Waders and a gas mask are required to watch NBC or MSNBC news.
On Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 2:10 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> newsbusters.com
> By Geoffrey Dickens (Bio | Archive)
> November 17, 2008 - 12:36 ET
>
> The full "Today" show cast went to "The Ends of the Earth," as a part
> of NBC Universal's "Green Week," all in an effort to, once again, do
> the bidding of the likes of Al Gore, to create hysteria about global
> warming. With live reports from Matt Lauer worrying about reefs off
> the coast of Belize, Meredith Vieira fearful about drought conditions
> in Australia, Ann Curry watching the snow caps melt on Mt. Kilimanjaro
> and Al Roker troubled by glacier extinction in Iceland, the cast
> pushed the green agenda throughout Monday's "Today" show. Co-anchor
> Vieira, near the top of the show, set the table for her cast mates
> this way:
>
> And so, we venture to the most breathtaking sights, threatened by a
> changing, warming planet, chilling beauty on the verge of vanishing.
> The depths of a remote ocean paradise. Belize's great Blue Hole, a
> reef in peril. Down under, the Australian continent dangerously dry.
> The frigid north, Iceland's vast glaciers melting. And up Africa's
> highest summit, where the snows of Kilimanjaro are disappearing. The
> warnings are stark. A vortex of trash twice the size of Texas, toxins
> bleeding into the ocean, rivers that can not reach the sea, species
> lost forever. Clouds, rain, storm's fury borne of the ocean, slowly
> drown distant nations. Islands disappearing and in their wake, a new
> kind of refugee, so far away and so close to home. Throughout our
> planet and within our bodies, water flows. We cannot survive without
> it. Yet, 1 billion people don't have enough. Our new thirst may fuel
> wars. Is water the oil of tomorrow?
>
> The following are just some of the scarier, introductory teasers from
> the "Today" cast as they occurred on the November 17, edition of the
> "Today" show:
>
> ANN CURRY: We're coming to you now from the first, we're told, is the
> first live network broadcast from Mt. Kilimanjaro, it's the world's
> largest standing, free standing mountain. It's at more than 19,000
> feet. Mt. Kilimanjaro's majestic, snow capped peaks are increasingly
> becoming a symbol of climate change. Scientists predict the glaciers
> could completely disappear by the year 2020. So we've been climbing
> this mountain since Friday. Our goal is to take you to go up there and
> see with us the glaciers. We've chosen the hardest route because it
> will take us closest to the glaciers. We'll have a report on this
> effort to get there, to get closest up there and also on this issue of
> climate change and what the melting of these glaciers mean.
>
> AL ROKER: Iceland is the worldwide leader in clean energy. Iceland
> does face a big problem though. The glaciers are melting and that's
> causing a problem. By the end of the century the glaciers could be all
> gone. But in the meantime we're gonna be examining that and taking a
> look at how this country is a leader in hydro-electric power and it
> could be an example for the rest of the world. We'll have more on that
> a little bit later.
>
> MEREDITH VIEIRA: This is year two of our "Ends of the Earth" series,
> at least, we hope it will be a yearly series. Last year, we focused,
> big picture, climate change. This year we decided to focus on the one
> resource that we cannot live without, the building block of life,
> water. To the ends of the Earth and into the blue. It's our first fuel
> and most essential. Mesmerizing, precious, powerful water. It covers
> 70 percent of the planet, provides half of our oxygen, and yet, we've
> only reached about 5 percent of the sea floor. In these oceans barely
> explored, creatures unknown hold the key to life on Earth and life
> beyond. Yet, we know more about the surface of distant planets than we
> do about our own. And so, we venture to the most breathtaking sights,
> threatened by a changing, warming planet, chilling beauty on the verge
> of vanishing. The depths of a remote ocean paradise. Belize's great
> Blue Hole, a reef in peril. Down under, the Australian continent
> dangerously dry. The frigid north, Iceland's vast glaciers melting.
> And up Africa's highest summit, where the snows of Kilimanjaro are
> disappearing. The warnings are stark. A vortex of trash twice the size
> of Texas, toxins bleeding into the ocean, rivers that can not reach
> the sea, species lost forever. Clouds, rain, storm's fury borne of the
> ocean, slowly drown distant nations. Islands disappearing and in their
> wake, a new kind of refugee, so far away and so close to home.
