Weather Channel To Breitbart.com: Don't Use Our Content To Mislead On Climate Change

By Rebecca Hersher / NPR

Published December 7, 2016 at 8:50 AM PST

This story was published more than 8 years ago.

Land and sea temperatures were above average in most parts of the world last year, as seen in this graphic from NOAA.

The Weather Channel has a message for the website Breitbart:

"Earth Is Not Cooling, Climate Change Is Real and Please Stop Using Our Video to Mislead Americans"

That's the title under which The Weather Channel published an article on Tuesday, after Breitbart used the cable news channel's coverage in a factually incorrect story about climate change.

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The article addressed Breitbart's misleading use of a Nov. 3 Weather Channel video in which forecaster Kait Parker, who has a bachelor's degree in atmospheric science from the University of Missouri, predicted that a La Niña weather pattern is likely to lead to cooler air temperatures this winter and spring in the continental U.S.

The 46-second video, which the right-wing Breitbart news site had rights to use under a content-sharing deal with a different company, was embedded in a Nov. 30 story with a factually incorrect title about global temperature trends.

Average global temperatures are rising steadily and have been above the 20th century average every year for more than three decades, according to NASA.

Earlier this year, leaders of 195 countries including the U.S. signed a global agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions to prevent catastrophic warming of the Earth, as The Two-Way has reported.

On Tuesday, Parker tweeted, "please stop using MY FACE to mislead Americans."

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"The next time you write a climate change article and need fact checking help, please call," the Weather Channel article stated. "We're here for you. I'm sure we both agree this topic is too important to get wrong."

The article notes that the factually incorrect story "drew even more attention" after the official Twitter account for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology shared it.

"Here's the thing, science doesn't care about your opinion," Parker said in a video embedded in The Weather Channel's article. "Cherry-picking and twisting the facts will not change the future nor the fact ... that the Earth is warming."