lalala..warmest may on record..lalala

[code twinkle]

Buried inside the IT today - between a piece on SIPTU calling on the Government to do more to promote employment in construction and one on the status of EU spouse's comes the Apocalyptic news that this month's May was the warmest on record, forming part of the continuing trend of global warming. That'd be the global warming that will literally lead to all our deaths.

The wee lil article goes on to tell us that indeed "overall, mean air temperatures during this year's spring months were between a half and one degree above normal almost everywhere". (that'd be further confirmation that we're all going to die and we're going to take the planet down with us).

I don't mean to be alarmist but, really, one does wonder about today's news values... surely putting evidence of our pending armageddon on the front page would sell a few extra papers? no?

[White Horse]

If "global warming" leads to more May's like this one, bring it on.

[ballot stuffer]

These headlines scream confirmation bias.

[Pidge]

These headlines scream confirmation bias.

They do.

[code twinkle]

These headlines scream confirmation bias.

They do.

what does that mean?

[joemomma]

A hot month in one part of the globe is not in itself evidence of global warming, so the Irish Times were right not to play it up. There is however no shortage of evidence of global warming and the Irish media, including the Irish Times, have been slow to accord the issue its rightful place.

[code twinkle]

A hot month in one part of the globe is not in itself evidence of global warming, so the Irish Times were right not to play it up. There is however no shortage of evidence of global warming and the Irish media, including the Irish Times, have been slow to accord the issue its rightful place.

I didn't quote it but Aidan Nulty is cited in the article as saying that ""What we can say is that the figures for May are an indication of a longer trend that has been going on since the early 1990s - that temperatures are rising globally."

I personally get an immediate visceral reaction of fear in response to every new record I read about (which frankly I would argue is only reasonable in the face of my pending ballsed-up future as a species) but what I take exception to re the coverage is that if Osama bin laden had just issued some kind of threat or Iran had said it wants to wipe out Israel it would be accorded a much higher media rating even though these dangers are far less likely to actually happen, and are far less likely to have a global impact. The media can create collective public fear and often does with no aim other than to sell papers, yet the one time when abit of collective anxiety needs to be generated, the papers play it all lowkey!

[sackville]

[quote=code twinkle]

These headlines scream confirmation bias.

They do.

what does that mean?[/quote:3cd608s9]

It means they believe their horoscopes too!

[Pidge]

[quote=code twinkle]

These headlines scream confirmation bias.

They do.

what does that mean?[/quote:3nmj68fq]
It means that people are more likely to point to what might well be random weather events as being evidence of a broader trend. A single, local warmer month isn't evidence of climate change. A global warmer decade is, when viewed as part of a trend.

[Aindriu]

Hey it's raining today. Does that mean I need to start building an ark?

We get a few days warm weather and all the global warming ar$oles come out the woodwork