Originally Posted by maddmaxx
I think that some of us have been saying that the popular press was guilty of saying some unfortunate things about impending climate change. What I want to hear from both sides in this issue is real, fact stipulating science, not colored by lots of emotion laced rhetoric.
I would like to know more about what conditions existed on this planet during the previous interglacial periods and what the potential causes were back then. I would like to know more about what political or economic interests may be fueling both the pro's and con's so that I might make some informed decisions about what I am reading and watching.
I have become very wary of popular catastrophies....ozone layer....nuclear winter.....bird flue....terrorism.....eco terrorists.....the domono theory.....peak oil.....that play out in the media for a while and then fade away in the face of the next impending end of it all story.
Nor can I abide by the naysayers who joke about having beachfront property in New Hampshire.
The words of fear are....could...might...as much as....its possible that....may be......idiots....bull!@#$%.....all of my scientists are right and all of yours are wrong. Remember that there are people out there on both sides of the issue that believe that Elvis lives, flouride is a communist plot, there is a shadow government that rules the world and everyone else is bad.
Watch the responses to this post.
OK- I'll bite. As a scientist, I can tell you that you should never, ever trust the press for scientific reporting. The fact that the various "crises du jour" fade out after a (usually short) time, should tell you something- journalists are in one business only, and that's to sell TV ad time, papers, or magazines. That, and the fact that so many errors slip through the editing process. Some things journalists should just stay away from- the vast majority of them don't have the intellectual equipment to handle solid scientific reporting. And those that do are bound and beholden to editors and a reading public that don't have that equipment either. Sorry for sounding so bitter, but so much of the controversy about global warming (and a zillion other problems) has been politicized by the
press.