NBC Freaks Out Over New Climate Change Report: ‘Threat To Lady Liberty Herself’

NBC Nightly News is at it again, trying to scare its audience about the impending dangers of climate change. Following two reports in early May, the Tuesday, May 20 Nightly News hyped how there’s “a new warning about some iconic American treasures including the threat to Lady Liberty herself.”

Fill-in host Lester Host introduced the segment by declaring that our “American treasures… might one day be something we read about in history books rather than places we visit.” [See video below.]

http://www.mrctv.org/embed/127215

Holt then turned to Anne Thompson, NBC’s chief environmental affairs correspondent, to fret that “Some of the sites that tell the story of our past face a present and future threat. Wildfires, floods, and sea level rise that the Union of Concerned Scientists say are driven by climate change.” The NBC reporter went on promote the report’s dire warning:

Today’s report list 30 sites including Jamestown, Virginia, barely above sea level. The report says the first English colony could be underwater by the turn of the century. At the Kennedy Space Center storm surges now threaten launch pads that sent Americans to the Moon. Near Yosemite the gold rush town of Groveland, California already faces warmer, drier summers, increasing the wildfire risk.

Thompson then played footage from the apocalyptic film The Day After Tomorrow showing the Statue of Liberty underwater before announcing:“Today’s report says the real threat is rising waters. Here’s what five feet of sea level rise would look like. Two years ago Superstorm Sandy delivered a real life preview of coming attractions. Forcing Liberty Island to temporarily close.”

In typical NBC fashion, the report included no soundbites or quotes from scientists questioning the alarmist nature of the latest climate change report. Instead, Thompson included video of two scientists promoting the report including Adam Markahm who bemoaned that “There are going be places we learn about in school that we’ll no longer be able to visit or see in the future unless we do something about this problem.”

Thompson concluded her global warming propaganda by insisting:

The report praises that decision and the relocation of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. Moved more than a half mile to protect it from an eroding coast in 1999. Planning for nature’s increasing unpredictability to preserve our nation’s past.

[H/T News Busters: Jeffrey Meyer]

E-Cigarettes Are 60 Percent More Likely To Help Smokers Quit

New research has found that electronic cigarettes are 60 percent more effective at helping cigarette addicts kick their habit than nicotine gum, the patch or going cold turkey, reports The Daily Mail.

Researchers at the University of London monitored nearly 6,000 smokers over five years who attempted to quit traditional cigarettes without the aid of aid of prescription medication or professional support.

Their findings, published in the journal Addict, suggest that e-cigarettes could have a profound impact on smoking reduction rates and therefor dramatically reduce tobacco-related deaths.

Leader of the study, Professor Robert West, from University College London, explained to The Daily Mail that the devices have great potential to benefit public health, “E-cigarettes could substantially improve public health because of their widespread appeal and the huge health gains associated with stopping smoking.”

Professor West addressed concerns from some members of the health community and policy makers that e-cigarettes will “re-normalize’” smoking.

He told The Daily Mail that at the moment there is no reason to fear an uptick in the use of tobacco cigarettes, “we are tracking this very closely and see no evidence of it,” said West.

In fact, he added, “Smoking rates in England are declining, quitting rates are increasing and regular e-cigarette use among never smokers is negligible.”

Because the e-cigarette industry is relatively new, there have not been any conclusive studies on the long-term impact of using the devices, but West says it is already clear that e-cigarettes are much safer than their tobacco alternative.

Despite anecdotal and now hard evidence that e-cigarettes can help curb smoking habits, Senate Democrats have been leading a campaign in the US to push tighter regulations on the devices.

Referring to the variety of nicotine flavors e-cigarettes offer, Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin and five of his colleagues called the devices “candy flavored poiso” in a letter to the Food and Drug Administration. They drafted a bill that aimed to restrict the use, sale and advertising of the product.

This past April, the FDA became involved in the debate and announced its plans to exert authority over the industry.

The proposed regulations — now going through a period of public comment — would limit the sale of the devices to youths, mandate ingredient disclosure, federal approval of warning labels, but do not prohibit fruit or candy-like flavors, Internet sales to adults, or TV marketing — unless they make health claims.

[H/T The Daily Caller: Breanna Deutsch]

President to declare vast new monument along Mexico border

Bundy types of protests feared in New Mexico

President Obama on Wednesday will declare a national monument in southern New Mexico, delivering a win for environmentalists but angering ranchers and local law enforcement, who say the land restrictions will end up creating a safe haven for drug cartels to operate within the U.S.

