On this day, December15 in 2009 those galaxy brains at the Daily Express ran a front cover “100 reasons why global warming is natural.”
Pricks.
[The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 387ppm. At time of writing it was 419ishppm- but for what it is now,well, see here for the latest.]
The context was this –
The newspapers at this point were full of stories about climate change because the Copenhagen COP15 conference was underway and since 2006, a wave of climate activism and legislation had been happening. The Daily Express readers wanted to be able to dismiss it all as just another green hoax- god forbid it turned out that the hippies and the eco nuts were actually right. That would cause mental anguish in the tiny brains of Express readers.
Why this matters.
We need to remember just how how stupid and irresponsible the popular press has been on the question of climate change (for well understood reasons – grok the Propaganda Model of Herman and Chomsky).
What happened next?
The Daily Express has continued to be a newspaper by and for idiots.