Noam Chomsky and environmentalist Bill McKibben discuss how the mainstream media’s portrayal of climate change is distorting the gravity of global warming. Because the media gives equal time to Rush Limbaugh and the very small group of scientists who deny the existence of global climate change as they do to the vast majority of scientists who are in consensus that global warming is a reality that must be faced, the media is doing the American public a great disservice. Furthermore, if we invest in clean technology and renewable energy and the deniers turn out to be right, then we will still come out ahead. If, however, we listen to the deniers and the mainstream scientific consensus turns out to be right, we risk the extinction of the human race. With those two options in mind, Chomsky argues, "It’s not a hard decision."

Video courtesy of On The Earth Productions.

—Clarissa León