Mr. Obama will declare about 500,000 acres as the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument. About half of that land is expected to be set aside as wilderness, meaning it will be closed to vehicles and construction.

Local ranchers say it’s a land grab that will interfere with their grazing rights, and border security advocates said the move will make it tougher for federal agents and local police to patrol the land, leaving a security gap that Mexican smuggling cartels will exploit.

“This is about opposing so many thousands of acres that is going to create nothing more than a pathway for criminals to get into this country to do their criminal acts,” Dona Ana County Sheriff Todd Garrison told The Washington Times in a telephone interview Monday.

The monument has been in the works for some time and has been controversial from the start.

Conservationists and tourism businesses have been pushing for the designation, hoping it will bring more visitors.

“The Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument will help protect our way of life while allowing for responsible development and expanding opportunities for all Americans to enjoy the beauty and multi-cultural history of this unique landscape,” Billy Garrett, Dona Ana County Commission chairman, said in a statement.

But land rights advocates said it is the precursor to more conflicts like the recent standoff in Nevada, where a rancher refused to comply with a court order that he stop grazing on Bureau of Land Management property, prompting the BLM to confiscate his cattle, though they were returned after a public outcry.

The BLM, which is part of the Interior Department, will administer the national monument.

The land contains five mountain ranges with fragile landscapes, prehistoric rock art and more recent historic sites such as a training area for the Apollo astronauts.

The monument would cover hundreds of thousands of acres right next to the Mexican border.

New Mexico’s representatives in Congress have been divided over the monument. Rep. Stevan Pearce, a Republican, called for a 50,000-acre monument, one-tenth the size of the one Mr. Obama will designate.

But the half-million-acre proposal has the backing of the state’s U.S. senators, both of them Democrats.

“An Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument will preserve important cultural links to our past and strengthen southern New Mexico’s economy by boosting tourism and recreational opportunities, like hunting, hiking, camping, and horseback riding,” Sen. Martin Heinrich said in a statement.

Only Congress can declare a national park, which stops most land uses. But under the 1906 Antiquities Act the president has the power to declare national monuments, which offer heightened environmental protections.

The New Mexico monument is Mr. Obama’s second designation this year. In March, he added 1,600 acres in the Point Arena-Stornetta region to the California Coastal National Monument established by President Clinton in 2000. House Republicans said the action wasn’t necessary because they had passed similar legislation that was awaiting Senate action.

About half the Organ Mountains monument will be designated as wilderness, the highest level of protection, closing it to motorized vehicles and human construction.

Sheriff Garrison said that will shut down roads that his department uses to patrol the land, though he said the cartels are unlikely to stop using it just because it is declared wilderness.

“My fear is these areas will be used more than they are now because they’ll have access to it that will be private and closed off to every law-abiding citizen,” the sheriff said. “I believe this monument will hamper law enforcement’s ability to effectively patrol the area we need to patrol.”

Administration officials said the declaration will incorporate a 2006 agreement between the Interior Department and the Homeland Security Department that allows U.S. Border Patrol some access to the land.

That agreement prevents most routine patrols through wilderness, though it does allow them to continue to follow smugglers in hot pursuit.

The agreement has been controversial for both sides of the immigration debate. Environmentalists and some immigrant rights advocates argue that the Border Patrol has used the arrangement to trample pristine land. Border security advocates say agents’ hands are tied when they are in pursuit of illegal immigrants and drug smugglers.

Rep. Rob Bishop, a Utah Republican who has studied the issue, argues that the environmental restrictions have indeed hurt the Border Patrol’s ability to do its job.

Hours before news of the designation broke Monday, Mr. Bishop, chairman of the Natural Resources Committee’s public lands subcommittee, sent a letter to Mr. Obama asking him to hold off until the border can be controlled.

“It’s irresponsible to focus efforts on new land designations rather than finding solutions to existing criminal activities plaguing the border,” the congressman wrote.

Mr. Bishop pointed to a case that was in the headlines last week, in which a National Park Service employee at Chiricahua National Monument in Arizona detailed the vicious attack she suffered at the hands of an illegal immigrant. Authorities said the man smashed her head into a metal bathroom door and hit her head with a rock, striking so hard that the rock broke.

[H/T Washington Times: Dave Boyer]