The Weather Channel is striking back at right-leaning website Breitbart News for its attempts to "mislead Americans" regarding climate change using the channel's own videos.
In an article released on Tuesday, Dec. 6, the Atlanta-based company said Breitbart used one of its videos for a Nov. 30 story, where the conservative website cherry-picked information in order to build a misleading case about global warming.
The story in question, titled "Global Temperatures Plunge. Icy Silence from Climate Alarmists," claims that land temperatures around the world have dropped by as much as 1 degree Celsius since the middle of this year. This suggests that the Earth may not be under the effects of a global warming event after all.
However, the Weather Channel said this is a case of Breitbart News pulling a single item out of context to distort the truth. In fact, many leading climate scientists agree that manmade greenhouse gas emissions are causing the planet to become warmer and will continue to do so unless preventive measures are made.
The Weather Channel also took issue with Breitbart's inclusion of a weather.com video to further its claim.
"Breitbart had the legal right to use this clip as part of a content-sharing agreement with another company, but there should be no assumption that The Weather Company endorses the article associated with it," the company said.
Weather Channel meteorologist Kait Parker, who was featured in the video, also slammed Breitbart News for using the clip to mislead readers.
"They used a completely unrelated video about La Niña, with my face in it, to attempt to back their point," Parker said.
One-Degree Celsius Drop Argument
According to the Weather Channel, Breitbart's claim of a 1-degree Celsius drop in global land temperatures came from satellite-based estimates collected over land areas in the lower atmosphere.
Two other groups monitoring temperature estimates also released satellite-based data, which showed smaller temperature drops that parallel typical declines seen after a particularly strong El Niño phenomenon.
However, the Weather Channel said taking land temperatures into account alone doesn't provide a complete forecast of global temperatures. Ocean temperatures also have to be considered, especially since about 70 percent of the Earth is covered by water.
Ocean surfaces are known to heat up and cool down at a much slower rate compared with land surfaces, which could affect global temperature measurements.
Following the release of the Breitbart article, the two other satellite groups published new data on land and ocean temperatures. The report said that temperatures in the lower atmosphere of the Earth actually reached a record high in November this year.
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) Dec. 6, 2016
