http://www.fantasylandmedia.org
Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine. News that the people in charge, the corporations and your government want to keep from the public eye.
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Common Dreams:
"France has announced today that it is imposing a new temporary ban on Monsanto's MON810 maize in the interests of protecting the environment.
The announcement comes from French Agricultural Minister Bruno Le Maire who said the decision was a 'precautionary measure.'
The move restates a 2008 ban, which was overturned by the country's highest court in November.
Last month France asked the European regulators to suspend the authorization to plant Monsanto's genetically modified MON810 corn saying the decision was based on studies showing GM crops 'pose significant risks' for the environment."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/03/16-4
-->The NY Times never reports that the rest of the world is questioning Monsanto and its genetically modified seeds. Even its "Science" section, glosses over or omits any negatives such as destruction of the environment or the dramatic increase in weed killers used on GM food crops.
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Citizens for Legitimate Government:
"Afghan tribal leaders say the recent massacre of Afghan civilians by US troops has been pre-planned and not carried out by a lone soldier, Press TV reports.
The tribal leaders of the southern province of Kandahar said on Monday that several US forces, not a single soldier, contributed to the brutal carnage of Afghan civilians and that the violent action had been planned previously. They said the carnage was in retaliation against a deadly bomb attack on the US troops in the Zangabad district in the town of Panjwaii in the province of Kandahar, which inflicted serious damage on the American military forces.
Following the blast, the American forces summoned local Afghans and tribal leaders of the region and vowed a bloody revenge on their children and wives, Kandahar tribal leaders added."
http://www.legitgov.org/Afghan-tribal-leaders-Afghan-civilians-massacre-pre-planned
-->This is only one of a number of stories coming out of Afghanistan questioning the "lone gunman" theory of the civilian massacre. Of course, all we read in the US media is the story of a brain damaged and disturbed individual soldier. How many stories coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan have been grossly distorted like this one by our media and its pro-war propaganda?
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Common Dreams:
"Israeli Settlers Stealing Essential Water from Palestinians, UN Reports. 'Intimidation, threats and violence' used to control water in West Bank.
The UN's Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has released a report showing that Israeli settlers in the West bank have taken over dozens of natural springs from Palestinians there, preventing access to essential water sources.
The report shows that Palestinians are kept from accessing the springs by acts of 'intimidation, threats and violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers.' "
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/03/19-6
-->No sign of this story in The NY Times, which routinely leaves out stories of Palestinian suffering in the West Bank and Gaza.
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Electronic Intifada:
"Israel is criticized for violating the right to equality in a new report by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
An advance version of the CERD report indicates that racial prejudice can be found in almost every facet of Israeli life.
CERD is a body of legal specialists who monitor the implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which states that any doctrine of superiority based on racial differentiation is scientifically false, morally condemnable, socially unjust and dangerous."
http://electronicintifada.net/content/un-body-appalled-israels-racial-segregation-policies/11065
-->Another story that has not made it into the pages of The NY Times.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Fantasyland Media:
http://www.fantasylandmedia.org
Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine. News that the people in charge, the corporations and your government want to keep from the public eye.
------
Agence France-Presse (AFP):
"US authorities' treatment of WikiLeaks suspect Private Bradley Manning was 'cruel and degrading,' the UN special rapporteur on torture Juan Ernesto Mendez said Monday.
'I believe Bradley Manning was subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in the excessive and prolonged isolation he was put in during the eight months he was in Quantico,' he told AFP, referring to the US military prison near Washington.
Mendez said that 'fortunately' the alleged mistreatment ended when Manning was transferred from Quantico to another prison in Kansas.
'But the explanation I was given for those eight months was not convincing for me,' he said, speaking on the sidelines of a UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva."
-->No coverage of this in print by The NY Times. It is not easy covering up US human rights violations, but our newspaper of record does what it can by simply not reporting the worst of our government's treatment of political prisoners.
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Common Dreams:
"In the wake of the financial crisis of 2008 and the recession that followed, huge numbers of US workers lost their jobs, homes were lost to foreclosure, and most found themselves in the most precarious economic shape of their lives. Now, in a new report, evidence shows that as an economic recovery (slight as it was) appeared on the scene, nearly all of it went, not to those struggling, but to the very wealthiest of Americans, many of whom helped lead the economy off the cliff in the first place.
