David ... just picked this up ... trapped in my spam box, otherwise I'd have
responded in my previous message.
I have been struck recently by how quiet this forum has been. It's not that
there's not some interesting people on it or that, for a "crisis forum",
there's not interesting stuff to discuss.
My sense is that a helluva lot of us are stuck as to what we can
meaningfully say that doesn't just sound like the virtual equivalent of
speaking into the wastepaper bin. I've been working quite a bit recently in
writing stuff for a forthcoming Ashgrove book on human ecology about
postmodernism, and it does seem to me that during the 20th C we've seen a
progressive drift away from grounding, at various levels - both physical and
psychological (I would add spiritual, but we can leave that aside for now) -
in reality.
The people who form and moderate opinion are all living so comfortably,
relatively speaking, that they don't want to lift the lid. I had a
disturbing exchange recently with a good friend of mine and his wife. He's a
serving army general. We expect to disagree, but not as much as you'd think,
on war. What really surprised me was how animated he became about climate
change, his wife too, playing out all the Christopher Brooker type of
arguments and basically, a very intelligent scientifically literate man just
not wanting to know.
My sense in both this exchange and others similar is that most people can't
face the contradiction of their lives. Festinger summed it all up in the
1950s with his study of cults ("When Prophecy Fails") - and how, the more
that the cult failed the more the believers believed. You'll be familiar
with his whole cognitive dissonance theory that came out of that. My sense
is that we have to create space for people to live with their
contradictions. The poet Alice Walker says, and I quote from memory, "take
the contradictions of your life/ to wrap around you like a shawl/ to parry
stones/ and keep you warm."
If we can't do this with ourselves and others we force denial, and the
problem with denial is that it's worse than hypocrisy because it blind
people to truth. At least if you're not blinded to the truth you have the
possibility of getting your bearings.
I'd better go ... my wife's just back and it's late ... but I'm concerned
about this stuckness - in the media, even, I sense, on this forum, and I
wonder if you or others have reflection on this, or is there nothing else
that can be done but to sit with heads in the sand? Is that where we're at
in the human condition?
Alastair.
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion list for the Crisis Forum
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David Cromwell
Sent: 13 January 2011 18:30
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Record warming isn't news
Alastair asks of the BBC:
" What is going on in their science journalism?"
I'd remove the word "science" and just ask:
"What is going on in their journalism?"
Please forgive the plug, but see:
http://www.medialens.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=93&Ite
mid=51
And it's not just the BBC. It's the Guardian, the Independent, C4 News and
all the other news media we're supposed to regard as the most responsible.
David
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion list for the Crisis Forum
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Alastair McIntosh
Sent: 13 January 2011 18:20
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Record warming isn't news
You beat me to it, Bob. I had been watching out and was about to make the
same observation. What makes it all the stranger is that early today the BBC
had as the lead item on its science website evidence of climate change in
rainfall in the English uplands -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12151866 They've since
substituted a story about the Sun. Astonishing that they can miss out that
the last year was the world's warmest equal, and the world's wettest ever.
What is going on in their science journalism?
A
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion list for the Crisis Forum
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bob Ward
Sent: 13 January 2011 18:06
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Record warming isn't news
Apart from a small brief at the bottom of page 25 of today's edition of
'The Guardian', the UK media ignored the announcements yesterday by both
NASA and the US National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration that 2010
was tied with 2005 as the warmest year on record.
But it was picked up by the media in most of the rest of the world, even
in the United States, where 49 of the 50 states are currently under
snow.
So what's up with our media? I've had a whinge about it here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/13/uk-media-ignore-climat
e-change
Bob Ward
Policy and Communications Director
Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment
London School of Economics and Political Science
Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
http://www.lse.ac.uk/grantham
Tel. +44 (0) 20 7106 1236
Mob. +44 (0) 7811 320346
Please access the attached hyperlink for an important electronic
communications disclaimer: http://lse.ac.uk/emailDisclaimer
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