Fun with Fox
FoxNews has an article by Steven Milloy of JunkScience.com. In the article, a few things happen. We're told the Kyoto protocol is very expensive -- $150 billion a year -- for remarkably little yield, with a less than 1 degree Celsius temperature drop by the year 2050. Mr. Milloy calls this a "global economic suicide pact." In fact, it seems to me that Stevie has dedicated an awful lot of his website to Global Warming. If I were Freudian, I might see this obsession as a sign of sexual insecurity. Thank God I'm not Freudian, eh?
Let's examine Mr. Milloy's position for a moment. The main case he makes in the article, before throwing out his straw-man Michael Mann, is that the Kyoto Protocol is "economic suicide." Why? Because the global initiative will cost $100 trillion before the temperature is changed by even a single degree celsius!
Mr. Milloy says a few things in the bits of his writing that lead me to believe I have his political stance pretty pegged. For one, his article appeared on the FoxNews website. He uses phrases like "the mainstream but actively Left-leaning media." (Hint number two.) His argument also flies in the face of science and common sense. Strike three -- dude's a Conservative. While this in itself isn't necessarily a bad thing, the sort of Conservative he is -- the ignore-facts-and-hope-they-go-away variety -- is a particularly annoying breed.
To waste some time, let's take a look at a few facts, here...
The Cost -- $150 billion a year is a lot of money. And it doesn't even include the $5 billion spent in the US on global warming and alternative energy research! I mean, if it did, that'd add up to, like, $155 billion! What an absurd amount of money. Until you consider, y'know, that the cost is global. And a complete guess.
To put it in perspective: the US is spending some $150 billion (a conservative guesstimate) alone on the War in Iraq -- just for funsies! We didn't even have to bomb the fuck out of this country. Imagine how much we'd be spending if Saddam was melting the polar icecaps.
A global cost -- which is what I've gathered his arbitrary amount is -- that includes some 140 nations is bothering the guy? In a nation that spends over $10 billion on video games, another $10 billion on porn, and some $213 billion in "sports business" annually, it has been decreed by Mr. Milloy that spending 1/140th of $150 billion is absolute stupidity.
The Facts -- Why deny global warming? I mean, you can't deny it -- not without denying things like "fact" and "reasoning." Global warming is happening. And we're largely to blame.
You can come up with several reasons for opposition to the Kyoto Protocol -- Norm Dixon did. He didn't argue against global warming itself, even starting his article by saying of greenhouse gas reduction, "there is now no doubt that such action is needed urgently." His argument is instead that Kyoto isn't strict enough. And, when you think about what's at stake, he's probably right.
Says Dixon, "In 2001, the 2500 scientists from around 100 countries who make up the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that, unless greenhouse gas levels are stabilized, Earth's average temperature will rise by up to 5.8EC by the end of the century." Nearly a six degree rise over the next century. While this doesn't sound like a whole lot, remember that dramatic changes -- such as melting icecaps and dwindling animal populations -- are already happening. A constant 6 degree rise in temperature could be devastating -- and that's just within the next century (which I'm hoping to live to see). Look at it this way: according to the BBC, a 3-5 degree Celsius climb would increase malaria cases by an estimated 50-80 million cases a year. Malaria, if you didn't know, is bad.
For a little more information, go here. It has bright colors and games. Super fun.
The Straw Man -- Milloy doesn't try to refute the validity of Global Warming claims in his article. He doesn't discuss alternatives to Kyoto. He doesn't really explain anything in the article. But one thing he does tell us -- hockey stick graphs are bad.
Instead of framing an effective argument, instead of relying on science and detailing his objections in a rational manner, Milloy instead takes a single person -- Michael Mann -- and acts as if his actions were indicative of the rest of the scientists in his field. He creates this pharmakos, unloads the sins of the left on him and skewers the man for, um... not doing what he was told! This, boys and girls, is a standard straw man argument. Marvel at the impotence.
Criticizing FoxNews articles, I think, has officially become my new hobby.
Let's examine Mr. Milloy's position for a moment. The main case he makes in the article, before throwing out his straw-man Michael Mann, is that the Kyoto Protocol is "economic suicide." Why? Because the global initiative will cost $100 trillion before the temperature is changed by even a single degree celsius!
Mr. Milloy says a few things in the bits of his writing that lead me to believe I have his political stance pretty pegged. For one, his article appeared on the FoxNews website. He uses phrases like "the mainstream but actively Left-leaning media." (Hint number two.) His argument also flies in the face of science and common sense. Strike three -- dude's a Conservative. While this in itself isn't necessarily a bad thing, the sort of Conservative he is -- the ignore-facts-and-hope-they-go-away variety -- is a particularly annoying breed.
To waste some time, let's take a look at a few facts, here...
The Cost -- $150 billion a year is a lot of money. And it doesn't even include the $5 billion spent in the US on global warming and alternative energy research! I mean, if it did, that'd add up to, like, $155 billion! What an absurd amount of money. Until you consider, y'know, that the cost is global. And a complete guess.
To put it in perspective: the US is spending some $150 billion (a conservative guesstimate) alone on the War in Iraq -- just for funsies! We didn't even have to bomb the fuck out of this country. Imagine how much we'd be spending if Saddam was melting the polar icecaps.
A global cost -- which is what I've gathered his arbitrary amount is -- that includes some 140 nations is bothering the guy? In a nation that spends over $10 billion on video games, another $10 billion on porn, and some $213 billion in "sports business" annually, it has been decreed by Mr. Milloy that spending 1/140th of $150 billion is absolute stupidity.
The Facts -- Why deny global warming? I mean, you can't deny it -- not without denying things like "fact" and "reasoning." Global warming is happening. And we're largely to blame.
You can come up with several reasons for opposition to the Kyoto Protocol -- Norm Dixon did. He didn't argue against global warming itself, even starting his article by saying of greenhouse gas reduction, "there is now no doubt that such action is needed urgently." His argument is instead that Kyoto isn't strict enough. And, when you think about what's at stake, he's probably right.
Says Dixon, "In 2001, the 2500 scientists from around 100 countries who make up the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that, unless greenhouse gas levels are stabilized, Earth's average temperature will rise by up to 5.8EC by the end of the century." Nearly a six degree rise over the next century. While this doesn't sound like a whole lot, remember that dramatic changes -- such as melting icecaps and dwindling animal populations -- are already happening. A constant 6 degree rise in temperature could be devastating -- and that's just within the next century (which I'm hoping to live to see). Look at it this way: according to the BBC, a 3-5 degree Celsius climb would increase malaria cases by an estimated 50-80 million cases a year. Malaria, if you didn't know, is bad.
For a little more information, go here. It has bright colors and games. Super fun.
The Straw Man -- Milloy doesn't try to refute the validity of Global Warming claims in his article. He doesn't discuss alternatives to Kyoto. He doesn't really explain anything in the article. But one thing he does tell us -- hockey stick graphs are bad.
Instead of framing an effective argument, instead of relying on science and detailing his objections in a rational manner, Milloy instead takes a single person -- Michael Mann -- and acts as if his actions were indicative of the rest of the scientists in his field. He creates this pharmakos, unloads the sins of the left on him and skewers the man for, um... not doing what he was told! This, boys and girls, is a standard straw man argument. Marvel at the impotence.
Criticizing FoxNews articles, I think, has officially become my new hobby.
posted by Damion at 2/22/2005 10:50:00 PM
1 Comments:
To Sir with Love -- This FoxNews criticism thing is fun as hell. I feel a bit guilty, though, what with the relative ease of it all... but I'm still considering making it a regular feature. "FoxNews Fridays" has a ring to it, I think.
Has it been done before?
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