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With extreme drought and unusual warmth in the west, and frigid conditions and snowstorms in the east, the split personality of U.S. winter in recent months accomplished a rare feat, spurring all three major television network’s Sunday news shows to finally address climate change.
Considering that ratings leader, NBC’s Meet the Press, did not offer any “substantial mention” of climate change in all of 2013, according to media watchdog group Media Matters for America, the segments that led the top of the broadcasts were unusual.
See also: Why the Ice Storm in the South Is Such a Big Deal
Two of the networks demonstrated how a politically fraught scientific subject can be responsibly dealt with by shows that typically only feature political commentary. However, Meet the Press did not fare so well. In fact, according to many climate scientists and activists, the show provided an example of how not to cover global warming on television.
Meet the Press featured a debate between Bill Nye "the Science Guy," a bow-tie wearing science educator who has made a side career out of debating high-profile climate skeptics, and Republican Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, who questions the existence of manmade global warming. But instead of it being a debate between Nye and Blackburn, the segment turned into a debate between host David Gregory and Blackburn, as he pushed her to move beyond statements of scientific doubt, and discuss climate policy.

Covering global warming as a debate has long been a fatally flawed paradigm, considering that the vast majority of climate scientists agree that manmade climate change is real. The actual debate in the scientific community centers on how damaging climate change will be, to what extent global warming’s fingerprints are already visible on our day-to-day weather extremes, and what can be done about it.
Instead, Meet the Press debated the very existence of the problem, and when it came to climate policy, Bill Nye is not the guy to discuss cap-and-trade plans or climate taxes.
It’s not surprising that the Sunday shows, which typically focus exclusively on politics, might have some hiccups when addressing science, but NBC’s decision to pair Nye versus Blackburn was a head-shaking moment for many.
Why the hell did NBC decide to have a "debate" about #climate change on Meet the Press today? http://t.co/myzivMjBTE
— CitizensClimateLobby (@citizensclimate) February 16, 2014
 
When I suggested Meet the Press could use some more climate change coverage, this isn't exactly what I had in mind http://t.co/D9HWHo1T9H
— Kate Sheppard (@kate_sheppard) February 15, 2014
 
In contrast, CBS’ Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer included an actual climate scientist — University of Georgia's Marshall Shepherd — to discuss the role that global warming may be playing in extreme weather events. And over at ABC, This Week with George Stephanopoulos featured a roundtable discussion on extreme weather that included a mix of politicians and scientists, including Heidi Cullen, chief climatologist at Climate Central, a climate news and research group.

Cullen said on This Week with George Stephanopoulos that the extreme weather events this winter are examples of ones that manmade climate change is already worsening, even if an individual event can’t be tied directly to global warming. Her comments were in line with U.S. President Barack Obama's remarks during a tour of drought-stricken California on Friday.

“So the kinds of droughts that we've been seeing in Texas, or in California right now, we know that climate change makes them worse,” Cullen said. “It's actually very similar to cigarette smoking and lung cancer, it increases the likelihood of that risk. We've already looked at the Texas drought in 2011. We know that climate change made that drought 20 times more likely.”

Editor's Note: Andrew Freedman was previously a senior science writer for Climate Central

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Cullen said on This Week with George Stephanopoulos that the extreme weather events this winter are examples of ones that manmade climate change is already worsening, even if an individual event can’t be tied directly to global warming. Her comments were in line with U.S. President Barack Obama's remarks during a tour of drought-stricken California on Friday.
“So the kinds of droughts that we've been seeing in Texas, or in California right now, we know that climate change makes them worse,” Cullen said. “It's actually very similar to cigarette smoking and lung cancer, it increases the likelihood of that risk. We've already looked at the Texas drought in 2011. We know that climate change made that drought 20 times more likely.”
Editor's Note: Andrew Freedman was previously a senior science writer for Climate Central
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