Fearmongering Media Spotlight: Newsweek and PBS

As a followup to last week's dicussion of Newsweek's flimsy display of unabashed scare tactics, this week's blog will critique the recently aired PBS documentary "What's Up With the Weather?", which caught my attention last week. The NOVA program, which claims on its website to "investigate...the truth about global warming" (see PBS link at bottom of page) seems to engage in more "telling" than "showing", spending a majority of its airtime inventing possible cataclysmic scenarios that may or may not play out in the future. This would deviate horribly (and unethically) from NOVA's supposed commitment to forensics. It is indeed terrifying (albeit somewhat humorous) to watch as a highly realistic model of New York city is engulfed by rising waters in a matter of seconds, or as acres of lush countryside explode into flames spontaneously. Is there any doubt that these simulations are intended to scare people? Is there any doubt that they are based on speculations, theories, and exaggerated projections? However, as with Newsweek's folly, NOVA errs not only in its predictions but in the logic and statistics it uses as support. Another computer-generated simulation of apocalyptic conditions depicted huge plumes of flaming methane exploding from under the oceans, which, according to the narrator, occured millions of years ago when global heat was peaking. The implication was that the ever-intensifying impact of "human carelessness" and "destructive industry" is leading us back into the hellish and volatile conditions of the prehistoric world. I am still waiting to hear news from the archaeological community regarding the smelting factories and manufacturing plants employed so carelessly by the dinosaurs that led to their demise. Such ruins have yet to be uncovered.
I believe that the problem here is acceptance. As a society we are uncomfortable with anything less than omniscience and omnipotence. As far as global warming is concerned, we can make only vague predictions, and that which we actually can assert with relative certainty is beyond our power to prevent or control. Psychologically, it is easier for many of us to believe that we are not at the chaotic will of nature. We wish to be in control, so it is more "convenient" (not "inconvenient", as Al Gore would have us believe) to assume the blame for the problem and to propose solutions. We feel more responsible as citizens of Earth if we take upon ourselves the burden of our salvation, even if, realistically, this lies far beyond our control.