Wednesday, July 11, 2007

How to read a New York Times article on AGW

A July 11 New York Times article begins this way:
One-hundred-year floods could come as often as once every 10 years by the end of this century, Long Island lobsters could disappear and New York apples could be just a memory if nothing is done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report on the impact of global warming by the Union of Concerned Scientists.
As soon as you see that the dire warnings are coming from the Union of Concerned Scientists, you can relax and move on to something else. The UCS has long been a front for the radical environmental left. Whatever their report is about (note that it's released via press conference, not published in any kind of scientific journal), the topic they want us to be alarmed about is usually peppered with extreme, TEOTWAWKI predictions.

You can read the entire NYT article if you like (or the UCS report itself, if you wish). Just be sure to understand the ideological context in which the authors write.