Only The CBC Can Erroneously Turn Plankton Into A Story About Global Warming

Ask any environmentalist what the cause of global warming and they will tell you that greenhouse gases trapping the sun’s rays in our atmosphere is the dominant cause. We already have told you that 97 to 99% of greenhouse gases are water vapour which is not something within the control of man.

But tonight on the CBC nightly news they were talking about the large wave of Phytoplankton present off the west coast of North America. They even went so far as to say that it might be an effect of global warming.

What they did NOT tell you is that phytoplankton thrive on carbon dioxide, the “other” culprit in the greenhouse effect, and convert it to harmless oxygen.

From Wikipedia:

Phytoplankton, like plants, obtain energy through a process called photosynthesis, and so must live in the well-lit surface layer (termed the euphotic zone) of an ocean, sea, or lake. Through photosynthesis, phytoplankton (and terrestrial plants) are responsible for much of the oxygen present in the Earth’s atmosphere.

So let’s get this straight. Mother earth heals herself by creating more plant life and phytoplanton when weather warms, which in turn eat up more carbon dioxide, which reduces the greenhouse effect, thus cooling the earth naturally.

Only the CBC could get this story completely ass backwards and put a further fear of global warming into society when the completely opposite is true. This healing plant lifeform may be an effect of a warmer spring as they mentioned, but it is also a buffer against the carbon dioxide that traps heat in our atmosphere.

ADDENDUM I was contacted by CBCwatch.ca regarding my posting above. They say that they watched the National starting at mark 19:00 and they said:

I could find no statement by Natalie Clancy, nor those interviewed implying or suggesting that the phytoplankton was responsible for global warming.

Alternately, Angelica Pena of Institute of Ocean Sciences sad “we don’t know the consequences of global warming”

So I took a closer look.

At mark 21:07, Natalie Clancy says “Pena says it COULD be a sign of global warming.” (emphasis was Natalie’s not mine.)

Right after the above quote, the cut goes to Pena who says:

We don’t know and that I think is the worst thing about (i couldn’t make out the word) sciences is that we don’t know what are the consequences of climate change on the phtyoplankton or the ecosystem community. We are still trying to, you know, learn what are the consequences but we have no idea.

So the CBC took Pena’s words stating they have no clue what the effects of global warming are on they phytoplankton and turned them into “Pena says it COULD be a sign of global warming”. I wonder how they came to that conclusion.

To continue:

At mark 21:30, Natalie Clancy says “Scientists say they will have to monitor plankton on the BC coast for a few years before they will know for sure if all this algae is blooming because the planet is heating up (long pause) or simply because this has been an unusually warm spring.”

This last quote is emphasized because it happens right before Clancy’s sign off.

This may not be enough for CBCwatch.ca to call bad journalism, but for the CBC to TWICE discuss the warming of the planet without a stitch of proof is bad journalism and quite misleading. I encourage you to watch the clip yourself from mark 19:00 on and let me know what you think?