ‘Blogosphere’ is starting to get all the ‘excuses’ ready as they watch global temperatures start their rise again, good old conspiracy theories always find their way out.
Kim, despite your insistance of a La Nina developing because all the signs you want to see say it will, it isn’t happening. All the signs are suggesting an El Nino developing later next year, kind of scuppers your PDO -ive causing global cooling doesn’t it?
[…] Another dumb climate stunt from NBC – climbing Kilimanjaro You may recall NBC’s Today show sending out their correspondents to all ends of the earth to highlight […] […]
Science Daily news just published a report that states that “Global Warming Link to Amphibian Declines in Doubt”. How can that be possbile? I thought a .5 degree increase in global temperature over a 150 year period after a global cooling spell was the explanation for every extinction, hurricane, flood, drought and change to any species or environment the whole world over?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081112113708.htm
I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that the parent company, General Electric, is looking to get millions in government subsidies for its “green technology”, hence the company-wide effort to scare the public.
During halftime of Sunday Night {American} Football on NBC, Meredith Vieira came on to reveal the locations they’ve gone to, where they’ll hit the environmental hot-button issues:
Meredith is in Sydney. Bet that in covering the drought there she’ll forget to mention that such severe droughts are a recurring event in Australia and that the current drought is felt more because of a failure to develop additional infrastructure with which they could better cope.
Matt is in Belize scuba diving to hit on the deaths of coral reefs — the oceans are getting hot and killing all the reefs, don’t you know.
Ann, of course, we already know is trekking up Kilimanjaro. Doubt she’ll ever say anything about how the decreasing ice is more a result of man’s impact on the microclimate through deforestation and has nothing to do with AGW.
And Al is reporting from Iceland – fire and ice. Bet he’ll be covering geothermal energy. Perhaps a word or two about melting glaciers will get fit in as well.
And all the while this week we’ll be getting the green bird from GE. They’ll probably be another company to queue up to Washington for some of that bail-out money.
Having just climbed Kili this past March I can attest to the difficulty. We actually took 7 days up and 2 to come down on the Lemosho Route . Oxygen is normally only given due to HAPE ( high altitude pulmonary edema ). If you receive oxygen it usually means you are going one way and that is down.
This is just more global warming hype by a network whose parent company GE stands to benefit greatly from “green” legislation. The Today show should be required to disclose that this is nothing more than a “special advertising” segment.
Although the mountain can be climbed in 5 days, a very low percentage of people can adjust to altitude that quickly. A 7-day route is much more reasonable. If you are going to spend the money to climb Kili, you might as well try to enjoy it. That being said, I believe Ann Curry is spending 9 days on the moutain (8 days up, 1 down).
Don’t they get it? Global warming means no more jetsetting!!!!
Her reporting is wrong. The Chagga not the Massai are climbing with her but of course Massai is one of the few tribes known in the west so she just blurted that out. She should not be “struggling” already even without having trained because it is not a difficult climb until the last day (summit day) and the day before when some people start getting sick. It’s not as if someone like her doesn’t exercise regularly probably with a trainer on the tv lot and that is enough training. While she did admit she is eating well which is true, no way is she eating local food the way she led people to believe, they cook delicious food for the western climbers we had popcorn and hot beverages (chocolate/tea/coffee) every day after the climb and delicious soup followed by pasta or potatoes and chicken or meat. We had eggs for breakfast and toast and peanut butter and butter.
Don’t even get me started on her alluding to having oxygen only the really lame Japanese tourists take oxygen with them and everyone else snickers at them, if she is climbing taking some hits of oxygen when the cameras are off she is totally cheating.
The glaciers are melting because Kili and the Iceland area where Al is are ACTIVE volcanoes so the heat is coming from inside the earth due to natural geothermal energy there for thousands of years not some man-made reason. That is why they have the hot springs like the blue lagoon in Iceland.
Glaciers grow when precipitation increases and shrink when precipitation decreases. Therefore Kilimanjaro is getting less precipitation. The slight atmospheric warming from the late 1970s to the late 1990s cannot account for shrinking glaciers. Kilimanjaro’s glaciers have shrunk due to less precipitation. I didn’t see NBC’s report. Did it discuss precipitation trends? I doubt it. When anthropogenic global warming theory finally dies I think lawsuits are in order for these clowns in government and the media.
I note that that Ann & crew quit without getting much more than halfway up. Too cold, wet. And probably too many polar bears and leopards. All that global warming made the trek too difficult.
Flatlanders…
This was a scam. Sobel advises they never intended to summit, but get high enough for some photo ops.