Former CNN Producer Peter Dykstra rips CNN for allowing Climate Depot’s Morano on the air — Compares Morano to ‘a witch doctor’ — Slams as an ‘utterly discredited crackpot’

‘He cited the recent appearance on Piers Morgan’s show of Marc Morano, who oversees the climate change denial site ClimateDepot.com.

‘If you took that same standard that they used for this env. story and applied it to a medical story you would have to pair Sanjay Gupta up with a faith healer or a witch doctor every time he went on the air.’

Washington Post slams Bill Nye ‘the science guy’ for ‘fumbling’ blizzard explanation: ‘One of the most flawed discussions of meteorology’ ever seen on a national network

Chief Meteorologist Jason Samenow:

In likening the blizzard and hurricane Sandy, Nye implies both storms originated off the coast from Africa, which is wrong. Sandy formed in the Caribbean (not from an African wave) and the blizzard formed off the Mid-Atlantic coast (from the merger of two North American disturbances).

Nye then draws an absurd comparison between East Coast storms and West Coast storms in an attempt to equate them.

“If you live on the West Coast … that same type of storm is called a Sou’wester,” Nye says. “If you go to the sailboat store you can get a Nor’easter hat in New England but it’s a Sou’wester hat in Seattle.”

Big problem: storms typically hit Seattle from the west not from the south. They don’t form off the Pacific coast of Los Angeles or San Francisco and charge northward. In my entire life, (until watching Nye’s comments) I had never heard the term “Sou’wester” used in reference to a West Coast storm (a google search reveals there is an apartment complex and a lodge with such a name in the region – but I couldn’t find a meteorological reference).

Nye then makes a convoluted comment about spin in different parts of the storm that serves as a non-sensical transition into a discussion of climate change. The climate change discussion is somewhat more coherent than his early comments but overly simplistic.

Why MSNBC turned to Nye for weather wisdom is headscratching, considering it has access to a stable of competent meteorologists at the Weather Channel.

Nye has created some wonderful science educational programs for children, but a weather expert he is not.

Warmist Randy Olson Laments: ‘DEBATING MARC MORANO: Why… oh, why?’ — ‘Why do it? NONE of Morano’s opponents have ever been any good’

Olson: ‘Way to go, climate folks — way to help your opponent work his way up the ranks’

‘Morano’s already had an 8 page spread in Esquire magazine. How long until he’s on ’60 Minutes’? And when that happens and everyone wonders how, a key part of the answer will be all these white knights who tried to ride into battle with him on TV talk shows. They have paved the way upwards’

Update: Full Transcript Available — Watch Now: A Really Short Climate Debate on CNN’s Piers Morgan — Climate Depot’s Morano vs. Sierra Club Warmist Michael Brune

Click here to Watch CNN Global warming debate

Full CNN Transcript of January 23, 2012 program. Below weblink citations embedded.

PIERS MORGAN, HOST: President Obama is making the fight against extreme weather part of his second term agenda. He believes that science proves it has a human cause. With me now is Marc Morano, editor in chief of ClimateDepot.com, and Michael Brune. He’s the executive director of the Sierra Club.

Welcome to you both. Michael — Marc, I’ll start with you. When I last spoke to you about this, we had a pretty fiery debate about it. And you were impeccably opposed to any suggestion that there’s any real science to confirm global warming or genuine climate change. So rather than me get involved with this, I’m going to rest my weary voice box and let Michael tell you why there is science.

Michael, over to you.

MICHAEL BRUNE, THE SIERRA CLUB: Sure, well, actually I don’t want to waste any time on this. The science is settled. We noticed that last year we had record numbers of wildfires throughout the Mountain West, as you cited; 61 percent of the country suffered a crippling drought. We had Superstorm Sandy with 1,000-mile diameter storm hitting the east coast, flooded my parents house, caused billions of dollars worth of damage.

The reality is that extreme weather is here. Our climate has begun to be destabilized. The good news is that we can do something about it. We have solutions to the cause of climate change. And those solutions will both help keep our families safe and help our economy grow at the same time.

MORGAN: OK. Marc, there you have it. What do you say to that?

MARC MORANO, CLIMATEDEPOT.COM: I say you look at the peer reviewed literature. We now know a study in journal “Nature” show that there’s 60 years, no trend in droughts. In fact, there was a decline in droughts in the U.S., except the most recent one in 2012, which wasn’t even as big as the one in the 1950s or the 1930s.

In terms of flood, 80 to 117 [correction 127] years, there’s no trend in floods. Big tornadoes are down dramatically since the 1950s — F3 or larger. And hurricanes, eight years now — the longest period without a major land falling category 3