CBS anchorman Charles Osgood, long known for his strong environmentalist values, has taken a stand as a global warming skeptic.
The Sunday Morning host decided it was time to make public his position on global warming during the April 21 radio edition of The Osgood File.
Sun Controls Climate
“The sun normally undergoes an 11-year cycle of activity—and last year, it was supposed to have heated up—and at its peak would have a tumultuous, boiling atmosphere, spitting out flares and huge chunks of superhot gas. Instead, it hit a 50-year low in solar wind pressure, a 55-year low in radio emissions, and a 100-year low in sunspot activity. Right now, the sun is the dimmest it’s been in nearly a century,” said Osgood.
“In the mid-seventeenth century, there was a quiet spell on the sun, known as the Maunder Minimum, which lasted 70 years and led to a mini-Ice Age here on Earth,” Osgood explained. “Right now, global warming is a given to so many, it raises the question: Could another minimum activity period on the sun counteract, in any way, the effects of global warming?”
“Hush, child! You’re not even supposed to suggest that,” answered Osgood sarcastically. “The only thing that can change global warming is if we human beings—we Americans, especially—completely change our ways and our way of life.
“I’m sure you’ll be hearing more about this solar dimming business, now that the story is out. Remember, you heard it here first,” Osgood concluded.
Breaking the Mold
Los Angeles filmmaker and political columnist Christian Hartsock said Osgood broke the mold in debunking global warming alarmism.
“Sometimes it takes a CBS veteran to point out the ‘BS’ in CBS,” Hartsock said. “The mainstream media have so monopolized the collective conventional wisdom of the masses that no effort is needed to ‘slant’ stories any longer, inasmuch as virtually every story released is done on the basis of a twisted general cognizance of global affairs.”
Open-Mindedness Pays Off
Marc Morano, administrator of the Climate Depot Web site, agrees Osgood’s move is significant.
“Osgood, a longtime environmentalist with close ties to the Nature Conservancy, has not always sounded so skeptical of global warming,” Morano said. “In a March 19, 2007 The Osgood File, he reported, ‘It may be politically impossible to cut back fast enough on greenhouse gas emissions to do anything about global warming. And if that is the case we may have to turn to geo-engineering.’
“Osgood is not the only mainstream media journalist who may have reconsidered their manmade global warming views recently. CNN’s Lou Dobbs apparently used to believe in manmade climate fears,” Morano added.
“In 2006, shortly after former Vice President Al Gore’s film came out, Dobbs was touting and exclusively featuring climate activists like Gavin Schmidt of Real Climate, Alan Robock, and Michael Mann on his program and declared the scientific debate ‘over.’ But Dobbs is no longer convinced the climate debate is settled. He declared on January 5, 2009 that belief in global warming is ‘almost a religion’ and now regularly features climate skeptics on his program,” said Morano.
Krystle Russin ([email protected]) writes from Texas.
