Reuters Wrongly Sinks An Island

News from the Montreal (where it's an entirely appropriate 16 degrees) UN Climate Change conference:

Reuters published a story Tuesday that cited United Nations officials' claims that the effects of global warming caused rising sea levels and more storms, forcing islanders of the Pacific Island of Tegua in Vanuatu to flee inland.

CNS describes the story:

The Dec. 6 Reuters article by environmental correspondent Alister Doyle claimed that about 100 residents in the Lateu settlement on Tegua island in Vanuatu were forced to move inland because of cyclone-enhanced "king tides" that caused flooding and made the island uninhabitable.

The Reuters article included a statement from the U.N.'s Environment Program claiming that the residents of Vanuatu had "become one of, if not the first, to be formally moved out of harm's way as a result of climate change." However, the report did not feature any scientists or experts questioning the conclusion that human-caused "global warming" was to blame for the residents' coastal retreat.

CNS does quote one such scientist, Patrick J. Michaels, the author of several books on climate change:

"The island in question has experienced no net sea level rise in the last half century, according to the combined satellite and submarine data," Michaels said. "In fact, areas to the west such as [the island of] Tuvalu show substantial declines in sea level over that period," he added.

Michaels added that "the United Nations intergovernmental panel notes a decline in the frequency of tropical storms and hurricanes in the South Pacific in recent decades.

"With sea level not showing a rise and the decline in the frequency of tropical cyclones, it's very hard to make the strident statements that were made in the [Reuters article,]" he added.

Reuters is the most strident global warming hawk among the major wire services. Put another way, the wire service is just another once marginally proud journalistic tradition that is slipping down the drain.

h/t GreenieWatch