Media

Weather Channel strikes back at Breitbart

by Joe Concha - 12/06/16 3:45 PM ET

The Weather Channel is hitting back at Breitbart News after the conservative website featured one of the meteorological outlet’s videos in an article claiming that climate change is a hoax.

Note to @BreitbartNews: Earth Is Not Cooling, Climate Change Is Real and Stop Using Our Video to Mislead Americans https://t.co/ipP0fD2BEg pic.twitter.com/ypSMJ4eML6

— The Weather Channel (@weatherchannel) December 6, 2016

In a Tuesday video post, the Weather Channel’s Kait Parker slammed Breitbart for cherry-picking information about global temperature changes.

“They used a completely unrelated video about La Niña, with my face in it, to attempt to back their point,” said Parker, who also works for ABC News.

She warned Breitbart News through her personal Twitter account to cease and desist.

Dear #Breitbart, Earth is not cooling, climate change is real and please stop using MY FACE to mislead Americans. https://t.co/8yDnzffdKv

— Kait Parker (@WeatherKait) December 6, 2016

The Weather Channel also wrote a point-by-point retort directed at Breitbart, including:

CLAIM: “Global land temperatures have plummeted by one degree Celsius since the middle of this year – the biggest and steepest fall on record.”

TRUTH: This number comes from one satellite-based estimate of temperatures above land areas in the lower atmosphere. Data from the other two groups that regularly publish satellite-based temperature estimates show smaller drops, more typical of the decline one would expect after a strong El Niño event.

Temperatures over land give an incomplete picture of global-scale temperature. Most of the planet – about 70 percent – is covered by water, and the land surface warms and cools more quickly than the ocean. Land-plus-ocean data from the other two satellite groups, released after the Breitbart article, show that Earth’s lower atmosphere actually set a record high in November 2016.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) last week mocked the House Science Committee for retweeting the Breitbart article about climate change.

.@BreitbartNews: Global Temperatures Plunge. Icy Silence from Climate Alarmists https://t.co/uLUPW4o93V

— Sci,Space,&Tech Cmte (@HouseScience) December 1, 2016