{"id":9948,"date":"2011-07-11T10:59:59","date_gmt":"2011-07-11T10:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/gregladen\/2011\/07\/11\/minnesota-agw-denialist-jungba\/"},"modified":"2011-07-11T10:59:59","modified_gmt":"2011-07-11T10:59:59","slug":"minnesota-agw-denialist-jungba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/2011\/07\/11\/minnesota-agw-denialist-jungba\/","title":{"rendered":"Minnesota AGW Denialist Jungbauer Disembowled by Respected News Anchor Don Shelby"},"content":{"rendered":"

I woke up this morning and the world was slightly different than it was the night before. Well, it probably always is a little different each day, but there are certain times when you notice this. I’m not talking about the bits of siding, roofing, and trees scattered about the landscape because of the very severe thunderstorm we had last night, although I suppose this is indirectly related.<\/p>\n

If you are not a Minnesotan this will take some explanation:
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\n\"i-6f66e56a19b0feca78f216cbc49b88dd-DonShelby.jpg\"Don Shelby<\/strong> newscaster, was the Walter Cronkite of the Twin Cities. Stately in appearance, white-haired (since birth, presumably), deep melodious voice, believable demeanor, nice guy news anchor for one of the local stations. A short time ago he retired and people noticed.<\/p>\n

Michael Jungbauer<\/strong> is a Republican State Senator who sits on the most important energy-related committee for the state Senate, is a preacher turned representative, and a strong global warming denier. Given recent political shifts in Minnesota, Junbauer’s global warming denialism has been converted into real action, and Minnesota’s legislative body has been busy dismantling what was thought to be very progressive climate change related legislation since that (temporary) political shift.<\/p>\n

MinnPost<\/strong> is one of those small web-only newspapers (though newspaper may be the wrong word here), an independent donor-financed (mainly) news source that became very popluar during the 2008 presidential campaign and has managed to get past the trials and tribulations of growing through a major (and very newsy) election cycle (after which financing tends to dry up) to maintain its position as a valid and legitimate, well run source of mainly local news.<\/p>\n

\"i-679207e805ae3352fea795b413d25e95-Global_Warming_Potential_Temperature_Graph-thumb-180x134-67089.png\"<\/a>That was the Minnesota part. The part of this story that you may already know because you live elsewhere on Earth is this: Mainstream news agencies have tenaciously stuck with the idea that there are “two sides” to the global warming “debate” even though the vast majority of evidence tells us that there are not. True, in recent years, news agencies are increasingly reporting that even though they are giving two sides to the debate, no one with even a whiff of credibility thinks that global warming is not real, important, and mostly anthropogenic. I assume that the news agencies are forced to do this in order to keep reasonable relationships with their news sources, which unfortunately includes all these right wing yahoos who are paid to insist that the studies are still underway and that we cant be sure about the nature of climate change in the 21st century. Which is too bad, because if the Fourth Estate were only to act on principle rather than blatant self-interest, those yahoos would more quickly either change their tune or fade away a few at a time and we could get to the point where we can think of our grandchildren living their lives<\/a> in this world rather than suffering through a life we’ve ruined for them<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And this morning it all came together.<\/p>\n

\"i-f8c1ae0b40daf633c66173f61b5f7d8c-minpost_screenshot.jpg\"MinnPost, the new-style online news source, has a piece written by Don Shelby, the recently retired iconic local news anchor, about Michael Jungbauer, the well-entrenched Republican global warming denialist, in which Shelby explains how Jungbauer has it all wrong.<\/p>\n

… Jungbauer is fond of making pronouncements from on high regarding the scientific weakness of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change…. He takes positions in direct opposition to 98 percent of published and peer-reviewed climate, atmospheric scientists and glaciologists. … He uses big words and cites studies in his lectures… The problem is, he is not a scientist.<\/p>\n

…He is an ordained minister, of sorts. But, although his official biography says he has a degree from Moody, he does not. In direct answer to my question, Jungbauer responded: “No I did not graduate. But I have a certificate.”<\/p>\n

The truth is that Jungbauer was ordained by Christian Motor Sports International out of Gilbert, Ariz.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here is a video of Jungbauer lying about his qualifications and climate change, provided by Shelby:<\/p>\n