Example of Why I Find it Difficult to Believe Anything I Hear From the "Sky Is Falling Global Warming Alarmists"

This kind of reporting is nothing but irresponsible...From Australian ABC News:

Plasma, LCDs blamed for accelerating global warming...

Crap!  And I was going soooo green, watching Discovery HD channel and now the Green Channel in HD about how terrible we humans are for the the future of the planet.  See... If you all would have just let Ronald Reagan Nuke the Crap out of the world back in the 80's we wouldn't have any humans to mess things up for... uh... the cockroaches!

Sorry propensity for digression... Back to the article.  They are not happy enough with the headline... no they have to elaborate their sensationalistic BS with a sub-line:

A gas used in the making of flat screen televisions, nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), is being blamed for damaging the atmosphere and accelerating global warming. 

Oh no!  Not Nitrogen Triflouride!  Damn! General Ripper in "Dr. Strangelove" may have been on to something!  Albiet he missed his chemistry by a Nitrogen atom and 2 more fluoride atoms. for those of you who need a refresher on General Ripper's concerns, I provide the following dialogue from the Kubrik film Dr. Strangelove:

Ripper: Mandrake?
Mandrake: Yes, Jack?
Ripper: Have you ever seen a Commie drink a glass of water?
Mandrake: Well, I can't say I have.
Ripper: Vodka, that's what they drink, isn't it? Never water?
Mandrake: Well, I-I believe that's what they drink, Jack, yes.
Ripper: On no account will a Commie ever drink water, and not without good reason.
Mandrake: Oh, eh, yes. I, uhm, can't quite see what you're getting at, Jack.
Ripper: Water, that's what I'm getting at, water. Mandrake, water is the source of all life. Seven-tenths of this earth's surface is water. Why, do you realize that seventy percent of you is water?
Mandrake: Uh, uh, Good Lord!
Ripper: And as human beings, you and I need fresh, pure water to replenish our precious bodily fluids.
Mandrake: Yes. (he begins to chuckle nervously)
Ripper: Are you beginning to understand?
Mandrake: Yes. (more laughter)
Ripper: Mandrake. Mandrake, have you never wondered why I drink only distilled water, or rain water, and only pure-grain alcohol?
Mandrake: Well, it did occur to me, Jack, yes.
Ripper: Have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation. Fluoridation of water?
Mandrake: Uh? Yes, I-I have heard of that, Jack, yes. Yes.
Ripper: Well, do you know what it is?
Mandrake: No, no I don't know what it is, no.
Ripper: Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face?

Damn digression again... Back to the article.  If you stop at the headlines like most of our MTV generation is wont to do, you will obviously do the right thing and go back to watching TV on your RCA Black and White!  However reading the article to it's conclusion I am troubled by the lack of ANY SCIENTIFIC support for this sensationalistic Headline and Sub-line... Note the absolute nature of both using the term "IS being blamed..." 

However, reading further... I run across this:

Dr Paul Fraser is the chief research scientist at the CSIRO's marine and atmospheric research centre, and an IPCC author.

He says without measuring the quantity of NF3 in the atmosphere it is unclear what impact it will have on the climate.

"We haven't observed it in the atmosphere. It's probably there in very low concentrations," he said.

"The key to whether it's a problem or not is how much is released to the atmosphere."

So I fail to see the supportive argument for the major premise "Plasma, LCDs blamed for accelerating global warming..." When a specific fact of the matter is "...without measuring the quantity of NF3 in the atmosphere it is unclear what impact it will have on the climate. "We haven't observed it in the atmosphere. It's probably there in very low concentrations..."

Y'all getting this?  Scientific evidence has not even been being collected as to the effect NF3 has on the environment, it is not even being measured!!!!  Should it be? Probably... but to make an irresponsible unknown claim like  "Plasma, LCDs blamed for accelerating global warming..."  Is completely and utterly baseless and equates to nothing more than the continued incestuous relationship between the "Global Climate Change/Global Warming" as a religion freaks and the "mainstream responsible, J-school educated Media!" 

What a bunch of WONKS!

I'm going to put my Dr. Strangelove DVD in my high heat emitting Denon  Up-Convert DVD player and watch it on my 42" 1080P LCD flat screen!  Just on General principle!

Comments

[Swampy]

Can you repeat that? I was watching my Plasma TV and was distracted.

[Brian R]

Heh, so somebody found out that there's a chemical that might maybe be bad for something, and instantly it's a scare. Yeah, that pretty much sums up science "journalism".

I also like this quote from the article:
"We don't know what's emitted, but what they're producing every year dwarfs these giant coal-fired power plants that are like the biggest in the world," he said.

Good use of the word "like." Is that the teenager like-as-a-filler, or is he saying that it dwarfs some coal plants, and those plants are in some ways similar to the biggest ones in the world? Either way it doesn't lend a lot of credibility.