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Monday 7 March 2011

Climate Change – Facing Both Ways

The debate over the effects of man-made climate change rages on, and is becoming increasingly polarised, particularly those claiming it isn’t happening. But a new phenomenon has appeared in the tabloid press, that of playing both sides of the issue. This is exemplified by the obedient hackery of the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre at the Daily Mail.

Last December, as the UK suffered a cold snap, came a long article telling how global warming hadhalted”. This was headlined as “the truth”, a term that in the world of the Mail is invariably flexible. In support of this assertion was a pundit from well known denialist lobby group The Global Warming Policy Foundation.

So the Mail appears to be firmly against the idea of global warming: the hack they employed to write this hatchet job, David Rose, has after all got form on the issue (debunked by Unity at Liberal Conspiracy HERE), so Dacre would have been well aware of the tenor of the piece before it was written.

But what a difference three months makes: today, under the by-line of “Daily Mail Reporter”, comes the shock horror ofTerrifying new pictures reveal how Britain’s cities could be devastated by flood water”. Among the maps and photos showing what might happen in a worst case scenario, a Government minister talks of “Extreme weather and rising sea levels” [my emphasis].

How you get rising sea levels without the global warming that the same paper is trying to rubbish is not addressed. A case of never mind the consistency, keep frightening the readers into buying our dubiously argued copy.

No change there, then.

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