What is it about?
Media (mainly newspaper) reports of new theories to explain global warming/climate change 1974-2014 show that there is a huge and very confusing variation. They also show that the dramatic will always take precedence over the ordinary. 'Warming continuing' is not news. 'Imminent flooding of coastal cities' will be on the front page.
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Why is it important?
A multitude of confusing and contradictory theories by various experts are published by the scientific fraternity, which are eagerly taken up by the press and other media. The more extreme the view, the more likely it will feature prominently in the newspapers. The article demonstrates that there could therefore be a negative effect on public opinion about the climate change situation.
Perspectives
I have press cuttings about climate from 1945, when it was considered to be stable, maybe changing slowly over thousands of years. Daily newspapers have always been opinion formers for their readers - and are still, to some extent. The cuttings make for very interesting reading as theories come and go, wax and wane. We have gone from dropping soot on the Poles to avoid an Ice Age to painting the Andes white to stave off Global Warming.
Mr Ivor Graham Williams
R Met Soc
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Climate change confusion - who is responsible?, Weather, July 2015, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1002/wea.2461.
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