It's Raining, It's Pouring

Think Progress has a report, Bush Ignores Science, Claims ‘There Is A Debate’ Over The Cause of Global Warming, (with video) on Bush's response to a question about global warming:

This morning, President Bush was asked whether he believed global warming was a “real and significant threat to the planet.” Bush claimed there is still a real debate over the cause of global warming.

ABC News also has an article, A Perfect Storm Descends on the Nation's Capital, on the exchange. Reporting on the aftermath of storms in DC, including a hundred year old elm tree that was uprooted at the White House, reporter Bill Blakemore s:

In the White House, only hours after that old elm had fallen, Bush was addressed by a reporter, thus: "I know that you are not planning to see Al Gore's new movie, but do you agree with the premise that global warming is a real and significant threat to the planet?"

"I have said consistently," answered Bush, "that global warming is a serious problem. There's a debate over whether it's manmade or naturally caused. We ought to get beyond that debate and start implementing the technologies necessary ... to be good stewards of the environment, become less dependent on foreign sources of oil..."

The President -- as far as the extensive and repeated researches of this and many other professional journalists, as well as all scientists credible on this subject, can find -- is wrong on one crucial and no doubt explosive issue. When he said -- as he also did a few weeks ago -- that "There's a debate over whether it's manmade or naturally caused" ... well, there really is no such debate.

At least none above what is proverbially called "the flat earth society level."

Not one scientist of any credibility on this subject has presented any evidence for some years now that counters the massive and repeated evidence -- gathered over decades and come at in dozens of ways by all kinds of professional scientists around the world -- that the burning of fossil fuels is raising the world's average temperature.

Or that counters the findings that the burning of these fuels is doing so in a way that is very dangerous for mankind, that will almost certainly bring increasingly devastating effects in the coming decades.

* * * *

Meteorologists predict more heavy rain this week along the mid-Atlantic seaboard.

Climatologists predict much the same for the coming decades.

Did Blakemore lose his steno pad in the rain? There wasn't the usual some say yes, some say no in this piece. Will wonders ever cease? This is precisely the kind of reporting that has been missing of late, as I observed in my recent post, Put down the steno pad.

I think I spot a glimmer of sun peeking out of those clouds.

UPDATE: That old elm tree that came down -- it can be found in the far right corner of the image on the back of a $20 bill. The tree is believed to date back 140 years to the Andrew Johnson White House. Tree Down At White House Changes $20 Bill?

Tags: Bush, News and Media, Global Warming, Journalism