I almost had to laugh when NBC’s Sunday Night Football kicked off (pun intended) “green week” for NBC. You may remember last year’s silliness when they darkened the set at half time and did the show in candlelight to make a point about saving energy. It only served to highlight their hypocrisy when you saw the energy-guzzling monitors behind them.

This year, it was less dramatic yet no less hypocritical. Host Bob Costas went around the table asking panelists what they were doing to be green. I loved Dan Patrick’s line that he was recycling some of his lines from his time at ESPN. I got the impression between the jokes Costas was cracking that he really doesn’t buy all this green business. Especially when he tossed it back to Al Michaels and John Madden who boasted about the sold-out crowd of 91,000 at FedEx field in the game between the Redskins and the Cowboys. The Duracell blimp gave viewers a view of just what the NFL and NBC were doing to lower their carbon footprint. No telling how much carbon they were belching into the atmosphere in order to light, power and broadcast just that one game. And to think that’s duplicated dozens of times across the country for 16 Sundays.

Sunday Night Football’s feeble attempt at convincing us it really cares about the environment was just the beginning of a weeklong self-congratulatory Al Gore love fest that, each year, spills over into all of its programming. And, get this, you can go to NBC’s “Green is Universal” Web site and enter to win an “eco-vacation.” You know what that is? You’ll be whisked away by jet-fuel-guzzling air carrier to the paradise of Costa Rica where you’ll traipse around the island for sightseeing, white water rafting and hotel hopping on, I’m sure, some really green, diesel-exhaust-spewing bus. Sounds really “eco-vacationish,” doesn’t it?

If NBC were really serious about saving the planet it would simply do one thing: sign off. Can you imagine how much energy we could save if NBC would put itself to sleep? Think about the countless shows that shoot on countless locations and emit unimaginable amounts of CO2, and The millions of lights they burn to light what, the set of your favorite sitcom?

Stop the production of these useless television shows if you’re really serious about saving the planet. After all, it’s just entertainment, right? NBC isn’t essential, is it?

Ah, but it is. It’s part of the propaganda machine that seeks to control the hearts, minds and souls of all Americans. It can’t sign off. It’s a cog in the wheel of an out-of-control environmental cabal that makes billions a year off your gullibility. Now that the science is coming back to bite it, NBC is employing some dastardly tactics to keep this charade alive.

Take this story from the London Telegraph. It seems that NASA’s Goddard Institute, which is run by the father of the global warming hysteria, James Hansen, claimed that last month was the hottest October on record. This despite the fact that October brought us unseasonably low temperatures and early snow around the world. As it turns out, Mr. Hansen and his colleagues were basing their claims on temperature readings that included those held over from September instead of purely October readings. This was the same James Hansen who was forced to revise his claim that the decade of the ’90s was the hottest on record. His revision showed it was actually the 1930s. Whoops.

I’ve always maintained that global warming was based on junk science. Now, it looks like it’s based on dishonest science, too.

Phil Valentine is an author and nationally syndicated radio talk show host with Westwood One. For more of his commentary and articles, visit philvalentine.com.