Got this in my e-mail (I'm on Stossel's e-mail list. I would never hear about his specials otherwise, since ABC News would rather eat a bucket of ground glass than advertise him):

Do the preachers of doom and gloom have you worried about everything?



Have I got a show for you!

Friday at 9 p.m. Eastern Time (8 p.m. Central -- right before "20/20") I update my "Tampering With Nature" hour. This is the show that so angered some "activists" that they persuaded parents to withdraw permission for us to use interviews we did with their children. We re-shot the interviews with other kids, but the activists still managed to get newspapers to write about "Parents vs. John Stossel."

In the show, we point out that while "being at one with nature" is the popular view today, what it really means is running around naked, hungry, maybe killing a rabbit with a rock, then dying young. That was "natural life" for most of human history.

Tampering has been GOOD for humans.

But if you have children in school, they may have been taught that tampering is EVIL -- that humanity is destroying the Earth. This is PART OF THE CURRICULUM in some schools. We taped as Los Angeles kids were bused in to hear speeches from activists during the school day, and encouraged to "sign our petition protesting the Bush White House." One child said, "President Bush is polluting the country so he can make millions for his friends."

The organizers call this "nonpartisan."

The kids are thoroughly scared. They fear massive floods ("Alaska's melting!"), increased cancer, and "drowning in our own garbage!"

Former Greenpeace Director Patrick Moore says, "The environmental movement to a large extent has been hijacked by political activists who are using environmental rhetoric to cloak agendas like class warfare and anti-corporatism that in fact have almost nothing to do with ecology."

Friday I look at that, and at the great Global Warming Scare. The media suggest almost all scientists agree with the dire predictions, but is that true?

You may have heard that 1,600 scientists signed a letter warning of "devastating consequences." But I bet you hadn't heard that 17,000 scientists signed a petition saying there's "no convincing evidence" that greenhouse gases will disrupt the Earth's climate.

Pat Michaels of the University of Virginia says scientists have an incentive to scare people.

"Let's imagine there's a Senate hearing. The senator who disburses the funds goes to the administrator of NASA and says, 'I've heard global warming is the most serious problem confronting mankind. Can your agency use another $2 billion a year to study this thing?' What's he going to say? 'No?'"

"So you exaggerate to get funds?" I ask.

"Yes," he replies.

And I bet you haven't heard this: Some scientists say global warming would be a good thing. Most of the one-degree warming that's occurred has been in the coldest parts of the globe. The United States has warmed only
half a degree in a hundred years. No real change here, but in Siberia, says Michaels: "It's warmed up from minus 40 to minus 38 in the last 50 years. How much money do you want to pay to stop that? I don't think that would be a real popular proposal in the dead of winter."

We also visit paradise in Hawaii. Is it really paradise? No.

I confront Indians who say life was better before Columbus.

And do you want to DESIGN your kids? Maybe make them smart, good-looking or athletic? Virginia Postrel defends that form of "tampering with nature."

Hope you watch! This is one of my favorite shows. Friday right before "20/20."



I am a BIG John Stossel fan. The first time I heard him on a news show talking about how great deregulation was, you could have knocked me over with a feather. This was a news reporter??