According to a new report, nearly 93% of the economic gains made from 2009 to 2010 went to the wealthiest 1% of Americans. 'Top 1% incomes grew by 11.6% while bottom 99% incomes grew only by 0.2%. Hence, the top 1% captured 93% of the income gains in the first year of recovery,' reads the report by Emmanuel Saez titled Striking It Richer: The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States."
-->A version of this story appeared in the The International Herald Tribune, published by The NY Times. Strange that this story about US income inequality would only be published for readers in the rest of the world.
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Common Dreams:
"The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) has confirmed that a series of earthquakes in the state were caused by injecting leftover fracking fluids, 'brine,' deep into wells.
The ODNR report notes that in 2011, the Youngstown, Ohio area experienced 12 'low-level seismic events,' and that the 2011 earthquakes were unique because of their proximity to a deep disposal well, known as Northstar 1, used to inject fracking fluids.
The report adds that 'before 2011, [Ohio Seismic Network] had not recorded earthquake activity with epicenters located in the Youngstown area.'
...With more than 144,000 Class II wells injecting more than 2 billion gallons of leftover fracking fluids every day in the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Ohio’s Class II disposal well regulations meeting or exceeding EPA regulations, questions linger about the potential for fracking-induced earthquakes elsewhere."
-->Questions may indeed linger about the safety of fracking, but they don't concern The NY Times, which didn't cover this story. The big money is on bringing fracking to NY State, and big money dictates what gets printed.
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Hudson Valley Activist Newsletter:
"...It is bad enough when the party known as 'labor's friend' ignores past injustices, or even refuses to act on a labor priority (such as the Employee Free Choice Act). It's another matter when Democratic votes make it possible to perpetrate new anti-labor injuries, as took place Feb. 6 when the Senate passed the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill over union objections.
The worst part of the new legislation weakened bargaining rights for workers in the aviation and rail industries by increasing from 35% to 50% the number of worker signatures required to allow an election for union recognition. It was strongly backed by the airline industry.
Senate Democrats called the final version of the bill the best 'compromise' possible with the reactionary House measure. 'That’s a step back, not a compromise,' commented International Association of Machinists president Tom Buffenbarger, a sentiment shared by many unions..."
-->The NY Times doesn't do stories about the Democrats attacking labor rights.
Thursday, March 08, 2012
Fantasyland Media:
http://www.fantasylandmedia.org
Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine. News that the people in charge, the corporations and your government want to keep from the public eye.
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BBC News:
"US special forces are present in five South Asian countries, including India, a top Pentagon commander has revealed. US Pacific Commander Admiral Robert Willard said the teams were deployed to help India with their counter-terrorism co-operation...
Adm Willard said US teams were also present in Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives.
'We have currently special forces assist teams - Pacific assist teams is the term - laid down in Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, as well as India,' Admiral Willard told a Congressional hearing."
-->Why must we go to foreign news sources to find out about the spread of US special forces around the globe? Inside America, such infiltrations of other countries by the US military is given little attention, another sign that the empire is on the move again in Asia and Africa.
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Common Dreams:
"From March 4 -6, as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) convenes its annual conference in Washington, DC, Occupy AIPAC has organized a concurrent summit to discuss AIPAC's heavy influence in determining US foreign policy. It hopes to show a there is a new way forward for a just Middle East policy.
Occupy AIPAC, coordinated by CODEPINK Women for Peace in partnership with the Institute for Policy Studies, Just Foreign Policy, US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), Interfaith Peace-builders, Jewish Voice for Peace, and with the endorsement of over 100 organizations from around the country, states:
'The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has a dangerous stranglehold over U.S. foreign policy towards the Middle East. AIPAC’s unrelenting support for the illegal policies of the Israeli government—separation walls, settlements, the siege of Gaza—in addition to its bellicose policies across the region, especially Iran, has been devastating for Palestinians and the Middle East, including Israel. It also harms our reputation around the world and squanders $3 billion a year subsidizing the powerful Israeli military when we need that money to rebuild the United States. It’s time to wean U.S. policy away from AIPAC’s grip towards an even-handed position that respects international law and the human rights of all people in the region.'
-->Why can't our major media outlets frame war against Iran in such terms? To The NY Times, it is all about Iran's supposed nuclear arms ambitions. No word of the organized resistance against AIPAC and Congressional warmongering. Over 400 people attended this occupy AIPAC conference and protest in DC this weekend.
