A spotlight on the climate crusaders

• the world is always burning or freezing;
• there is a cultic consensus, so one must never challenge “polar bear” studies and the like; and
• the media must never - never! - remind readers of their demonstrably false “global cooling” and “global warming” reports. (Some examples below)

1912: October 7, “Fifth Ice Age Is on the Way” (Los Angeles Times)

1923: “Scientists Says Arctic Ice Will Wipe Out Canada” (Chicago Tribune)

1924: September 18, “Mac Millian Reports Signs of New Ice Age” (New York Times)

1933: March 27, “America in Longest Warm Spell Since 1776; Temperature Line Records a 25-Year Rise” (New York Times)

1952: August 10, “Our Changing Climate … the world has been getting warmer in the last half century” (New York Times)

1954: “Climate - the Heat May be Off … Despite all you may have read, heard or imagined, it’s been growing cooler - not warmer since the Thirties” (Fortune)

1958: September, “The Coming Ice Age” (Harper’s)

1959: February 15, “A Warmer Earth Evident At Poles” (New York Times)

1969: February 20, “Expert Says Arctic Ocean Will Soon Be Open Sea” (New York Times)

1970: April 22, “Colder Winters Held Dawn of New Ice Age” (Washington Post)

1975: “The Ice Age Cometh” (Science News)

2007: February 10, “From Bad to Worse: Earth’s Warming to Accelerate” (Science News)

2007: April 9, “Global Warming: What Now? Our feverish planet badly needs a cure …” (TIME)

2007: May 28, “The Brooding Omnipresence of Global Warming” (Harper’s)

I know. This is dangerously religious. In 1958, Betty Friedman was preparing my grandparents for the coming Ice Age. Today? “The planet’s frying” says Glenda.

Indeed, if the world is burning, then Cate Blanchett, the Australian Conservation Foundation’s new face, might wish to ponder the irony of those frequent flyer miles. Or - and I hate to sound mischievous - cease hawking tickets for high-energy cinema chains.