The alternative media--including talk radio and nonmainstream Web sites--have had a field day with climate change. Bloggers focus much of their effort on monitoring the news media coverage of the climate. Numerous individuals and groups on the Left and the Right maintain media blogs, and much of their focus has been on environmental coverage. The most famous of these, the Drudge Report, regularly links to climate stories. Whether the topic is snowfall during a global warming hearing in Washington or Gore's own carbon footprint, Drudge and others have driven a significant news agenda. The biggest of such stories can cross over into the mainstream media.

Think tanks, environmental groups, and politicians have all participated in the news media debate on climate change. The ability to link from one to another helped further blur the lines of traditional journalism, as advocacy organizations left and right targeted the other side's positions. The diverse voices also allowed readers and viewers to self-select the information they received. That caused ordinary information consumers to harden positions along ideological lines.

Talk radio also has a significant hand in the global warming debate. In 2008, much of private talk radio remained conservative. Criticism of Gore or climate science was commonplace. Often, talk radio would highlight a story made popular by bloggers such as Matt Drudge or would address a topic that, in turn, would drive the blogosphere. Liberal talk radio, including National Public Radio and Air America, took an opposite approach. Environment and climate stories were prime topics of concern for hosts and listeners alike.

Film and television played a big role in the climate debate. With the rise of global warming as an issue in the 1980's, Turner Broadcasting responded with a cartoon called Captain Planet. The cartoon's superheroes protected the Earth from evils such as pollution and global warming.

Several popular movies featuring global warming themes followed. The made-for-television movie The Fire Next Time aired in 1993 (McKibben, 2007). Kevin Costner's 1995 disaster picture Waterworld depicted a world awash in a flood caused by warming. The Day After Tomorrow (2004) was one of the most controversial of these films (Singer, 2008). When it opened, the climate debate was in full force. The movie's title was reminiscent of that of the antinuclear made-for-television film The Day After (1983), and it depicted a climate apocalypse brought on by global warming. In the film, the changing climate results in a rapid cooling of the Earth and the onset of a new ice age. The movie was criticized by conservatives for characterizations of a president and vice president similar to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. It also showed Americans fleeing the freeze being stopped at the Mexican border as illegal immigrants.

Also in 2004, science-fiction thriller author Michael Crichton released a novel critical of the environmental movement. State of Fear portrayed murderous environmentalists altering the Earth's climate to force humans into eco-friendly behavior. The novel also included extensive footnotes to raise objections to the idea of anthropogenic global warming. Crichton's book was criticized by scientists such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's James E. Hansen and praised in Congress by Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma.

Film and television portrayals of climate change escalated in 2006. Gore's An Inconvenient Truth became one of the top-grossing documentaries of all time. The movie version of his PowerPoint presentation was lauded by environmentalists and widely criticized by conservatives. Either way, it prompted widespread discussion of the topic. The film is shown widely in school systems, but a British court ruled that it contained nine significant errors. A string of climate documentaries followed Gore's film in 2007 and 2008. They included actor Leonardo DiCaprio's Eleventh Hour, Arctic Tale, The Great Global Warming Swindle, and Everything's Cool. Each drew predictable criticism from opponents. Even the Sci-Fi network included global warming as one of ten potentially lethal threats to humankind in its Countdown to Doomsday in 2007.

Despite almost countless news stories, the climate debate remains a major issue in the mainstream media. Polls show a significant number of Americans remain skeptical both about media coverage and about climate science. Because of this, media coverage has become a major topic of concern. Environmentalists continue to criticize skeptics and challenge the media to disregard such voices. Conservatives are joined by a growing and vocal group of scientists who publicly challenge what eco-groups call a climate consensus. Each side tends to complain about the tenor of media coverage of both themselves and their interlocutors.

References

1. McKibben, Bill. Fight Global Warming Now: The Handbook for Taking Action in Your Community. New York: Henry Holt, 2007.

2. Singer, S. Fred, and Dennis T. Avery. Unstoppable Global Warming: Every Fifteen Hundred Years. Rev. ed. Blue Ridge Summit, Pa.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008.

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