Earth Equity News

American Media Must Do Better. By Joseph Romm, Grist, June 12, 2008. "The British and the Chinese understand global warming has driven their record flooding. The U.S.? Not so much. Although you wouldn't know it from most U.S. media coverage, the record 'once-in-a-hundred-year flooding' the Midwest now seems to be getting every decade or so is precisely what scientists have been expecting from the warming. A 2004 analysis by NOAA's National Climatic Data Center found an increase during the 20th century of 'precipitation, temperature, stream-flow, heavy and very heavy precipitation and high stream-flow in the East.' They found a 14% increase in 'heavy rain events' of greater than 2 inches/day, and a 20% increase in 'very heavy rain events' -- best described as deluges -- greater than 4 inches/day. These extreme downpours are precisely what [are] predicted by global warming scientists and models... Story after story after story appear in the mainstream media with no link whatsoever between extreme weather and global warming... The media must do a better job." Joseph Romm is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he maintains the Center's climate blog, ClimateProgress.org. His last book, 'Hell and High Water,' was published December, 2006.