NBC can talk to their viewers about saving the planet, but it’s the old hypocritical saying: Do what I say, Don’t do like I do.

Due to the warm humid air at the Beijing China Olympics, NBC is using air conditioning to cool off their commentators while conducting their interview outside. WTHR, the NBC affiliate for Indianapolis, reported from Beijing and described the NBC set used for the network’s two highest rated news broadcasts, “NBC Nightly News” and “Today,” as air conditioned – even though it is outdoors in balmy 85 degree weather.



(Picture Credit: Innamoo)

NBC, not so green? Is NBC helping add to pollution in the country of the world’s largest polluter?

Last fall, the network performed a publicity stunt on its November 4 broadcast of its highly rated Sunday Night NFL Football show, “Football Night in America .” The broadcast used limited lighting for the broadcast and even went completely dark for the final moments of the program. The effort was to raise awareness and set an example for the rest of the country, however, the same example isn’t being set for the broadcast from the world’s largest polluter, China Less than two months ago, NBC was painting climate change as an issue of American national security. NBC chief environmental affairs correspondent Anne Thompson said on the June 25 NBC Nightly News that: “The world’s thirst for energy is creating an environmental crisis that could soon become a security crisis for the United States.”

Other media have criticized American over-dependence on air conditioning. According to Joe Klein of Time magazine, air conditioning represents an estimated 4 % of U.S. energy use.

“But that’s still pretty egregious,” Klein wrote for Time on June 25, in a column encouraging people to “kill their air conditioner” for the sake of the environment. “We used an estimated 4 quadrillion British thermal units on air-conditioning in 2006, which is more than the total energy usage of all but 21 countries. And a fair amount of that is peak usage — the sort that sends the electric grid crackling toward brownouts and meltdowns and increases the demand for the construction of more electric power plants.”



(Beijing China, Picture Credit: Addictive Picasso)

Funny, it seems that NBC and Time can preach to the masses about air conditioning and save the planet, but I wonder what their carbon footprint looks like?

Evidently, it is ok to add to the pollution level in the top polluting country in the world, as they speak: Do Like I Say, Don’t Do Like I Do.