On this day, December 25 in 1989 the business press ran one of the first (of countless) bullshit articles saying that concern about global warming was a “panic”.
The usual cherry-picking and getting react quotes from various contrarians, all wrapped up with basic condescension, and just enough actual facts to make it all seem plausible.
Am not going to quote from it. Life is (really) too short.
Brookes, W. (1989) “The Global Warming Panic” Forbes, December 25: 96-102
[The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 351ppm. At time of writing it was 419ishppm- but for what it is now,well, see here for the latest.]
The context was this –
The “pushback” against concern on climate change was growing. Corporate interests were realising that this was a threat that needed combatting. Outlets like Forbes, read by the CEOs and wanna-be CEOs, needed to provide coherent-seeming, professional seeming pieces, that studiously avoided, oh, any mention of how the atmospheric scientists had been right about ozone, for example.
Why this matters.
The doubt and denial campaigns began in 1989, and picked up speed. We need to remember that. Those who planned and implemented these should be in front of some international tribunal for crimes against humanity and ecocide. But won’t be, of course.
What happened next?
More nonsense, more “Global Climate Coalition” etc.
See tomorrow’s post…