- 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.
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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.
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