Global warming may not be the global disaster advertised, but it is causing a massive calving of the Associated Press’s shrinking credibility. Here is AP reporter Seth Borenstein’s latest piece of exhaustive reporting (“In the climate-change arena, 350 looms large; That carbon dioxide level is all Earth can take, scientists say,” Dec. 14) from Copenhagen:

The last time the Earth had 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide was . . . in the fall of 1989. This year CO2 pushed higher than the 390 level. Since the atmosphere passed the 350 level, ice sheets have been melting and other dramatic changes have been happening. Prominent scientists — notably NASA’s James Hansen and Rajendra Pachauri, head of the IPCC — have said 350 is the only safe level of carbon dioxide in the air.

Really? Let’s take the fibs one at a time:

– Ice sheets have not been melting: “Antarctic ice shelves are showing no sign of climate change, six years of unique research have shown,” reports The Australian. “Scientists from Western Australia’s Curtin University of Technology are using acoustic sensors . . . to listen for the sound of icebergs breaking away from the giant ice sheets of the south pole. ‘More than six years of observation has not revealed any significant climatic trends,’ CUT associate professor Alexander Gavrilov said.”

– Dramatic changes haven’t been happening. Researcher Dr. Roger Pielke, Jr. summarizes: 1) Over the long-term, U.S. hurricane landfalls have been declining. 2) Nationwide there have been no long-term increases in drought. 3) There have been no observed changes in the occurrence of tornadoes

– Rajendra Pachauri is not a scientist. He is an economist.

On the bright side, AP has the current 390 PPM figure correct.