Not forecasts. Measurements.
Senator Bill Nelson plays “what’s wrong with this picture?”, above, showing recent photos of flooding in South Florida.
Now, a cautionary tale for scientists who wish to communicate science like this, to the public.
In this report by the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel,
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fort-lauderdale/fl-coastal-flooding-fort-lauderdale-20150929-story.html
at about 1:30 in, a scientist from Florida International University is quoted as saying sea level rise in South Florida is simply a “natural cycle”.
I’ve embedded that vid on youtube.
Below, in a different cut of the same interview, starting at about :50,
a longer edit tells a larger, more correct, story –
http://www.local10.com/news/supermoon-causes-second-day-of-flooding-along-south-floridas-coastline/35555304
Embedded below.
So two viewers of the same story, watching an interview of the same scientist, can come away with 2 completely different assessments of the problem.
Not sure of the politics here – the top, deceptively edited, story, is at the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel website. The second, more complete quote, was shown on the local Channel 10 news station, and at their site. It appears the scientist footage is is identical, conducted by the same reporter, but edited two different ways.
I’ve reached out the the scientist in question, with no response.
Experts interacting with media, take note.
Senator Nelson is a native Floridian holding elected office—-and he displays intelligence and common sense? How can that be?
It’s a shame that it appears that this talk may have been delivered to a recorder, a cameraman, and maybe a couple of his staffers in an otherwise empty hearing room. The rest of the Senate would benefit from hearing it, especially Strom Inhofe.
“EXPERTS interacting with media, take note”? ANYONE interacting with media should take note. Politics, personal bias, laziness, and the need to “sensationalize”—on the part of the reporter or editors—all too often enter into so-called “reporting”, and ALL should be wary of talking to reporters of any stripe.
I learned my own lesson back in the early 70’s when I was foolish enough to give a 5-minute interview to a WashPost reporter (Megan Rosenfeld). from which exactly ONE sentence was used and MISquoted, just as with the scientist in the first clip. The only words Megan ever got from me after that were trespass warnings as I escorted her off the property while explaining that she did NOT have the right to go anywhere she pleased just because she was a reporter. On one other occasion, I had a TV “reporter” stick a mike in my face and virtually demand that I answer his questions. My reply that he take that ****ing mike out of my face before I broke it in half and shoved it up his *** did not make it onto the news, but I would not have been surprised if it had (with appropriate “bleeps”), the goal of course being to make me look “unreasonable” and “uncooperative”.
Just curious as to what the issue the reporter was covering. My take is that reporters feel the need to “dumb down” their work, since most of their audience probably reads at the 5th grade level and may not have much in the way of critical thinking skills.
Which reporter?
I remember the first case pretty well because it DID end up in print, and I had to listen to some crap from my colleagues about how “brilliant” my comment was. I was in the school administration business then, and Ms. Rosenfeld walked in off the street looking for insight on some stupid but not very significant thing some of our kids had done that DID make the local TV evening news for a couple of nights. Like ambulance chasing lawyers, reporters “chase” news. IMO, she had an axe to grind with somebody, and used only the one statement of mine because it suited her agenda rather than “illuminate” the situation we discussed.
I don’t remember the circumstances of the “mike in the face” as well, because it ended right there, but it was probably school related as well, and akin to what you see after shootings—shots of neighbors, relatives, (or people just walking by) being asked about the victim or the shooter.
You know, the blubbering relatives saying of the victim that “he was such a nice boy” or the neighbors of the shooter saying “he was such a nice boy” also. Sad and sorry intrusions on the grieving families and really mindless drivel. My favorites are the ones of people being asked about plane crashes, car crashes, or train wrecks who say “I heard a loud noise” while the reporter nods seriously.
Yes the “audience” is not too smart anymore, but the real dumbing down is what has occurred in the media. There is not one “reporter” on Fox News that displays any critical thinking skills beyond being able to figure out that they more they whore, the more they get paid.
Interesting. Your situation is probably a lot more common than most people realize.
Bill Nelson has attributed his pro environment attitude to having been an astronaut and seeing the earth from space. I could believe it because from what I remember outside of the environment he has a more regressive voting record for a Dem (but then again he had to win a senate seat in FL which for a long time voted like a lot of the south).
Bill Nelson, ‘We can put this in the political terms of climate change…’
Really! Climate change is a political term! But maybe he was irony around the attitude of Rick Scott and co.
I wonder how the US Navy is getting on at Mayport? Then there is the Cape – that’s on low lying ground too. A one metre rise would require a resurrected Space Shuttle to have floats for landing on the pad once used there and the Space Centre would be more generally impacted.
I was once fortunate to have visited the Space Centre – up from Ft Lauderdale where our Grey Funnel cruiser had berthed. We next steamed up the coast to Mayport (I had an early morning, it was dark, encounter with rattlers whilst there) thus I have fond memories of Florida.
Over on Climate Progress I used to have a running fight with a Marc Sheridan who liked to pump up real estate values as if nothing was going wrong. Don’t see comments there anymore, since they changed browser associations I heard. No I don’t want Google Chrome just now.
> Really! Climate change is a political term!
In the republican congress – yes.
… just as bill #246 of the 1897 Indiana General Assembly.
At least Florida residents will be able to move to higher ground without need of obtaining a new passport or finding an accepting country. Over half a million people who live on atolls in the Pacific and Indian oceans, won’t have the luxury of higher ground, and will depend on acceptance from a foreign country.
As far as I know climate change is not in the definition of refugee status, at least not in the country I reside in. A recent paper published online dated 25th of September, predicts that many of these atolls will be uninhabitable within decades (not centuries).