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Common Dreams:
"As southern Indiana, Kentucky and other midwestern states woke Saturday to devastated communities and a rising death toll, the world again was treated to pictures and video of mother nature's ferocious power and the merciless power of her most precise and terrifying storm, the tornado. Most striking to some is the early arrival of this year's tornado season, which usually begins later in the spring and runs into summer. For climate scientists, who have long predicted longer or more powerful storms and less predictable seasons, the events are an affirmation that offer no comfort...
In a press briefing on Thursday, representatives of the nation's top insurance companies, citing a year of history-making natural disasters and $1 billion-plus in damages, took a definitive stance, along with members of the US Senate, to confirm that the costs -- both to taxpayers and private businesses -- from extreme weather events will continue to climb due to the irrefutable march of global warming and climate change.
-->Major insurance companies are becoming worried about the potential destruction of global warming, but not The NY Times. In its extensive coverage of these disasters, The NY Times does little to link them to any consideration of climate change. Reports are all about the extensive damage, and what meteorologists said about weather conditions.
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Occupy Washington Blog:
"If President Obama signs HR 347, it will be a federal crime if you mic-check a presidential candidate or the president. HR 347, the federal trespass bill that makes it illegal to knowingly protest in an area where there is someone under Secret Service protection or an area that Homeland Security has declared there is an event of 'national significance.'
Can they make a presidential inauguration an event where protest is not allowed? How about a meeting of the WTO, G8 or NATO? How about a meeting of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC? The law was passed by voice vote in the Senate - no record of anyone voting against it. And, in the House there were only three votes against it, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) and Rep. Broun (R-GA)-- all Republicans...Is this another sign that elected officials fear the anger of the people?"
-->No mention of this impending legislation by our newspaper of record, The NY Times.
Thursday, March 01, 2012
Fantasyland Media:
http://www.fantasylandmedia.org
Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine. News that the people in charge, the corporations and your government want to keep from the public eye.
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CLG News:
"LONDON--Today WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files – more than five million emails from the Texas-headquartered 'global intelligence' company Stratfor. The emails date from between July 2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal's Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defense Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor's web of informers, pay-off structure, payment-laundering techniques and psychological methods..
The material shows how a private intelligence agency works, and how they target individuals for their corporate and government clients. For example, Stratfor monitored and analysed the online activities of Bhopal activists, including the "Yes Men", for the US chemical giant Dow Chemical. The activists seek redress for the 1984 Dow Chemical/Union Carbide gas disaster in Bhopal, India. The disaster led to thousands of deaths, injuries in more than half a million people, and lasting environmental damage..."
-->Wikileaks documents that outline the workings of private intelligence services in the US that try to smear targets for major corporations? You would think this would be a big story, but not in The NY Times. Our newspaper of record hates to report anything that damages the reputation of corporate America. In its three paragraph article on Stratfor, any mention of US corporations was just left out.
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Military.com:
"NAIROBI, Kenya -- U.S. troops helping in the fight against a brutal rebel group called the Lord's Resistance Army are now deployed in four Central African countries, the top U.S. special operations commander for Africa said Wednesday.
The U.S. announced in October it was sending about 100 U.S. troops - mostly special operations forces - to Central Africa to advise in the fight against the LRA and its leader Joseph Kony, a bush fighter wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.
Rear Adm. Brian L. Losey, the top U.S. special operations commander for Africa, said the U.S. troops are now stationed in bases in Uganda, Congo, South Sudan and Central African Republic."
-->The empire is on the move in Africa, with four new countries infiltrated by US Special Forces. The NY Times doesn't report on empire, so this story was never printed.
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Guardian UK:
"Millions of dollars in White House money has helped pay for New York Police Department program that put entire American Muslim neighbourhoods under surveillance.
The money is part of a little-known grant intended to help law enforcement fight drug crimes. Since 9/11, the Bush and Obama administrations have provided $135m to the New York and New Jersey region through the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area programme, known as HIDTA.
Some of that money — it's unclear exactly how much because the programme has little oversight — has paid for the cars that plain clothes NYPD officers used to conduct surveillance on Muslim neighborhoods. It also paid for computers that store even innocuous information about Muslim college students, mosque sermons and social events."
-->White House money involved in NYC spying on Muslim students? The NY Times has yet to report this damaging story of White House complicity in racial profiling.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Fantasyland Media:
http://www.fantasylandmedia.org
Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine. News that the people in charge, the corporations and your government want to keep from the public eye.
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Common Dreams:
"Thank AT&T, Bud, Pfizer Et Al For Heartland's Non-Global Warming. At least 19 publicly traded companies gave the climate-denial think tank Heartland Institute over $1.3 million for an array of projects, including one to teach kids that global warming is a hoax...
