Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
WWF smackdown...of a climate science denier on his own radio show!
Last edited Mon Mar 25, 2013, 11:21 PM - Edit history (1)
Brian Sussman is former local TV weatherman who became a right wing talker. He currently co-hosts the morning drive-time show on San Francisco station Hot Talk 560 KSFO with Melanie Morgan (of gassing an NYT editor for treason fame) He's also the author of two climate change denial books, like Climategate: How the Left's Green Agenda will Dismantle America and Eco-Tyranny: How the Left's Green Agenda will Dismantle America (wow he's so unoriginal he re-used the same subtitle TWICE!)On Friday, Sussman and Morgan interviewed Keya Chatterjee, the director of International Climate Policy at the World Wildlife Fund, about Earth Hour. And Chatterjee dropped so much REAL SCIENCE that Sussman was stuck to asking loaded BS questions! Audio is here: http://soundcloud.com/the-ksfo-morning-show/keya-chatterjee-interview
The highlights:
1:30
SUSSMAN: ...some of the worst snowstorms that have ever occurred during the month of March occurred in the early 1900s. I'm just kinda curious. You can't certainly blame that on global warming. In fact when you look at some of the worst storms in the Northeastern United States, they occurred decades ago before anyone was talking about global warming, so I kinda find it interesting. Your press release here is really misleading and based on scare tactics and junk science.
CHATTERJEE: There's no question that there have been snowstorms happening through the history of time. The difference now is that we're seeing a trend that is increasing. There's all this extra energy in the system, and it's loading the dice. And so what we have is a climate system that's on steroids.
SUSSMAN: This is a new one.
CHATTERJEE: We see impacts such as sea level rise, really huge impacts to water availability, and so it's a local issue that we're seeing. It's the question whether it's part of a trend that's really important.
CHATTERJEE: There's no question that there have been snowstorms happening through the history of time. The difference now is that we're seeing a trend that is increasing. There's all this extra energy in the system, and it's loading the dice. And so what we have is a climate system that's on steroids.
SUSSMAN: This is a new one.
CHATTERJEE: We see impacts such as sea level rise, really huge impacts to water availability, and so it's a local issue that we're seeing. It's the question whether it's part of a trend that's really important.
Chatterjee's points about climate change and stronger storms are indeed true.
In the next question Sussman shows he got STUMPED so hard that he went back on his Gish Gallop:
SUSSMAN: I've never heard anyone say that there's more energy in the atmosphere. That's a new one to me. I've heard of CO2 in the atmosphere. I've never heard of energy in the atmosphere. The truth of the matter is, and even the United Nations acknowledges this, there's been no global warming for the past 16 years. So I'm kinda curious. Have we moved now from acknowledging that there's no global warming to saying it's just wild weather. (Sussman then repeats his line of hurricanes/snowstorms/hottest weather from the early 20th century and earlier.)
CHATTERJEE: There's no question that there's a scientific consensus that the planet is warming, and in fact the US National Academy of Sciences has stated that this is one of those incontrovertible facts at this point.
SUSSMAN: So it's like law?
CHATTERJEE: People are at this point unable to ignore the growing reality of this destructive weather...
CHATTERJEE: There's no question that there's a scientific consensus that the planet is warming, and in fact the US National Academy of Sciences has stated that this is one of those incontrovertible facts at this point.
SUSSMAN: So it's like law?
CHATTERJEE: People are at this point unable to ignore the growing reality of this destructive weather...
After Chatterjee explains at 5:15 that she used to work for NASA, Sussman asks: "As a former government employee, did you ever get to meet any of the current or the former directors of the National Hurricane Center? ...they don't believe in human-caused global warming. So how does that fit into your consensus theory?"
Citing directors of the NHC is an appeal to authority fallacy that doesn't change the scientific consensus. At 6:10 Sussman then interrupts Chatterjee when Chatterjee first answers by claiming that the NHC has meteorologists while the Academy of Sciences doesn't. Sussman even goes as far as to cite "the first female to have a Ph.D. in meteorology" (that would be Jennifer Marohasy) again an appeal from authority. The hosts interrupt Chatterjee AGAIN when Chatterjee tries to answer before her ultimate strike at 7:00:
...the way science advances is through peer-reviewed literature. (Sussman: Right. And by shooting holes in theories.) ...see the way that knowledge is accumulated and decided upon, and so it doesn't concern me when there are individuals and when there are very few individuals...98% of the peer-reviewed literature not just shows that this is part of a larger trend but actually details really local impacts all over the place that need to be prepared for...
Sussman asks yet ANOTHER loaded question at 7:45 as he has no answer to Chatterjee's point about peer-reviewed literature: "If you were to look at the writings of James Madison vs. the writings of Karl Marx, who would you be most critical of?"
Chatterjee didn't fall in Sussman's trap and answered (8:15): "We live in a capitalist society, and...there's nothing inconsistent with capitalism and dealing with climate change. I think that every economist from the very far right to the very far left understands that you need polluters to reflect the price of that pollution...if you want to have a very small government the best way to get to that is to prepare for climate change." Interview ends with Morgan laughing a bit.
Man. Sussman must feel so dumb now after inviting someone on his show who actually expressed a science-based POV!
Chatterjee's personal blog is at keyachatterjee.com, with tagline "Trying to raise a baby without raising our carbon footprint…"
KSFO was the local Rush Limbaugh affiliate for about 15 or more years before the show moved to another station at the beginning of 2012. Michael Savage also hosted a local show on that station for around five years before he went national in 1999. After KSFO parent company Cumulus got the distribution rights to The Savage Nation, KSFO brought back Savage to its lineup last year for the first time since 2003 (the Bay Area's current Limbaugh station had been Savage's home station from '03 to '09). Some at DU may remember KSFO going after blogger Spocko for posting excerpts of its shows online. Presently KSFO also has the Mike Huckabee, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin shows. It used to be carry Oakland Raiders games until a few years ago when my favorite alternative rock station became the local Raiders affiliate.
4 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
He's totally stumped, hahaha.
"I've never heard of extra energy in the atmosphere..."
What do you think extra thermal heating is going to do? Add energy!
edit: oh god, that woman saying, "You are really great at your talking points!" oh so cheerfully and nice. What a piece of work.
