That's what I think of climate deniers these days. Just as one influential celebrity denier makes a switch, changes their mind and tone, another steps into the breach.
And there's worse. The drug of climate denial is addictive. In the nature of denial, there's a section of the general public that actually demands journalistic material that is contrarian in tone, and various publications and outlets, ranging in status from from Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, to the tabloids and blogs, step up to the plate and peddle them the street s..t they want. Just like cocaine.
One contrarian blogger I once foolishly argued with for weeks would spend sweaty nights tapping out his crudely uneducated ideas and distributing them widely, and people would actually read the stuff and demand more of it, so he started a blog purely dedicated to his climate denial material. This was a guy who'd never even thought to take a course on climate science. People loved his stuff.
Fear is the root problem in denial. Until an extreme weather event hits their town, few folks will have the guts to look the science right in the eye. Why should they? It's scary news. In the meantime, people tend to seek out comfort in the form of a community of denial.
It's nasty, nasty business. People are already getting hurt and dying over this. More to come.
Tabloids rapped over climate coverage
* Jemima Kiss
* guardian.co.uk,
* Monday April 28 2008
The "deliberately contrarian" tone of tabloid newspapers had damaged public perception of climate change, a research paper published today said.
Researchers at the University of Oxford's Environmental Change Institute say that superficial and simplistic tabloid coverage and limited depth in reporting had contributed to a "significant divergence from the scientific consensus that humans contribute to climate change".
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