The companies backing the Heartland Institute: Anheuser-Busch, AT&T, Comcast, General Motors, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Reynolds American, Time Warner Cable... "
-->The NY Times finally published a story about Heartland Institute, but omitted mention of which companies were behind the effort to deny climate change. The one company The NY Times did mention, Microsoft, came with a explanation that the company gives computers to many non-profits. Why omit which major corporations are sponsoring the Heartland Institute and how these corporations benefit from the denial of climate change? As always, The NY Times puts the good name of multinational corporations above their readership's right to know.
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The Activist Newsletter:
"New anti-union legislation was passed by Congress earlier this month despite a Democratic majority in the Senate and Barack Obama in the White House...
It is bad enough when the party known as 'labor's friend' ignores past injustices, or even refuses to act on a labor priority (such as the Employee Free Choice Act). It's another matter when Democratic votes make it possible to perpetrate new anti-labor injuries, as took place Feb. 6 when the Senate passed the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill over union objections.
The worst part of the new legislation weakened bargaining rights for workers in the aviation and rail industries by increasing from 35% to 50% the number of worker signatures required to allow an election for union recognition. It was strongly backed by the airline industry."
-->The NY Times put the union busting part of the legislation at the end of an article on House funding for aviation programs. No mention of Obama's sellout to the airlines industry.
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Guardian UK:
"Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul warned the U.S. is 'slipping into a fascist system' dominated by government and businesses as he held a fiery rally Saturday night upstaging established Republican Party banquets a short distance away.
The Texas congressman drew a couple thousand standing and chanting people to Kansas City's Union Station as the party's establishment dined on steak across the street at the Missouri GOP's annual conference...
'We've slipped away from a true Republic,' Paul said. 'Now we're slipping into a fascist system where it's a combination of government and big business and authoritarian rule and the suppression of the individual rights of each and every American citizen.' "
-->For all the news about the Republican primary race, The NY Times did not cover these quite remarkable quotes from Ron Paul. Too close to the truth about our corporate controlled political system. The NY Times sees its primary role as preserving the illusion of democracy in America.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Fantasyland Media:
http://www.fantasylandmedia.org
Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine. News that the people in charge, the corporations and your government want keep from the public eye.
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Guardian UK:
"Leak exposes how Heartland Institute works to undermine climate science. The inner workings of a libertarian thinktank working to discredit the established science on climate change have been exposed by a leak of confidential documents detailing its strategy and fundraising networks...
The scheme includes spending $100,000 on commissioning an alternative curriculum for schoolchildren that will cast doubt on global warming...
The papers indicate that discrediting established climate science remains a core mission of the organization, which has received support from a network of wealthy individuals – including the Koch oil billionaires as well as corporations such as Microsoft and RJR Tobacco."
-->A quick review of The NY Times reveals remarkably positive coverage of the Heartland Institute over the past year. This story, a negative look at how big corporations and the Heartland Institute are accelerating the destruction of our climate, was not printed.
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The NY Times:
The NY Times Book Review had an article about Tony Judt's last book, "Thinking and the Twentieth Century." The review, however, revealed much more about our newspaper of record than about Judt's writing.
The review starts by straightforwardly presenting Judt's criticism of Israel and the Israeli lobby. Then comes the surprising commentary: "This public persona is unfortunate because it obscures a much more interesting figure." No explanation of why his criticism of Israel makes Judt somehow less "interesting."
Further on we get another odd judgement. "The prolonged discussion of public intellectuals toward the end of the book shows off Judt's least pleasant side." The reviewer soon makes clear just what he finds so unpleasant.
"All of these characteristics come out in the above-mentioned critique of Israel...(Judt) seems to think that his own Jewishness and fact that he lived in Israel a one point give him the authority to be as morally obtuse in return."
So Judt's analysis of Israel, according to the reviewer, makes him less interesting, unpleasant, and morally obtuse. No doubt the reviewer, Francis Fukuyama, felt personally insulted by some of Judt's comments about NY Times intellectuals being among the "ignorant at best, and willing dupes of power at the worst." But the review is about more than Fukuyama's grudge. It is about The NY Times as purveyor of Zionist propaganda. Judt must be discredited because of his views on Israel.
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Guardian UK:
"A French court has declared the US biotech giant Monsanto guilty of chemical poisoning of a French farmer, a judgment that could lend weight to other health claims against pesticides.
