Topic: Newsmax
An item in Newsmax's Sept. 4 "Insider Report" carries the headline, "New Evidence Debunks Manmade Global Warming." Just one problem: it doesn't.
Newsmax is referencing a study by CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, that examined the effect of the sun's cosmic rays on creation of aerosol particles in the atmosphere. Newsmax uncritically repeats comments by Lawrence Solomon -- who wrote a book lauding "the world-renowned scientists who stood up against global warming hysteria, political persecution, and fraud" -- calling the study "convincing new evidence" that "point to cosmic rays and the sun — not human activities — as the dominant controller of climate on Earth."
But as Media Matters notes, the lead author of the study says it "actually says nothing about a possible cosmic-ray effect on clouds and climate."
Newsmax also quotes Solomon citing CERN scientist Jasper Kirkby as an early promoter of a theoretical link between cosmic rays and global warming. But Media Matters reports that Kirkby has said that the study's findings don't call into question the basic science of greenhouse gas warming, that it's "part of the jigsaw puzzle ... But it in no way disproves the other pieces."
