[Dean's World] Dave Price: All Roads Lead To Rome

[notify at powerblogs.com]

Posted by Dave Price:
All Roads Lead To Rome
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1193198004.shtml


   Or, [1]in this case, home.
   Other times, though, they all seem to point [2]toward Kyoto.

     âOne reason why we have the fires in California is global warming,â
     Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters Tuesday,
     stressing the need to pass the Democratsâ comprehensive energy
     package.
     Moments later, when asked by a reporter if he really believed
     global warming caused the fires, he appeared to back away from his
     comments, saying there are many factors that contributed to the
     disaster.

   Another of the odd and telling similarities between Iraq coverage and
   global warming coveraqe is the heavy, anti-empirical emphasis on bad
   news. Stories about deaths projected from global warming are much more
   common than those about lives saved, even though the latter by many
   estimates is larger.
   As with Iraq, I don't think this is entirely driven by the media's
   political bias; there is a bias for prioritizing bad news over good in
   human nature, a product of our inherited evolutionary psychology: the
   more paranoid early humans, living in a dangerous environment as they
   did, were more likely to survive and reproduce, and so they're the
   ones we're descended from.
   This does mean that while the media is giving us what we want, we're
   often getting a too-pessimistic view of events. Remember the reports
   of cannibalism and piles of corpses after Katrina? Why do most
   Americans think we're in a recession, but say their own personal
   financial situation is better? If you want to arrive at truth, it's
   best to always keep in mind that your conclusions can only be as
   objective as your view of the data.

References

   1. http://ace.mu.nu/archives/244368.php
   2. http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/wildfires-get-personal-for-lawmakers-2007-10-24.html