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Written by Miko de las Reyes
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Friday, 12 January 2007 |
In keeping with Jack's looking on the bright side as we
begin this year, I have to tell you about the latest form of pornography.
But it's not about sex.
It's about global warming.
If you think the hype and hysteria in our media is bad, you
should read or watch newspapers or television in England. It's unhinged. It's so bad that a left-wing think tank in London, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR)
has condemned global warming hype as a form of pornography.
They call it "climate porn." The IPPR's chief researcher of climate change, Simon Retallack,
says that "Apocalyptic visions of climate change used by newspapers,
environmental groups and the UK government amount to ‘climate porn'."
Approaching media coverage of global warming from a
left-wing perspective, the IPPR claims the constant bombardment of the public
with "cataclysmic imagery" and a "counsel of despair" is commercially
motivated: Danger and disaster sells.
While such major publications as the London Times and the
Financial Times are guilty of "climate alarmism," the worst peddler of climate
porn is the Independent, which regularly publishes graphic-laden front pages
threatening global meltdown.
One such story had as its leader: "Climate change is an
18-rated horror film. This is its PG-rated trailer." The opening line of the story was:
"The awesome truth is that we are the last generation
to enjoy the kind of climate that allowed civilization to germinate, grow and
flourish since the start of settled agriculture 11,000 years ago."
Retallack sees such deranged hysteria as a pornographic
distortion of reality. I see such
ridicule and condemnation of global warming hype - especially coming from the
left - as a quite hopeful sign.
Another is when even believers in global warming like Robert
Henson acknowledge the consequences of climate porn. As he explains in his book, The
Rough Guide to Climate Change:
Global warming hit it big just when
many people were getting tired of fretting about the state of the world. From
its earliest days, the environmental movement (has) relied on stark,
pseudo-apocalyptic imagery to motivate people.
In her 1962 book, Silent Spring, which
set the template for environmental wake-up calls, Rachel Carson labeled
pesticides and similar agents "the last and greatest danger to our
civilization." In her footsteps came a series of similarly dire scenarios, from
Paul Ehrlich's Population Bomb to the notion of nuclear winter.
Global warming lends itself
especially well to this type of rhetoric. Yet again we are faced with "the last
and greatest danger to our civilization."
It's hopeful that the term "climate porn" is gaining
currency. If you Google the term, you'll
get 24,000 hits. Global warming
hysteria is finally being recognized for what it is.
And that means that Al Gore is a pornographer.
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