America finally wakes up to global warming crisis

The sky really is falling these days.

I never thought I'd see the most politically-biased news network in the country acknowledge legitimate scientific consensus about global warming. For years, Fox News made every effort to keep concerns about global warming out of the minds of the American people - no matter how much evidence accumulated.

Fox published an online article this past Friday titled "Geophysicists: Theory of Global Warming 'Well-Established.'" The article contained news about the American Geophysical Union's press release that stated human activity during the 20th century has indisputably caused the Earth to get hotter and its climate to fall out of balance.

This is not news - scientists have been saying this stuff for years.

So why is Fox only now starting to report it?

Fox News CEO Rupert Murdoch officially announced he could no longer ignore the evidence for global warming and his company would join the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in May 2007. Murdoch committed to shifting more focus towards "climate change" in his network's coverage.

Despite his newfound interest in increasing public awareness about global warming, I still don't buy Murdoch's magninimity. His real reason for going green is - no pun intended - "the green."

Fox's advertisers motivated the network to reach out to their environmentally-conscious audiences. This move is speculated to increase ratings because of America's growing interest in the subject. Indeed - regardless of the media's selective coverage - the public's attitude about global warming has shifted.

According to an October 2007 national survey by Yale University, Gallup and the ClearVision Institute, the number of Americans who believe global warming to be an urgent threat has increased by 20 percent since 2004. Sixty-two percent of Americans believe society needs to immediately reduce carbon emissions to avoid environmental disaster. More interestingly, 40 percent of American residents say presidential candidates' positions on global warming will be an important factor in their voting decisions.