In recent weeks, thousands of negotiators from 196 governments met in Paris “for a major conference on climate change” attempting to reach an agreement for every country to lower its greenhouse gas emissions: emissions climate alarmists say will cause catastrophic climate change.
That conference, dubbed COP21, began on Nov. 30, and wrapped up with the announcement of a non-binding agreement on Dec. 12. The broadcast networks covered the conference at the beginning and the end. Initially, they hyped President Barack Obama’s participation and the resilience of the city of Paris in the wake of devastating terrorist attacks, and concluded by praising the results as “historic” “monumental” and a “turning point” on climate.
CBS also took the opportunity to advance pre-summit hype by showing back to back to back segments about climate crisis. Those stories including a New York Times poll of Americans that favored protecting the climate more than growing the economy, the problem of air pollution in China, and college-aged kids moving to the Arctic to study greenhouse gases.
In Paris, Obama claimed “there’s no greater threat to our planet than climate change” and argued doing something about climate change a “powerful rebuke to the terrorists.” The networks didn’t criticize him for that absurd remark.
Between Nov. 29, and Dec. 12, none of the three evening news programs asked or estimated what price the world would have to pay if it follows through on promises made in Paris. CBS Evening News admitted the agreement wouldn’t “end global warming.” Although Bloomberg tried to downplay it, the International Energy Agency estimated it would cost $16.5 trillion to meet “pollution” pledges made in Paris and hold temperatures to the 2 degrees Celsius ceiling.
$16.5 trillion for an agreement that won’t “end global warming.” No wonder the networks didn’t want to talk about it. That estimate didn’t take into account the costs to consumers in the way of higher energy prices or slower economic growth.
But the price tag wasn’t the only thing missing from the network coverage of the climate summit. The networks avoided showing the worst and most radical of climate activists, focusing almost entirely on the government negotiations.
The evening shows failed to mention eco-activists’ many criminal acts including vandalism in Paris and other cities, the hacking of conference officials by Anonymous, or the branding of people with dissenting opinions as “climate criminals.” Several protesters even had to be physically removed from the COP21 “Solutions” exhibit in Paris’ Grand Palais. One protester there claimed fracking was “killing our people in the name of a false solution for climate justice.”
Groups of activists calling for “climate justice” staged actions throughout the conference in Paris and other cities. People from all over the world participated in the Climate Games, a global call for climate civil disobedience. Participants in those Climate Games stormed a Volkswagen showroom and international bank office in Brussels, Belgium, dressed as animals and vegetables and trashed the places with leaves and trash saying they were “nature defending itself.” A group also entered a VW dealership and opened canisters of what appeared to be gas, filling the building.
A team of activists calling themselves Brandalism, secretly made keys for locked advertising poster boxes throughout Paris, and broke into them to hang satirical ads attacking companies and climate skeptics ahead of the summit. Its website brags about its 600 “ad takeovers” for the U.N. climate talks.
On Nov. 29, NBC Nightly News did mention a protest march which was attempted illegally. It had been cancelled by French authorities because of the state of emergency in Paris. Nightly News covered those illegal protests sympathetically, saying “it all started peacefully” and understating the violence of the protesters. Hundreds were arrested at that protest.
The infamous hacktivist group, Anonymous breached official databases and “leaked a trove of personal information of about 1,415 officials” and login credentials of Streaming Service Provider for the U.N. conference. According to HackRead, Anonymous claimed the hacks were in response to police brutality, the arrests of protesters from the Nov. 29, “Global Climate March” and support for “Green Rights.”
Ten people were also arrested for dumping molasses on marble floors in The Louvre to protest oil companies’ sponsorship of the museum, while others with “Culture Decarbonee” protested outside demanding a “fossil free culture,” The Guardian reported.
In London, police arrested a handful of people from a group calling itself “Christian Climate Action,” after they defaced the Department of Energy & Climate Change by painting over signs and spray painting slogans, according to The Independent.
