Last winter the US experanced a massive snow storm, snowpocalypse-2011. For a few days much of the the ground in the US was white; Schools and airports were closed and in areas where snow is rare, life slowed to a stop for a day or two. For many people this was a nice break. I remember it an opportunity to break from the daily grind and a chance to play and spend time with with the kids, friends and neighbors.
What I also remember was the laughable reporting about how this storm was proof that climate change was nothing to worry with and that this storm was undeniable proof that climate change was a scientific hoax. While Faux was the worst of the offenders, this theme was found on CNN and the other major media players in the US. The question seemed to be, if you have climate change how can you have snow. Most of our media folks seemed unable to understand that weather and climate are not synonymous, but used this confusion to continue the efforts to deny the whole idea of climate change.
Now for a simple question: If last year’s snowpocalypse was proof that climate change was not occurring, then one would assume that Faux and their media friends would be pronouncing this year without a winter is proof that climate change is real. Funny thing, I have seen no media hinting at that. I do not know if this is a positive, indicating that our nation’s reporters and their employers have learned a little science in the last 12 months, or more likely this is just more evidence that silly right wing ideas can gain traction while equally silly left wing ideas (correctly) go nowhere. And since the media is clearly liberal (ask any right winger), these series of events have left me confused and marveling at how lies of the right take off, while simple truths never seem to be accepted.
And now more evidence why this suppression of facts and the spreading of BS happens so often.
We now have access to some recently leaked documents clearly showing showing how corporate interests intend to spend millions to keep the population of this land uneducated and misinformed. This right wing think tank (term used very loosely here, I suspect there is not a lot of thinking going on at the Heartland Institute) has decided to copy the work of the US Tobacco industry, and pay scientist who are willing to sell their soul to create enough confusion to prevent any action being taken to address this issue. It worked for 30-40 years for smoking, if unchecked and allowed to fester there is no reason to believe that the Heartland group will not see similar results.
Tags Corporate Corruption, Right Wing, Climate
What I also remember was the laughable reporting about how this storm was proof that climate change was nothing to worry with and that this storm was undeniable proof that climate change was a scientific hoax. While Faux was the worst of the offenders, this theme was found on CNN and the other major media players in the US. The question seemed to be, if you have climate change how can you have snow. Most of our media folks seemed unable to understand that weather and climate are not synonymous, but used this confusion to continue the efforts to deny the whole idea of climate change.
Now for a simple question: If last year’s snowpocalypse was proof that climate change was not occurring, then one would assume that Faux and their media friends would be pronouncing this year without a winter is proof that climate change is real. Funny thing, I have seen no media hinting at that. I do not know if this is a positive, indicating that our nation’s reporters and their employers have learned a little science in the last 12 months, or more likely this is just more evidence that silly right wing ideas can gain traction while equally silly left wing ideas (correctly) go nowhere. And since the media is clearly liberal (ask any right winger), these series of events have left me confused and marveling at how lies of the right take off, while simple truths never seem to be accepted.
And now more evidence why this suppression of facts and the spreading of BS happens so often.
We now have access to some recently leaked documents clearly showing showing how corporate interests intend to spend millions to keep the population of this land uneducated and misinformed. This right wing think tank (term used very loosely here, I suspect there is not a lot of thinking going on at the Heartland Institute) has decided to copy the work of the US Tobacco industry, and pay scientist who are willing to sell their soul to create enough confusion to prevent any action being taken to address this issue. It worked for 30-40 years for smoking, if unchecked and allowed to fester there is no reason to believe that the Heartland group will not see similar results.
Tags Corporate Corruption, Right Wing, Climate
1 comment:
Yes , vry true
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