“If our readers thought we put climate change on our front pages for the same reason that porn mags put naked women on their front pages, they would stop reading us.”
–Ian Birrell, The Independent
They’ve certainly stopped reading, Ian, though I suspect this is because your rag has become what someone neatly described as “the Daily Mail for people who recycle” and you no longer seem interested in collecting factual information—“news gathering” as some newspapers call it. Putting naked women on the front page might be your last hope.
[Note: this post is not in the “Pseudoscience” category because I think all theories about climate change are pseudoscience, but because the Independent is happy to publish pseudoscience about climate change and many other things.]
11 Comments
Climate change is to The Independent what Lady Diana is to the Daily Express. The Independent have also been the worst of the upmarket newspapers in the UK over MMR vaccine - which is probably indicative of the standard of their scientific reporting.
Yes it’s sad to see the Independent, which was once my favourite paper, going down ever more down the tabloid tubes. Doubly sad because it still has some fine writing hidden away inside. It’s like watching an old friendly slowly dying from a terrible illness (which I’m sure the Indie would claim had been caused by wicked capitalist profit obsessed pharmaceutical companies or such like shock horror)
Et tu, Pooter? Don’t tell me you, too, feel it necessary to join the “climate change is not a problem” chorus just because there is some sort of statistical correlation between the set of people who are concerned about climate change and the set of people who apparently would like to see the entire world become an Islamist caliphate. I for example am well aware that people who hate a country I love, namely Israel, are typically more worried about climate change than people who support the country I love. It’s a strange thing about political attitudes that I haven’t figured out yet that political views come in pre-packaged sets, and very few people take bits out of different sets to form unique sets of their own. But just because my enemies over the “question” of Israel (WHAT question?!) are worried about climate change, that in itself shouldn’t and doesn’t make me any less worried about it – I judge the issue on its own merits, and I judge it to be a pressing worry.
Buy-a-Sphere, did you actually read the “Note”?
Science is hard. Modelling vast and complex systems involves some of the hardest science there is. This is a comedy blog. The last thing the World needs is for me to start being glib about climate change.
There’s nothing in my post that even suggests that I believe “climate change is not a problem”. As Lizzie points out, the note I added above was specifically designed to head off this kind of discussion.
Debunking bad science is another matter however, and I am perfectly happy to be glib and rude and flippant about the published output of the wilfully ignorant and irrational.
Buy-a-Sphere,
“It’s a strange thing about political attitudes that I haven’t figured out yet that political views come in pre-packaged sets, and very few people take bits out of different sets to form unique sets of their own.”
Partly, it’s a group thing. Also, it’s about people sense of themselves, and that gets transferred into political views. It’s a long and deep subject for a comment on someone else’s blog, though.
I have at various times opposed Israel while worrying about global warming, opposed Israel while thinking that global warming is total and utter bollocks, and supported Israel while thinking that global warming might be a problem after all (probably not in that order). Now, I support Israel and don’t think global warming is mankind’s fault and doubt that it’s a serious problem. I’m pretty sure I’m right these days. I believed some right crap in my youth. Even supported Labour.
Well I’d say the Independent is actually a little more than a jazz mag - a mastubation aid for those people who want to decry the “wicked” world and deludedly congratulate themselves for being oh so correct.
Lizzie and Pooter, you are absolutely right. I made a hasty assumption.
Does anyone remember when Private Eye used to refer to it as “The Indescribablyraunchy”
Hmmm, you could delete a big bit of that sentence so that it would say, “If our readers thought…they would stop reading us.” And it’d still be true.