Esquire Mag. Falsely Claims Climate Depot’s Morano made an ‘obvious mistake’ about sea levels — Reality Check: Morano Cited Data Accurately

The April 2010 issue of Esquire Magazine features a more than 6500 word feature article on Climate Depot’s Executive Editor Marc Morano. The article makes the false claim that Morano told a “howler” and an “obvious mistake” about sea level during a live Sky News TV Debate in December 2009.

The article by Esquire writer John Richardson contends that the following assertion by Morano in the December 12, 2009 TV debate with Professor Mark Maslin, is incorrect:

Esquire Magazine’s Spin: “Morano says, sea levels are not rising. To prove it [Morano] quotes a study by the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute that actually says sea levels rose nearly eight inches in the last century. This obvious mistake leads Maslin into his fatal error, which is patronizing Marc Morano…Despite his own howler about the sea levels, he hammers away.”

Reality Check: Morano’s citation about sea level was that it was “not showing the acceleration.” Morano never said it was not rising. (Note: Sea level has been rising since the end of the last ice age.) Esquire’s Richardson simply made a mistake in trying to claim Morano said sea level was “not rising.”

Here is Morano’s exact quote on sea level during the debate: Morano: “Sea Level is not showing the acceleration. The Royal Netherlands Meteorology Institute said this. One scientist said if sea level is rising due to global warming, no one has bothered to tell sea level.”

To Watch Full December 2009 TV debate with Prof. Maslin. Go here.

Further Reading on sea level:

‘No evidence for accelerated sea-level rise’ says Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute – December 12, 2008
Excerpt: In an op-ed piece in the December 11 issue of NRC/Handelsblad, Wilco Hazeleger, a senior scientist in the global climate research group at KNMI, writes: “In the past century the sea level has risen twenty centimeters. There is no evidence for accelerated sea-level rise. It is my opinion that there is no need for drastic measures. It is wise to adopt a flexible, step-by-step adaptation strategy. By all means, let us not respond precipitously.”

Wash. Post reporting makes progress! Article concedes sea level computer model ‘predictions could be flawed or flat wrong’

Related Links:

Read Selected Portions of the Esquire Mag. Profile on Climate Depot

Esquire Mag. Profiles Climate Depot’s Morano in 6500 Word Feature Article: ‘This Man Wants to Convince You Global Warming is a Hoax…He seems to be winning’

Esquire Mag. Falsely Claims Climate Depot’s Morano made an ‘obvious mistake’ about sea levels — Reality Check: Morano Cited Data Accurately

From Esquire Mag.: Rush Limbaugh Praises Climate Depot as ‘a great place to keep up on the global-warming debate’ (1992 Photo)