Wall Street Journal denies climate change

With the 2012 US election fast approaching, the politicisation of climate change is something that many Americans can look forward to. It would be foolish to assume that US media is also immune from political influence in a system as pervasive as the USA’s – most media corporations fly their blue or red flags willingly. One such media outlet that has come under repeated criticism for its editorial board’s willingness to publish factually incorrect and misleading opinions about climate change science is the News CorpWall Street Journal, the most widely circulated newspaper in the Western world. On January 27, it published a letter from 16 scientists claiming climate alarmism is a ploy by scientists to maintain funding, for governments to raise taxes and for charities to trick people into donating money to them.

Paranoid conspiracy, anyone? They also claimed there is doubt in the scientific community on the relationship between carbon dioxide and temperature, that global temperatures have not increased in the last 10 years and that there is disagreement in the climate science community that climate change is even happening (97% do, actually, agree). In fact, combined land and ocean surface temperature measurements reveal that eight of the warmest years on record have occurred in the last ten years, with 2005 and 2010 being the warmest ever recorded, 0.64°C warmer than the 20th Century average (source: NOAA).

It is important to note that the Wall Street Journal had previously refused to publish a comparable but accurate letter written by 255 members of the US National Academy of Sciences that highlighted the scientific consensus that humans are having a very serious and dangerous impact on our climate, and called for an improved and serious public debate to deal with this problem. Despite claims of openness and independence, it appears as though the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal is rather eager to fuel the public’s unfounded confusion and doubt about climate science, and play them right into the hands of the conservative candidates they support.

In all fairness, the Wall Street Journal did publish a rebuttal letter in its online version on February 1, penned by 38 eminent climate scientists and experts from all over the globe, including Sir Bob Watson, climate change advisor to the UK government, and Chris Rapley, former head of the British Antarctic Survey, who criticised the fact that many of the authors of the previous letter were not climate scientists, and those that were, were known for their extreme views in the climate science community. They likened these outliers to the few retrovirus experts that do not except that HIV causes AIDS, and the few medical experts who claim smoking does not cause cancer. The letter highlighted that every authoritative body of scientists in climate science globally have stated repeatedly that the science is clear – in fact, reports commissioned by the US congress concluded unanimously that climate change is happening and that it is largely caused by human activity, the same conclusions held by NASA, the Environmental Agency and the US Departments of State, Defence, Agriculture, Energy, and Health.

The science is real, the consensus is huge and the concern is massive – it would be severely foolish for any political leader, American or otherwise, to disregard that evidence and ignore the colossal risk that inaction poses, even if it means coming under criticism from right-wing media, whose motivations may often not be as clear-cut as they appear...