Media ignores climate debate, Pew says

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- Blog coverage regarding climate change soared after a scientist's interview in London, though it was ignored by the mainstream media, a survey finds.

Phil Jones, the former director of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, stepped down when it emerged in November that scientists used misleading information to make their case for global warming.

In an interview with the BBC last week, Jones maintained his position that human activity was at least partially responsible for global warming.

"I'm 100 percent confident that the climate has warmed," he added.

Bloggers noted, however, that Jones in 1995 said there were no statistics to support global warming.

A survey by the Pew Research Center found the Jones interview on climate change made up more than 30 percent of the coverage on blogs from Feb. 15-19. The state of the U.S. economy, by comparison, figured dead last among issues counted.

Pew said this was the first time that climate change topped the list on blogs since the Copenhagen conference in December.

Pew's data indicated that the traditional media, meanwhile, featured the climate change debate in less than 1 percent of its coverage. In mainstream media, the economy was the top issue followed closely by the Winter Olympics and Afghanistan.