We have all witnessed the sorry panic of the Syrian masses escaping the atrocities in that country recently, I sincerely hope we can learn from that and not repeat it in The Pacific and Indian ocean.
Not even mentioning Bangladesh. Decades does not give humanity much time to prepare . . assuming they are willing to prepare ..
Short version of the report from the U.S. Geological Survey . . .
Many Atolls May be Uninhabitable Within Decades Due to Climate Change
“The study explored the combined effect of storm-induced wave-driven flooding and sea level rise on atoll islands within the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, including Laysan and Midway Islands, which are home to many threatened and endangered endemic species. The same modeling approach is applicable to most populated atolls around the world.”
http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=4346&from=rss_home#.Vg39EX393Ql
Long version of the study
“Not only will such flooding impact terrestrial infrastructure and habitats, but more importantly, it will salinize the limited freshwater resources and thus may force inhabitants to abandon their island-nations in decades, not centuries, as previously thought. Together, these results highlight the synergistic effects of annual storm waves and sea-level rise to provide an improved understanding of the planning and management necessary to protect infrastructure and natural resources on low-lying atoll islands in the face of future climate change.”
http://www.nature.com/articles/srep14546
Hope someone is listening . . .
Would it help to always place your own camera alongside the News camera and assure the reporter that the ‘duplicate’ will be on-line to plaster egg all over her/his face if what they put to air deviates too far from the truth? “Anything you say may be taken down and used in evidence against you”. Remind them that YouTube etc have very long memories and bad reporting can come back to haunt them….forever!!
Yes, but only marginally. They aim for the “sound bite” and the initial impact, and don’t much care what the future brings. Who reads the tiny “corrections” box in the daily paper, and who is even going to know to look on Youtube for the real truth? No, what they aim for is the big splash that will soon be forgotten as everyone goes back to texting and watching TMZ and reality TV. It’s sad but true that any scientist who tries to communicate with the public is open to this kind of treatment—a sign of just how low out “modern society” has sunk
The key is “used in evidence”—-IF there were tighter laws against lying and deception, AND things like this were more easily prosecuted, AND there were real penalties (like jail time), maybe you’d get the reporter’s attention. They don’t care about “egg on the face” in their quest for scoops, sensationalism, and ratings. (But then you’d get into first amendment issues and “suppression of the press” as well)
As an addendum to the Megan Rosenfeld “story” in an earlier comment, she was told to not set foot on school grounds without having made an appointment, and that we were so busy running school that it would likely take a week or two to fit her in if she did. And that if she DID show up unannounced, she would be charged with trespass and interfering with the operation of a school. She immediately raised “freedom of the press” and was told to talk to the WashPost lawyers about the community’s “freedom” to have their schools operate without disruption by people like her. We had the laws to back us up, and I’m sure the lawyers told her so. I hope they also told her that she brought it on herself. To wit:
“Code of Virginia § 18.2-415 – Disorderly conduct in public places
“A person is guilty of disorderly conduct if he:
“C. Willfully…disrupts the operation of any school or any activity conducted or with the orderly conduct of the operation or activity….
“The person in charge of any such building, place, conveyance, meeting, operation or activity may eject therefrom any person who violates any provision of this section, with the aid, if necessary, of any persons who maybe called upon for such purpose.”
I’m sure there are similar laws in all states. The trespass laws go hand in glove with this, and we threw many drunken parents out of football games, and even had the police come and remove them from the building when they showed up in the middle of the day and DEMANDED that their problem be dealt with RIGHT NOW. The police were the “persons who may be called upon for aid”, and they loved doing it, because these were the same folks who gave them a hard time in the community—it went fast—no discussion—-“you’ve been told to leave, do it instantly or turn around and be cuffed” was the message.
On the second read I spotted the deliberate mistake “I’ve reached out the the scientist in question, with no response.
Experts interacting with media, take note.” – “the” repeated twice, the old brain teaser.
The first (Sun Sentinel) video wins the spivs and tricksters award, T.V station must of learnt it from the editing tips of Anthony Watts in WUWT who I’ve seen do likewise omissions, in his misinformation articles.
The second video earns the good reporting badge. . .
I really don’t know what natural variable increase in sea level this guy is talking since with out the Anthropogenic contribution the world would be cooling. that is fact. we have pushed the climate over the cliff!!!
Not sure, but sea level does vary regionally, much like when we see water sloshing around in a bathtub, but in response to currents, gravitational, and rotational forces.
The average for any particular location should stay pretty constant. Currents don’t change much unless an isthmus closes the gap between continents, gravitational changes involve melting ice caps or mountain building and rotational changes are usually veeery slow. I suppose he could be referring to events like that massive rainfall & flooding they had in Queensland that transferred so much water to inland Australia it lowered sea levels globally by a tiny tad. But that had an element of climate change.
I’ve heard an interview with David Titley, Chief Oceanographer and Navigator, US Navy, retired – in which he mentioned that the Gulf Stream, for instance, is a bit higher than the surrounding water – I guess owing to high flow and higher temperatures.
If I find, will post.
No need, you’re right Greenman, I’ve seen mention of that too. It’s surprising how variable sea level is when referenced to, say, the center of the earth. The Nth Atlantic and Antarctic oceans are higher than they would be otherwise because they are ‘sucked’ toward the mass of their respective ice caps, so no doubt the east Pacific is also drawn toward the Rockies and Andes. It would probably be just a scientific curiosity except that melting ice caps could contribute not just their meltwater, but the loss of mass causing water to flow away. Tough for areas like Miami who will be right in the cross-hairs.
also fascinating that, as more Greenland ice melts, sea level will actually go down in that area, due to loss of the great mass of ice, which gravitationally draws a higher water level to itself. We’re talking long, long term here.