Yesterday, I wrote an article on ‘climate emergencies’ declared by ECan and Nelson council and pointed out that all they are doing is making people panic. Well, it seems that people are not panicking enough. Because of this, that illustrious leftist rag, The Guardian, has decided to up the rhetoric on climate issues… and instead of terms like ‘climate change’ or ‘global warming’, which are clearly not alarmist enough, we are now going to have ‘climate crisis’ and ‘global heating’. quote.
The Guardian has updated its style guide to introduce terms that more accurately describe the environmental crises facing the world.
Instead of “climate change” the preferred terms are “climate emergency, crisis or breakdown” and “global heating” is favoured over “global warming”, although the original terms are not banned.
“We want to ensure that we are being scientifically precise, while also communicating clearly with readers on this very important issue,” said the editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner. end quote.
‘Climate emergency’ is more scientifically precise than ‘climate change’, is it? It is a considerably more alarmist term, but there is nothing precise about it. quote.
“The phrase ‘climate change’, for example, sounds rather passive and gentle when what scientists are talking about is a catastrophe for humanity.” end quote.
Except that it isn’t… not so far anyway. Normal practice is to declare a state of emergency when an emergency exists, but so far, there is none. Things may be different in 12 years… 30 years… 50 years… who knows… but as of this moment, there is no catastrophe for humanity.
There is, however, nothing like a good panic. quote.
The scale of the climate and wildlife crises has been laid bare by two landmark reports from the world’s scientists. In October, they said carbon emissions must halve by 2030 to avoid even greater risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people. In May, global scientists said human society was in jeopardy from the accelerating annihilation of wildlife and destruction of the ecosystems that support all life on Earth.
Other terms that have been updated, including the use of “wildlife” rather than “biodiversity”, “fish populations” instead of “fish stocks” and “climate science denier” rather than “climate sceptic”. In September, the BBC accepted it gets coverage of climate change “wrong too often” and told staff: “You do not need a ‘denier’ to balance the debate.” end quote.
In other words, we are right, deniers are wrong, so let us not give them any oxygen, and let us not worry too much about scientists who disagree. We know best. quote.
Earlier in May, Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager who has inspired school strikes for climate around the globe, said: “It’s 2019. Can we all now call it what it is: climate breakdown, climate crisis, climate emergency, ecological breakdown, ecological crisis and ecological emergency?” end quote.
Yes… she is the 16 year old who is autistic and claims that she can actually see carbon dioxide, which is a colourless, odourless gas. Using a clearly damaged child to reinforce your point is not what I consider to be ‘scientifically precise’. quote.
The update to the Guardian’s style guide follows the addition of the global carbon dioxide level to the Guardian’s daily weather pages. “Levels of CO2 in the atmosphere have risen so dramatically – including a measure of that in our daily weather report is symbolic of what human activity is doing to our climate,”
The Guardian. end quote.
I once said that I read The Guardian so that you do not have to. Now it really is becoming too much, as I am not usually a lover of fairy tales.
This is just the latest in a long line of media driven panics, but at least some of those were potentially real. Nuclear weapons actually exist. So does mad cow disease. There really was a hole in the ozone layer (funny how nobody talks about that now) and the Millenium Bug turned out to be a lot of hype, but at least that had a specific time frame. This climate panic could go on for decades.
In the meantime, it is a mild day in Wellington, with 15 degrees outside. If there is anything to panic about out there, I’m afraid it isn’t obvious just yet. Maybe I am just not sufficiently gifted, however. Maybe the climate crisis, like CO2, is something that only Greta Thunberg is able to see.