Why does John Stossel from 20/20 deny global warming?

Question

Why does John Stossel from 20/20 deny global warming?

Answer 1

Ask him

Answer 2

Because he doesn't read scientific journals.

Answer 3

Because 30 years ago 'scientists' were saying this:

Indeed. As is the fact that there has been no net warming since 2001. Predictions of environmental doom have been with us for a long time, as the Washington Policy Center reminds us:

•“...civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind,” biologist George Wald, Harvard University, April 19, 1970.

• By 1995, “...somewhere between 75 and 85 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.” Sen. Gaylord Nelson, quoting Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, Look magazine, April 1970.

• Because of increased dust, cloud cover and water vapor “...the planet will cool, the water vapor will fall and freeze, and a new Ice Age will be born,” Newsweek magazine, January 26, 1970.

• The world will be “...eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age,” Kenneth Watt, speaking at Swarthmore University, April 19, 1970.

• “We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation,” biologist Barry Commoner, University of Washington, writing in the journal Environment, April 1970.

• “Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from the intolerable deteriorations and possible extinction,” The New York Times editorial, April 20, 1970.

• “By 1985, air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half...” Life magazine, January 1970.

• “Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make,” Paul Ehrlich, interview in Mademoiselle magazine, April 1970.

• “...air pollution...is certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone,” Paul Ehrlich, interview in Mademoiselle magazine, April 1970.

• Ehrlich also predicted that in 1973, 200,000 Americans would die from air pollution, and that by 1980 the life expectancy of Americans would be 42 years.

• “It is already too late to avoid mass starvation,” Earth Day organizer Denis Hayes, The Living Wilderness, Spring 1970.

• “By the year 2000...the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America and Australia, will be in famine,” Peter Gunter, North Texas State University, The Living Wilderness, Spring 1970.

Global warming theory has been around for a while; I learned it as a college student in about 1970. But it didn't get much traction then because the Earth was in a deep freeze. Some years later, environmental hysteria focused on global warming rather than cooling because, coincidentally, the climate started to warm.

Answer 4

Everyone is allowed an opinion. Whether it is based on proven facts or not is the question.

Answer 5

Who?

oh! he is just a news reader! LOL!

Answer 6

Everytime someone disagrees with global warming, he or she is attacked by the left.  They are not scientists,  how do they know?

Answer 7

Good question. Sometimes I agree with him and sometimes not. This is a case where he is way outnumbered. It's been awhile since they aired that 20/20 piece. Since then there has been even  more evidence for AGW accumulated.

Answer 8

He uses his common sense and knows a scam when he hears it.  It has very little to do with science.  The exaggeration of the effects of global warming are clearly political in nature and intent.

Answer 9

Maybe he has a brain larger than a grape.

Answer 10

Pinaynay22 - you are right! How would they know if they are not a scientist. These are the scientists...

http://dels.nas.edu/dels/rpt_briefs/clim...

http://www.geosociety.org/positions/posi...

http://royalsociety.org/displaypagedoc.a...

http://www.aip.org/gov/policy12.html

http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/policy/positi...

and i doubt John Stossel is among them.

Answer 11

Because with his background as a consumer reporter, Stossel has become very adept at calling out scammers and liars.

Answer 12

That's simply the sort of thing that he does for a living:

(Source: Wikipedia - John_Stossel)

Stossel practices advocacy journalism where he often challenges "conventional wisdom".[2] His reports, a blend of commentary and reporting, reflect a roughly libertarian political philosophy and his views on economics are largely supportive of the free market[3]. ABC is reported to believe "his reporting goes against the grain of the established media and offers the network something fresh and different...[but] makes him a target of the powerful groups he offends."[4]

Contrarianism

Stossel's news reports and writings attempt to debunk popular beliefs. His Myths and Lies series of 20/20 specials challenges a range of widely held beliefs. He also hosted The Power of Belief (October 6, 1998), an ABC News Special that focused on the claims of the paranormal and people's desire to believe. Another report outlined why opposition to DDT is misplaced and that the ban on DDT has resulted in the death of millions of children,[10] mostly in poor nations.[11]

Libertarianism

As a libertarian, Stossel believes in both personal freedom [15] and the free market. He frequently uses television airtime to advance these views and challenge viewers' distrust of free market capitalism and economic competition.

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The media, and people like Stossel, find creating this sort of drama to be very profitable:

The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, documents how the media supports the false appearance of controversy on the topic of global warming:

http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/05...

Creating controversy where science finds consensus

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1978

"A new study has found that when it comes to U.S. media coverage of global warming , superficial balance—telling "both" sides of the story—can actually be a form of informational bias."

Media False Balancing Allowed Extreme Views to be Treated Same as Scientific Consensus

http://www.globalissues.org/EnvIssues/Gl...

Answer 13

There is as much evidence that this global warm up is a natural occurrence as there is that it is man made. Many glaciers in the Canadian Rockies were mapped in the 1850s. By 1900, many of them were gone or nearly so. There are many statistics like this. But the Left controls most of our media and these findings are rarely announced. The Earth has had many temperature fluctuations in the past, and it appears we are going through another one now. In fact, the normal temperature for the Earth seems to be extremely tropical, and has been for millions of years at a stretch. Even palm tree fossils and fern fossils have been found at the South Pole. The people (like Al Gore) who keep driving the point, "You are Americans, and everything is your fault." are the people who have invested heavily in the Carbon Credits scam. These are the people who stand to profit greatly from Carbon Credits if they can get everyone to feel guilty enough to start buying these credits.

If you'll notice, the change in propagada tactics is similar to politics. Our winters were supposed to be getting warmer. Well, they haven't been since 1989. So, the most recent counter action to this problem is now, "Each spring comes 8 hours sooner every year. "  That's a propaganda stat that's tougher to disprove, so that one is circulating now. Another one was all the Polar Bears are dying. Well, they're not. So the updated propaganda now is that the Polar Bears weigh, on average, 18 percent less, due to diet changes. Again, revised propaganda.

Good question by the way. You'll have to do your own research. And make up your mind from the facts you can uncover. And trace the origin of your facts - is it from Green Corporations? or historical evidence?

Answer 14

He must have forgot to watch the Al Gore video.  Everyone knows that when Al says something it must be true. Thanks to him I am able to express my views on the internet, which of course he created.  All hail Al Gore!!!

Answer 15

Because the global warming cult is out of control and people that truly know better, are getting sick and tired of paying for this scam.

Answer 16

Because some people are actually still interested in the truth, and not a bunch of unproven science that people immediately accept because it fits their agendas.

The socialists liberals are not stupid. They know a little about human nature. Everyone wants to be a hero. With global warming, they offered the common folk a chance to save the planet while they lined their pockets selling carbon credits.