Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
If the warming is siow, the frog is happy. (Photo by Purple Sloq/Flickr)
In describing our progress toward a well-educated and -informed citizenry, served by a free and fearless press, seeking a smoothly functioning democratic republic, do you believe in devolution, or are you a destructionist? That is, do you think we are rotting away from within, or is God punishing us? It’s probably too late to have that discussion; when you’re in a sinking scow, you can lament the lack of a luxury cruiser only so long, then you have to shut up and swim.
The low water mark (to twist the metaphor) of our society’s deteriorating journalism, its increasingly muddled grasp of scientific discoveries, and its atrophied ability to speak its own native language — not to mention its suffocating narcissism — was expressed in a single news story recently whose pungency and brevity would have been admirable if the perpetrators had intended it.
(I checked, and modernreaders.com does not appear to be a satirical site. Just modern.)
This is the headline: “America seemingly fine with global warming for the meantime,” On a scale of one to ten, one being the grunts of a caveman roasting a mastodon, and ten, Abraham Lincoln’ Second Inaugural Address, where would this sentence fall? (No, I’m sorry, we can’t go below caveman grunts.)
Does this really mean to say that Americans not only know what global warming is, but like it? I guess that depends: on what is meant by “America” (All the Americas, or one of them? All its people, or some of them?); on what “seemingly” means — to whom, and why and how? On what it means to be “fine” with global warming? And on what “the meantime” is.
Do things get any better after the first ten words? Not hardly. Here are the next 30;
For Americans, global warming has been an oft-mentioned buzzword since the 1970s. It’s also been a staple of scientists’ warnings about the dangers of high carbon dioxide emissions.
Whoa. The lede sentence defines the subject, global warming, as a “buzzword.” Which is further defined in the dictionary (the what?) as “a word or phrase that is fashionable at a particular time.” So there you have its significance: it’s been fashionable since the 1970s. If that is not sufficiently impressive, consider this: “It’s also been a staple [you know, as rice is a staple in Chinese takeout] of scientists’ warnings about the dangers of high carbon dioxide emissions.” And what has “it,” that is, global warming, been to scientists discussions of the dangers of the other greenhouse gases — methane, nitrous oxide, water vapor, ozone, and chlorofluorocarbons? Garnishes, perhaps.
Now that we have rigorously defined our subject, it’s time for the news, and this is the news:
“U.S. residents seem to be mostly better for the ongoing climate change, according to a new study.”
Like the headline, this is a sentence that resists translation into English. We could try annotating it: “U.S. residents (not tourists or undocumented aliens) seem to be (a term of art that seems not to know what it means) mostly better for (that’s the opposite of least worst of) ongoing climate change (not the offcoming kind).
The study to which this word salad refers (without linking to it, but here you go), does not in fact claim that we are better off for climate change. It is an examination of public perceptions of climate change, which finds that people (the vast majority of whom, one assumes, live in air conditioned homes and travel in air conditioned vehicles to air conditioned workplaces) have not yet noticed any deleterious effects of climate change, but do find the warmer winters more agreeable.
If one was to get the results described by this lamebrain news site, the sample of the Lowest Common Denominator used by the researchers would have to have been screened to exclude people who survived or had knowledge of the mass deaths of many species in the warming and acidifying waters of the Pacific Ocean, the rampant wildfires of California and Alaska, the historic drought in the western states, the disappearance of the snowpack and glaciers from the western mountains, the burgeoning toxic algae in the warming waters of our lakes and rivers, the struggles of cities from South Miami Beach to Norfolk to Boston to deal with the encroachment of rising sea water, Hurricane Sandy, 500-year flood events now occurring in Texas at six month intervals, tornado swarms, etcetera.
Because it is really unlikely that any person with experience or knowledge of any of that would proclaim himself or herself to be fine with that.
This is a news story of a quality that is becoming more common in journalism, and that in the immortal words of Henry Luce, scrawled across an inept submission for publication in TIME, “subtracts from the sum total of human knowledge.” And we really can’t afford to lose any more.
And to make things worse, this article or a close approximation thereof appeared in the NY Times. So much for the paper of record.
Alrighty, then, the following will expose me as a “masochist” (which I proclaim, now, for those less capable of ascertaining the merely obvious). I clicked on the link to the modernreaders.com article and actually read it, word-for-word as is my wont, and um, er, WTF?! THAT is considered (by whom?) to be what “modern readers” will want to read?! Is that article also claiming to be “modern writing?” Neither, I say, in my understanding of any of those terms. That “writing” is so convoluted and incoherent that any “point” it was trying to make is pretty much lost in the gibberish. In fact, anyone “perceiving” that article in any way other than gibberish should “start over” from a first-grade level. But I digress, let’s get to some “meat.”
FTFA…
“But for most U.S. residents, its effects have made the weather more ideal over the past 40 years.”
