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It’s Friday: a climate change media quiz

Something to keep you entertained this Friday. A climate change coverage quiz for you.

1. Of the 956 questions asked by US network news channel NBC of Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama in the presedential nomination race, how many were about the ‘climate crisis’?

2. And of the 844 asked by ABC?

3. A 400-page report on which continent was presented last week, showing satellite photos of climate affected land mass in every country on that continent, as covered by the BBC, Times and Independent on Thursday?

4. Multipe Choice: What percentage of the Republican members of Congress in the US have rejected the climate science that human activity is changing the planet’s climate?

A) 26% B) 49% C) 74%

5. Multiple Choice: how many of papers of the UK national press have in the past week covered the U.N. Climate Talks taking place in Bonn, Germany, over this previous week?

A) 6 B) 3 C) 0

6. Which national newspaper wrote a six word editorial on May 29th: ‘This global warming’s wet, isn’t it?’

7. Which former minister in Margaret Thatcher’s government has turned out to be the UK’s anti-Gore, as his book ‘An Appeal To Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming’ hit the shelves?

8. Which newspaper’s two headline stories on climate change in May were ‘It’s hot, but just wait for global warming’, and ‘Climate change ‘puts City at risk of flooding”?

A) The Mirror B) The Evening Standard C) The Daily Telegraph

9. Which actor is selling face cream by appealing to his climate change campaigning credentials in the product’s TV ads?

10. And what film, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, is released today, supposedly tapping into the fears of an ‘inexplicable’ global environmental catastrophe?

Good work. Answers below this non-commercial break….

Answers
1. Of the 956 questions asked by NBC, two were about the climate crisis (as Al Gore asks in his latest video)
2. Of the 844 asked by ABC, two (and, by the way, of the 601 asked by Fox, two, and the 319 by CBS, zero)
3. Africa. Thanks to Knight Science Tracker for these links: BBC’s Martin Plaut quotes one source saying it’s “a very unfair situation, if you think about it” ; Times (UK) Lewis Smith ; Independent (UK) Michael McCarthy evokes a powerful sense of history in his lead. The head: “The destruction of Africa”; and Guardian (UK) John Vidal
4. C) 74% - that’s three quarters of Republican congressmen and women who are denying climate change, and using it to score political points off the Democrats
5. C) zero. No British newspapers covered the UN Climate Change talks, despite being covered by Reuters (and The Economist)
6. The Sun
7. Nigel Lawson, who thinks it’s all propaganda
8. B) The Evening Standard. In May 2008, The Evening Standard mentioned climate change or global warming 34 times. this was down from 137 in May 2007, a drop of 75%
9. Piers Brosnan, for L’Oreal Vita Lift (men’s facial cream)
10. The Happening: ‘inexplicable’ means, of course, unable to explain what’s happening. If only…

Have a good weekend.