Once again the news media is failing the American people just as they did in the run up to the war in Iraq. Back then the media seemed willing to be a propaganda machine for the Bush White House, when any informed person could see that the administration cherry-picked intelligence that fit the president's determination to go to war and ignored any intelligence that did not. Reporters refused to ask the tough questions that might have averted a needless and costly war.
Perhaps the media feared Bush's threat that non-supporters of the war were traitors or perhaps they couldn't believe that a president would deliberately lie to justify a war. (Note: you can go to the Web site www.publicintegrity.org/WarCard/ to see documentation of 935 false statements about the war made by Bush and seven of his top officials.)
Now the major media outlets are failing to inform people of another major threat: global warming. The League of Conservation Voters did a study of the questions asked of our presidential candidates by five top Sunday news show hosts and presidential debate panelists. Of 2,938 questions asked, only four mentioned global warming. They have asked lots of questions about Chuck Norris, gender, sports, race and even UFOs, but are ignoring the greatest challenge facing the next president: global warming. Are reporters again following the Bush view that the science is inconclusive and global warming might even be good for us?
The future of the Earth is at stake, so isn't it time to listen to the conclusions of the world's top scientists instead of political ideology? Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change head Rajendra Pachauri states that "waiting until 2012, when the next round of Kyoto is set to begin (and the first term of the new president ends), will be too late; what we do in the next two or three years will determine our future."
The IPCC, which is composed of thousands of the world's top climate scientists, concluded in their latest report that global warming is "unequivocal," that climate change will bring "abrupt and irreversible changes," and "the world will have to reverse the rapid growth of greenhouse gases by 2015 to avert the worst consequences."
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If we do not elect a president and members of Congress who will take effective action on this issue, many generations to come will suffer the consequences of our lack of wisdom.
Haugland lives in Moorhead.