In the first such case heard in court in France, the grain grower Paul Francois, 47, said he suffered neurological problems including memory loss, headaches and stammering after inhaling Monsanto's Lasso weedkiller in 2004. He blames Monsanto for not providing adequate warnings on the product label.
The ruling was given by a court in Lyon, south-east France, which ordered an expert opinion of Francois's losses to establish the amount of damages.
'It is a historic decision in so far as it is the first time that a pesticide maker is found guilty of such a poisoning,' Francois Lafforgue, Francois's lawyer, told Reuters."
-->Another favorite of The NY Times is Monsanto, probably the worst corporation on the planet. True to form, The NY Times did not print this story, although it is a historic first in making pesticide makers responsible for their deadly poisons.
Thursday, February 09, 2012
Fantasyland Media:
http://www.fantasylandmedia.org
Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine. News that the people in charge, the corporations and your government want to keep from the public eye.
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The Independent UK:
"Leading neuroscientists believe that the UK Government may be about to sanction the development of nerve agents for British police that would be banned in warfare under an international treaty on chemical weapons.
A high-level group of experts has asked the Government to clarify its position on whether it intends to develop 'incapacitating chemical agents' for a range of domestic uses that go beyond the limited use of chemical irritants such as CS gas for riot control.
The Royal Society working group says the Government shifted its position to allow the development of more severe chemical agents, such as the type of potentially dangerous nerve gases used by Russian security forces to end hostage sieges.
The experts were commissioned by the Royal Society, the UK's national academy of sciences, to investigate new developments in neuroscience that could be of use to the military. They concluded that the Government may be preparing to exploit a loophole in the Chemical Weapons Convention allowing the use of incapacitating chemical agents for domestic law enforcement."
-->The NY Times did not cover this story, although we are left to wonder what coverage this report would have gotten if it involved Syria or Iran. Even more ominously, we must consider what the US security state has in mind once the occupy movement hits the streets this spring.
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Common Dreams:
"Multinational agricultural biotech corporation Monsanto, known as the creator of chemical weapon Agent Orange, is attempting to infiltrate Vietnam once again - this time as GMO dealer.
Agent Orange, used for chemical warfare in the Vietnam War, is estimated to have killed 400,000, deformed 500,000 and sickened another 2 million. 'Between 2.1 to 4.8 million Vietnamese were directly exposed to Agent Orange and other chemicals that have been linked to cancers, birth defects, and other chronic diseases during the war that ended in 1975, according to the Vietnam Red Cross,' Thanh Nienn News writes.
30 years after the war, three generations have suffered from the effects of Agent Orange. Now, as Monsanto seeks to reap profits in Vietnam once again, this time through agribusiness, many are speaking out against the corporation as well as the potential effects of the GM seeds and herbicides that Monsanto seeks to sell."
-->Monsanto is somewhat of a darling when it comes to the NY Times. Who wants to drudge up old war stories when the future is so bright for genetically modified foods?
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Democracy Now:
"The unusual cold weather in eastern Europe has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of vulnerable people living in areas unprepared for the freezing conditions. Extreme weather events have been increasingly evident in recent years, and now scientests are fearful that the 'feedback loops' of climate change are occurring in ways that uphold predictions made by global warming models showing how seemingly unrelated occurrences, such as the melting of ice in the arctic, are noticeably changing weather patterns in faraway regions."
The Independent UK:
"Studies by scientists at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research have confirmed a link between the loss of Arctic sea ice and the development of high-pressure zones in the polar region, which influence wind patterns at lower latitudes further south. Scientists found that as the cap of sea ice is removed from the ocean, huge amounts of heat are released from the sea into the colder air above, causing the air to rise. Rising air destabilises the atmosphere and alters the difference in air pressure between the Arctic and more southerly regions, changing wind patterns.
Professor Rahmstorf said the Alfred Wegener study confirms earlier predictions from computer models by Vladimir Petoukhov of the Potsdam Institute, who forecast colder winters in western Europe as a result of melting sea ice.
-->To The NY Times, none of the intense cold in Europe has anything to do with global warming. Our newspaper of record reported low temperatures and weather extremes in at least eight countries, concluding with a reassuring quote from a Londoner marveling at the snow, "It lends this amazing playfulness to the whole city." For a glimpse at our media's irresponsibility when it comes to informing the public about global warming, read the article on Europe's cold spell in The NY Times.
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