Forget repetition, when it comes to climate change we need visualisation

With global warming perhaps we need constant repetition. When the media keep pretending day after day that something is news by giving constant updates it is bound to eventually get into the public’s mind that the information is important. If it was not so why would they keep telling us about it?

Thus the vague view that most people have that the level of the stock exchange index today compared with yesterday or last week or last year or 10 years ago actually matters. Ditto for the foreign exchange rate or the official interest rate. Newspapers, radio and television keep giving daily reports on them all. Therefore, QED, we should be pleased or worried about them.

Complete nonsense really. The figures reported so breathlessly on the hour every hour every day indicate nothing of value to ordinary people. The main reason they began being reported was to fill in the media’s insatiable desire for regular content.

Only with the dull thud of repetition have they become factors in the political process where a rising value of the Australian dollar against the US dollar is portrayed as a sign of national strength rather than as a symbol of a social change that will force the closure of Australian factories with a consequent loss of manufacturing jobs. The idea that things that go up are good while things that go down are bad is too deeply ingrained for the truth to be realised.

This power of repeating a basic, if sometimes irrelevant, message is something that the worriers about climate change have not yet realised. These good and earnest people can repeat all they like their generalised warnings about the dangers of rising world temperatures but it means nothing when the public do not have it rammed home to them regularly in a way that is easily understood.

What is needed is a picture to appear alongside the the daily media weather reports that illustrates what is happening to global temperatures. A daily version of something like this:

Now I know that some of the experts in the field of climate change measurement have some reservations about this particular daily chart but to me it is something like this that that they can agree on that all of them should be lobbying to have appear every day throughout the world alongside the weather map

It is only when ordinary voters are persuaded that global warming is a reality that politicians will be prepared to take the actions necessary to prevent it.

Obama on Murdoch and Fox. A quote for the day from an interview with President Barack Obama to be published in the October 15 edition of Rolling Stone:

The golden age of an objective press was a pretty narrow span of time in our history. Before that, you had folks like Hearst who used their newspapers very intentionally to promote their viewpoints. I think Fox is part of that tradition — it is part of the tradition that has a very clear, undeniable point of view. It’s a point of view that I disagree with.

It’s a point of view that I think is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country that has a vibrant middle class and is competitive in the world. But as an economic enterprise, it’s been wildly successful. And I suspect that if you ask Mr. Murdoch what his number-one concern is, it’s that Fox is very successful.

An example of the Murdoch style. Five potential Republican presidential candidates are employed by Fox News as contributors or hosts and have made at least 269 appearances on the cable channel — compared to a total of six appearances on all other major news channels combined.

The Media Matters for America website records that Mike Huckabee, the former Governor of Arkansas and 2008 GOP presidential candidate who hosts his own Fox News show, appeared on Fox News 96 times through September 18.

Fox News contributor Rick Santorum, a one-time Republican Senator from Pennsylvania appeared 52 times, and former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich has appeared 48 times on Fox News so far this year.

Sarah Palin, the party’s vice presidential nominee in 2008, appeared 37 times, while Bush’s U.N. ambassador John Bolton appeared 36 times.

Some twittering jokes. The Irish Times reports that a 41-year-man who drove a concrete truck into the gates of Leinster House, Dublin, overnight has quickly gained plenty of supporters.

The truck, which displayed slogans on its side saying “Toxic Bank Anglo”, “€1,000,000 on golf balls” and “€500K for golf” and with the vehicle registration number changed to “bankrupt” caused little actual damage but the driver was taken to Pearse Street Garda station under section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984 where a garda spokesman said the station had received numerous calls from members of the public with the vast majority offering congratulations and support for the man.

Twitterers were also quickly active.

The Irish Times provided these examples of what it called the Best of ‘Cementgate’ from Twitter:

• johnfoley: “In what’s seen as concrete move the construction industry cements their relationship with government”
• colmtobin “Finally, the government have some concrete plans.
• ConorWilson: “Good to see constructive protest. They’ll be able to build on this”
• ConorLambert “Maybe Cowen ordered a mixer for the whole cabinet!!”
• waterychestnut: “So you get arrested if you crash a truck into the Dail but not if you crash the entire economy?”
• Littlesapling: “Demise of present government now written in (Road)Stone”
• EleanorFitz: “In the wake of #cementgate Dail rushes to release statement assuring the public that no TDs were plastered.”
• JODedia: “That’s not what i meant when i said i wanted a mixer to go with me jameson”