A couple of weeks ago I received an email, just now read, that caught my eye. I shall reproduce the important part and summarize the balance:
50 Pics That Sum Up The Hell On Earth That Is Taking Place In Australia
One of the prima donna actresses in the big awards show was running her mouth off about this being caused by Climate Change. They never pass up a chance to run their mouth. The last I heard they had arrested 43 arsonists responsible for this carnage. If ever there was a reason for public executions this would be it.
Followed by numerous heart-rending pictures.
Notice how nonchalantly climate change is dismissed. This sleight-of-hand paragraph evokes the natural emotional response to Hell, the loathing the conservative has for those darn Hollywood liberals, associates climate change with that loathing, reinforces it, then provides a replacement, and far more immediate, reason for the wildfires, and then seals the deal with a reference to public executions.
The problem, of course, is that the replacement wildfire origin doesn’t work as a dismissal of climate change, now does it? Sure, arsonists start fires. But do most fires run rampant like this?
No.
They need an environment that is tinder-dry. This paragraph doesn’t provide the context that Australia has been hotter every summer for years, and that drought has been a problem – and it’s quite plausible, if not proven, to conclude that a chronic pattern such as that could be driven by climate change.
It’s interesting how emotion is used to invoked “common sense”, often associated with rationality, in an attempt to discredit a scientifically accepted fact. It really leaves the observer wondering what the author of this missive thinks will be the final result if they are successful – do they really think that this is all a hoax?
