Last night, I tagged a story at 27B Stroke 6 and added the note, "It just never stops with these guys..."
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Chance (IPCC) today released a frightening summary (.pdf) of its latest report on climate change, predicting flood, drought and a host of biblical trouble that could wreak havoc on the planet in coming years. You can be sure that the 20-page summary is about as far into the report as most policymakers will get, which is why governmental delegates were meddling with it up to the last minute. Reuters quotes Neil Adger, one of the report's lead authors, as saying: "Very blatant vested interests are trying to stop particular messages getting out."
We're pointed to a pre-dawn press briefing on the report by Dr. Sharon Hays, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Jim Connaughton, Chairman, White House Council on Environmental Quality.
There was a reason why this was a pre-dawn briefing and Hays opened up with it. "I want to give you a little bit of background on the report," Hays told reporters, "Go over some of what I consider to be the key findings, since I realize that many of you probably haven't seen the report itself, and then we'll open it up to questions."
In other words, "I want to tell you what this report says before you've seen it." No better way to spin something -- which she does pretty quickly. "I think there's a couple of additional facts to note," she told reporters, "In terms of this projection of this range of future impacts, including the fact that not all projected impacts are negative."
Of course not. Just think of the boom coming for the ice cold smoothie industry. Why, climate change is a positive boon for mankind...
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