Shock! Climate change expert favors hyping global warming threat

Jul 15, 2009 12:14 EDT

This bit from an  interview with Nobel Prize-winning economist and climate change worrier Thomas Schelling is a stunner (bold is mine):

Well I do think that one of the difficulties is that most of the beneficiaries [of fighting climate change ] aren’t yet born. More than that: Most of the beneficiaries will be born in what we now call the developing world. By 2080 or 2100 five-sixths of the population, at least, will be in places like China, India, Indonesia, Africa and so forth.  …  It’s a tough sell. And probably you have to find ways to exaggerate the threat. And you can in fact find ways to make the threat serious.

13 comments so far

Shock! Pethokoukis didn’t get past the sixth sentence of Schelling’s reply to the first interview question.

- Posted by Moe Badderman

Alot of garbage in this article, we all know Global Warming is bologey anyhow

- Posted by Ian

Shock! Pethokoukis totally misrepresented the point Schelling was making in the interview and then twisted the headline to satisfy his simplistic right wing agenda.

- Posted by Kramer

Al Gore said in an 2006 interview with the online magazine Grist: “I believe it is appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presentations on how dangerous [global warming] is, as a predicate for opening up the audience to listen to what the solutions are, and how hopeful it is that we are going to solve this crisis.”

- Posted by Jack Stephens

As they say in academia, No hype = No funding! So hype away on the cause de jour Schelling — swill your champagne, eat your caviar, and congratulate yourself on a job well done! James – good work!

- Posted by De Jour

“Alot of garbage in this article, we all know Global Warming is bologey anyhow”
- Posted by Ian

Everyone except a massive scientific consensus, apparently:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_ opinion_on_climate_change

But what have scientists ever done for the world anyway, right?

- Posted by John Haythorn

Scientists are becomming more like statisticians. If they are on your side, they can produce whatever you want.

- Posted by Dakota

Everything (even the truth) has to be P.R.ed and massaged for the media to even pick up and run. Policitians do it to get their point across. So do doctors when trying to educate the public on a growing health issue (like STDs or obesity). Of course scientists are going to have to put some spin on climate change so that the uneducated masses pay attention.

- Posted by Moya

This from those wonderful people who can’t predict the weather three days in advance.

- Posted by Bob Makin

“This from those wonderful people who can’t predict the weather three days in advance.”
- Posted by Bob Makin

I think you are confusing Meteorology with Climatology – two very distinct scientific disciplines. Google to find out the differences and/or read this link.
http://www.weather.com/blog/weather/8_78 77.html

- Posted by John Haythorn

[...] The threat of climate change has to be hyped. (Hat Tip: James Pethokoukis.) [...]

- Posted by Obama v. Time

[...] The threat of climate change has to be hyped. (Hat Tip: James Pethokoukis.) [...]

- Posted by race42008.com » Blog Archive » Podcast: Obama v. Time

[...] The threat of climate change has to be hyped. (Hat Tip: James Pethokoukis.) [...]

- Posted by Podcast: Obama v. Time - adamsweb’s blog - RedState web01.prod.theplanet.eaglepub.com 174.120.27.221

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