REALLY?!?! I mean, REALLY?!? What kind of abject moron would believe that longer and more pronounced drought conditions OR heavier precipitation events (rain or snow) OR more extensive coral-bleaching, etc., happening year after year, to be “more ideal?” REALLY!! WTF?? Alas, _IF_ that “modern writing” is what “modern readers” WANT to see, _IF_ that is all “they” are capable of “relating” to, then I’m with Bender Rodriguez when he/it exclaims, “Death to all humans.” (NB, those are “just” words from a fictional, cartoon character in a moderately amusing cartoon, so, WTF does “he” know?) Of course, I could go on and on deconstucting that article for the utter nonsense, in the most literal sense of that word, it exhibits but my “comment” would be longer than the above article and this isn’t “my” blog. (Note, I do NOT have one, ain’t gonna’ happen. I’ll stop there lest I “become” rude, crude and socially unacceptable. Ooops, [probably?] too late.) Nonetheless, your article, Mr. Lewis, is a “nice” (too nice?) admonishment of that site as well as the circumstances in which we live. As “Lucy” stated, in the movie titled the same (highly recommended for those with an attention span greater than a few seconds), “Ignorance brings chaos, not knowledge.“
Ironically, Mother Earth takes no notice of what homo sapiens think or say or even what they do. She just responds to the activities of the infrastructure of industrialized civilization. So floods, droughts, storms and wild fires are more common around the globe. Acidification of the oceans and rising sea levels are just some of the unintended consequences of the operation of these aging systems as they use up limited natural resources.
Mother Earth will slowly recover from this malfeasance after the inevitable demise of industrial civilization. How will homo sapiens respond to the loss of the goods and services provided by Mother Earth and by th existing infrastructure?
way off topic, just file this in decline of America: http://www.wkyt.com/content/news/Clinton-sheriff-took-his-10-year-old-son-to-work-let-him-sign-jail-paperwork-377491201.html
BTW, love your website Mr. Lewis; very informative, and insightful.
Mr. Lewis, when you can, I would like your thoughts on the article I posted above. It made me sick.
Thanks for pointing out this (piss poor) example of “journalism” and deconstructing it so wonderfully Mr. Lewis.
And “they” wonder why many Americans don’t read the news (from newspapers) in the numbers they once did. All these media do is prop up business (of killing the very environment that sustains us) as usual – to the detriment of everyone (including themselves, go figure).
That the end result of industrial civilization will be our extinction becomes more clear each year in crop loss from climate change events (now including GRAPEFRUIT sized hail – boy, that’ll “damage” some crops and trees, eh?), heat waves unlike we’ve ever experienced (with high humidity to boot), failing infrastructure (including electrical components, bridges and highways, water and gas piping systems, and lots more), and the increasing prevalence of hydrogen sulfide (the ancient cause of many if not most past extinction events). It’s not, as has been pointed out by McPherson and others, that humans can’t adapt – it’s that all the other species we rely on for food and oxygen can’t keep up with the rapidity of changes in their once predictable environment. From plankton to soil microbes, the die-offs are rippling up the food chain and will eventually (and “faster than expected”) include humanity.
Our pollution is coming back to haunt us throughout the biosphere – from plastic to particulates to radiation and the above mentioned waste gases. Chances are that the fish we eat has ingested some nano-sized plastic particles (if not pharmaceutical waste) during its lifetime and now we’re consuming it too. We needn’t bring up Monsanto (et al) and the “foods” we’re currently being asked to swallow (low or bereft of nutrition and loaded with toxic chemicals that alter our very DNA), since our watchdog agencies routinely give them all a pass on our behalf.
We’re bearing witness to the end. Enjoy your numbered days.
Trust is essential in the operation of an open and at least somewhat free society. What this means is that professionals can be trusted to uphold the standard expected of them.
Over the last several decades, this trust has been repeatedly run over by a corporate mentality that apparently treats this trust as a disposable cheap commodity. In this mentality, nothing is important save the rules by which business is done, rules that have no benefit to a just, healthy perspective.
Thus the rampant erosion of all standard, the encroachment of a cheap bogus narrative to soothe with lies, and the advance of deranged psychopaths to positions of power.
To a certain extent, this has always been with us, yet the kind of Katrina-esque flood of substandard corrupt coyote squat that passes for the workings of this society is indeed a recent development.
From politics to business, from religion to science, the ethics and standards are absent. This bodes ill for the continuing functionality of this system, and begs the question; Is there anything left worth saving?
It’s now clear that a mass die off of human beings, would serve the non-human world well.
MargfromTassie,
There are qualities, precious qualities, that only humanity can bring to the world. Humor, in particular, seems to be the sole purview of people. What appears to be the case, is that a parasitic group of underacheivers has managed to gain control of the direction of humanity. The media, the military, business and police are all at the disposal of these mental and emotional cripples. Thus we are told there is some other reason for endless wars, predatory finance, environmental annihilation, and ideological slavery besides the fact that we suffer incompetent psychopaths for our leaders.
Therefore, I would like you to entertain the notion that some are more responsible than others for this world careening out of control, and that it is past time for the guilty to be culpable for their actions.
There is an old saying. “We get the leaders we deserve”. Alexis de Tocqueville , I think. Anyway, I agree with Tassie !
How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb….