That would be CNN anchor Deborah Feyeric asking TV show host Bill Nye if he thought the meteor that recently troubled the Urals was an effect of climate change, in an extremely clumsy attempt to segue from a storm which has nothing to do with climate change to an astronomical event which had nothing to do with anything. Except big space rocks. It had a lot to do with that.
To me, this is a different problem to the usual climate change in the media rubbish. This isn't "Murdoch empire misrepresents science to promote political viewpoint". CNN is a fairly reputable news site/channel/conglomeration. They seem to think climate change is like a particularly fetching hat, which they can try on a various number of news items. Does it go with this severe storm warning? Would it look too daring perched atop a crop shortage issue? Until finally, like a deranged fashion designer, they've put a hat where no hat has gone before, balanced upside down on the proverbial foot of an astronomy story. That is where we are now. Foothat.
The theory of global warming is not difficult to understand. Greenhouse gases, such as our good friend Carbon Dioxide, prevent heat from the sun bouncing off the Earth and escaping back into space. If you doubt this bit, go look at Venus. It's a pretty toasty place. So the question scientists asked was: Since we are adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, are we adding enough to warm the planet? Turns out, yes.
Sure, there's a lot of complicated stuff that followed on from this basic question like feedbacks and Bayesian statistics and aerosol cooling and sunspots and tree ring records and Al gore and the Heartland Institute and Urban heat islands and ice albedo and the plight of the polar bear and this blog. But somehow, we've managed to get so mixed up in the complications that a CNN anchor doesn't even know if maybe giant rocks hurtling through the sound barrier into the Earth's atmosphere might have been caused by those pesky ol' CO2 molecules.
This blog is dedicated to talking about real climate science in a lighthearted, easygoing kind of way, mostly because if I don't do this I'll end up murdering Jeremy Clarkson screaming about abuse of public platform. So that's what this is, and this is my first post and now it's over. Note to self: work on ending statements.