> Throughout our planet and within our bodies, water flows. We cannot
> survive without it. Yet, 1 billion people don't have enough. Our new
> thirst may fuel wars. Is water the oil of tomorrow? But there is hope.
> What man has undone nature can replenish, if we allow it. At the ends
> of the Earth, "Today" takes you live to destinations profoundly
> majestic and desperately fragile. Sounding a call to save our precious
> waters as we dive deep into the blue. And now let's head about 7,400
> miles away from here to Ann Curry on Mt. Kilimanjaro. Ann?
>
> ANN CURRY: Hey, Meredith, good morning. You know, Mt. Kilimanjaro's
> comprised not of one, but actually three volcanoes. Its name said to
> mean, "Mountain of Greatness, but it's becoming known locally as the
> "Mountain of Defeat." At 19,340 feet, Mt. Kilimanjaro is the roof of
> Africa, described by Ernest Hemingway as "as wide as all the world."
> Great, high, and unbelievably white in the sun. But the snows of
> Kilimanjaro are vanishing. 84 percent of her glaciers have disappeared
> in less than 100 years. To get a close look at this change, our NBC
> News team is taking the hard route up this mountain, as it will get us
> nearest to the glaciers. Dramatic NASA images reveal how fast
> Kilimanjaro's ice has retreated in just seven years. Climate change is
> the lead suspect, as ice is vanishing on mountain glaciers all over
> the world. Glaciologist Lonnie Thompson says this represents the
> permanent loss of ancient evidence that could tell us about future
> climate change, and it could all be gone as early as 2020.
>
> LONNIE THOMPSON: Certainly, the glaciers on the summit are dying. I
> think their sentence has already been passed. We're just waiting for
> it to be carried out.
>
> CURRY: This run-off from Mt. Kilimanjaro's melting glaciers has come
> down through here for thousands of years, may within a lifetime, be
> completely gone. That, and Kilimanjaro's shrinking rainforests, due to
> deforestation, are already threatening water supplies for the tribes
> people living below, including the Masai. They say their mountain is
> dying. So, tomorrow we're going to be showing you exactly how people
> living below this mountain are being affected by the diminishing
> water, and we're also gonna, a little bit later this morning show you
> what it's been like to take this big climb so far up this great
> mountain.
>
> MATT LAUER: And we've been talking, throughout the weekend Fabien,
> about the person who doesn't think when they throw a plastic bag into
> a river, or a plastic cup or a plastic water bottle, even though this
> seems like a pristine environment, we've seen those things washing up
> on shore around here.
>
> FABIEN COUSTEAU, JACQUES COUSTEAU'S SON: We are in some of the most
> pristine areas here in this area, and I've seen debris floating
> around, plastic bags and cups and everything else. That washes out
> from way up in the mountains. You don't have to be on the oceanside to
> affect the oceans, and in turn, the cycle will come back to us and
> pollute our bodies.
>
> LAUER: Yeah and you know we talk about things like global climate
> change and pollution and, and increasing acidity levels in the ocean.
> Just a couple of degree increase in the temperature of the waters here
> along this enormous barrier reef, the largest in the western
> hemisphere, can have a substantially negative impact on the coral,
> can't it?
>
> COUSTEAU: That's correct. Coral reefs are like little underwater
> cities. Over 70 percent of the oceans depend on what's happening in
> the coral reefs. The coral reefs die, the fish go away. Fish go away,
> we have no more food. And the, the cycle keeps going like that.
>
> LAUER: Not to mention, if these coral reefs here off the coast of
> Belize were to die, it would leave no barrier between the low-lying
> mainland and the ravages of the ocean. People, and this is happening
> all around the world, people in low-lying areas, if they're surrounded
> by reefs and those reefs die, they're in big trouble.
>
> COUSTEAU: That's absolutely correct.
>
> LAUER: Alright. We're gonna get to talk much more throughout the next
> day and a half, Fabien. Thanks very much. It's a pleasure and honor to
> be here with you.
>
> COUSTEAU: Thank you.
>
>
> —Geoffrey Dickens is the senior news analyst at the Media Research
> Center.
>
>
>
> >
>
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