Businesses, green groups and the media
Coverage of new findings in climate science has increased dramatically in recent
years. Stories on scientifically oriented topics such as experiments to fertilize the
oceans with iron ore, measurements of melting icebergs and ice coverage world-
wide, increasing ocean temperatures and coral ‘bleaching’, changing migratory
patterns of wildlife, the release of CO by melting Arctic soils, shifts in frost seasons
2
and plant growth, rising sea levels, and the spread of diseases such as West Nile
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virus to the United States and Canada could be found in newspapers worldwide.
One of the most notable was the widespread coverage in January 2001 of the
most dramatic warning yet about the dangers of global warming, which eman-
ated from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) meeting in
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Shanghai, China that month. The IPCC, a joint project of the United Nations
Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization, issued a
report that sharply increased projected climate change and warned of drought
and other disasters. The report, Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis, stated
that the average surface temperature of the planet will rise by 1.4–5.8° Celsius
between 1990 and 2100. Earlier estimates, presented in 1995, predicted a rise of
1–3.5° Celsius. According to the report, ‘there is new and stronger evidence
that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human
activities.’ In its summary for policy-makers, the IPCC toughened its language,
in particular on how far human activity can be blamed for soaring temperatures.
Even a preliminary version of the IPCC report, ‘leaked’ to the press prior to the
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Hague talks, attracted media attention from around the world.
Increased media and public interest in the problem of climate change also
stems from the astonishing rise in the frequency and severity of erratic weather
events and catastrophic natural disasters occurring in recent years around the
globe, many of which have been linked directly and indirectly by reporters,
scientists and NGOs to climate change: Hurricane Mitch in Central America;
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‘Ocean fertilization yields hope, uncertainty for global warming’, CNN, 23 Jan. 2001; ‘Iron-fed plankton
absorbs greenhouse gases’; New York Times, 12 Oct. 2000; ‘Huge Antarctic glacier melting’, MSNBC, 1 Feb.
2001; ‘Study details risk in melting glacier’, International Herald Tribune, 2 Feb. 2001; ‘Antarctic ice sheet
shrinks’, BBC News Online, 1 Feb. 2001; ‘Scientist: Columbia glacier retreating fast’, CNN, 29 Dec. 2000;
‘Earth’s ice cover melting in more places and at a higher rate, says report’, The Hindu, 28 March 2000; ‘Now
Europe’s biggest glacier falls to global warming’, Observer, 22 Oct. 2000; ‘Arctic sea ice thins by almost
half’, BBC News, 7 Dec. 2000; ‘Oceans at hottest for 3,000 years’, The Times, 4 May 2000; ‘Global warm-
ing is blamed for first collapse of a Caribbean coral reef’, Independent, 4 May 2000; ‘Carbon levels “threaten
coral”’, BBC News, 17 May 2000; ‘Coral reefs on the edge of disaster’, The Times, 25 Oct. 2000; ‘Equatorial
waters hold undercurrent to global warming’, CNN, 4 Dec. 2000; ‘Waters near Equator show “alarming”
warming trend’, Washington Post, 29 July 2000; ‘Global warming threat to dolphins’, CNN, 9 Nov. 2000;
‘Global warming ruffles wildlife, study says’, CNN, 15 Feb. 2000; ‘Global warming report predicts doom
for many species’, New York Times, 31 Aug. 2000; ‘Malaria crosses Canada’s border’, Ottawa Citizen, 19
Sept. 2000.
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‘Report warns of dramatic increase in global warming, Washington Post, 22 Jan. 2001; ‘Human effect on
climate “beyond doubt”’, BBC Online, 22 Jan. 2001; ‘Global warming danger rises for northern
hemisphere’, Japan Times, 23 Jan. 2001; ‘The weather turns wild’, US News and World Report, cover
story, 5 Feb. 2001 (the story could also be found on many other news websites, including those of the
New York Times, The Times , Kyodo News Service, ExpressIndia, CNN, The Age, Financial Times, ABC
News, Canadian Broadcasting and the Ottawa Citizen).
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‘Scientists now acknowledge role of humans in climate change’, New York Times, 26 Oct. 2000; coverage
could also be found in the Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, CBS News, USA Today, Irish Times,
Guardian, International Herald Tribune, Time Magazine, US News and World Report and others.
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