Environmental Talk

Needs to write a global warming novel ….

There’s a new book out by two British authors entitled, Scared to Death: From BSE to Global Warming: Why Scares are Costing Us the Earth.

The book covers a number of scares that have occurred over the past two decades including salmonella in eggs, the Y2K Millennium Bug, bird flu and global warming. Authors Christopher Booker and Richard North conclude that there are five stages every scare goes through.

Some famous lady (whose name I should know but don’t), came up with a similar classification for the seven stages in dealing with death. If I recall correctly the first five were anger, denial, pride, gluttony and sloth. The last two were acquittal and collecting the insurance money.

Or something like that.

Booker and North have written a book outlining the five stages of a good scare. Scares usually start off with a random correlation that becomes fodder for a plausibly catastrophic story. Stage two occurs when the story is elevated, through some kind of publicity, to what the authors refer to as a “ruling orthodoxy.”

In the case of global warming, the formation of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) marked the beginning of the rapid rise of global warming as a mainstream media issue.

Stage three is characterized by governments committing to taking formal action. In the case of global warming, the authors cite the Kyoto Accord as a sign post the world had entered this phase.

The massive redirection of resources is a hallmark of stage four of a scare. Many governments have ratified the Kyoto Accord and are taking action. Schools, local government and international organizations are all urging ever more drastic actions.

Stage five of a scare is usually when people calm down, look back and wonder why they were so scared of an over-hyped fairy tale. Obviously, we’re not at that stage yet.

The say those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it. If you’re dealing with an ex-girlfriend, she may repeat it a whole bunch of times to her friends. This can happen even if the “problem” only occurred one time and even if that one time she got a really nice back rub out of the deal.

But I digress.

In addition to a fresh perspective, Scared to Death, reveals some new details you probably didn’t know about the various scares. Al Gore has often mentioned studying under renowned oceanographer Dr. Roger Revelle. What you won’t here mentioned as frequently are Gore’s attempts to “suppress an article co-authored by Dr Revelle just before his death. Gore didn’t want it to be known that his guru had urged that the global warming thesis should be viewed with more caution.”

Maybe this book won’t change anyone’s mind about global warming, but the authors’ thesis that there’s nothing new under the sun when it comes to scaring people is an attempt to lend some historical perspective to an hysterical debate.

global warming, climate change, Scared to Death, Christopher Booker, Richard North, Al Gore, Roger Revelle, history, scares, Y2K, Millennium Bug, seven stages of dealing with death