Disturbing Trends in Global Climate...Reporting

Monday, June 24, 1974. Time magazine publishes an article on drastic climate changes that are beginning to take place around the globe. It just might be the beginnings of a “climatic upheaval”. Yes, it is the worst fate imaginable come to life: Global cooling.

That’s right. Just 34 years ago, climatologists were worried sick that another ice age would wreak havoc on the earth and its population. The mean global temperature had dropped an estimated 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit since the 1940s. Snow and ice in the Northern Hemisphere was advancing aggressively with no signs of stopping. Migratory patterns of the armadillo were changing. All of the signs pointed toward a disastrous drop in global temperature that would decimate the world’s population.

If you read the article, you will no doubt notice that if Time wanted to cut its number of staff writers down, they could substitute global-warming terminology for every reference to global cooling/ice ages and have an article that could be published today, Earth Day 2008, and no one would be the wiser.

Does anyone else take issue with this? Three decades ago, the media were convinced that we would all die in snowy graves. Now they are convinced that we will turn our world into a raging funeral pyre. What will they be convinced of in another thirty years? Global steadiness? I wonder what that article will look like…

Thursday, April 22, 2038. In Russia, crops are growing. In Ethiopia, herds of
cows are strong. At the UN, climatologists gather for the annual UN
Environmental Impact Conference. They are worried that there have not been
the characteristic climate swings the past ten to twenty years. “Normally,
we would expect various rising and cooling trends over the course of a decade or
two. We have not been seeing this—the global climate is at a standstill,”
said Swedish climatologist Soren Kiergestol. “This could wreak havoc on
our environment—it needs climatic diversity to thrive. Humankind must
intervene in order to save our planet…”

This Week's Sign of the Apocalypse: Activist Actor Makes Poignant Observation

I have just a few minutes between ripping up the tile in my kitchen and going to church--time enough for a quick post.

Today's subject is Tim Robbins. Now normally, one of my main life axioms is, "Don't put too much stock on anything actors or musicians say about subjects other than acting and music." So goes with Mr. Robbins, who is a bit extreme for my tastes. However, even a blind squirrel finds the occasional nut, and our nut Tim actually makes a pretty good point about television, quoted here at length with commentary from article writer Kevin Sites:

As the keynote speaker at the recent National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference in Las Vegas, the actor and activist decried today's news and entertainment content as driven by a "pornographic obsession with celebrity culture."

"We love distraction," he said, reading from a speech the organizers reportedly tried to talk him out of giving. "I don't know about you, but show me a starlet without panties getting out of a car, and suddenly the world seems like a better place. Show me 'Knight Rider' drunk on the floor eating a hamburger, and I won't ask why my kid has no health insurance. Let's stop burdening people with facts."

A few people walked out, but Robbins finished to a standing ovation. And regardless of opinions, he did succeed in raising a powerful question, made more poignant by the acres of gadgets on the exhibit floor: Why, in an era of mind blowing media technological advances, does good content sometimes seem to lag so far behind?

Why, indeed? 

Wow, A Whole Month.

So I just realized it's been exactly a month since I last posted. I give my readers my most sincere apologies. I bought a house last month, in the process enduring the worst closing ever. Maybe I will talk about that later. That sucked the life right out of my wife and me. And now, of course, we are working on fixing all of the things that need it. I will try to get back to regular posting as soon as I can, but until then, I ask for your patience.

Thanks,
Jon