New York Times chastises Gore & alarmists

The year 2008 is starting as in a very cold fashion. For example, the total sea ice anomaly is suddenly +1 million squared kilometers - there is much more ice in the world today than what is normal for the New Year.

Record cold temperatures and record snowfalls are being set throughout the world. In a few days, you may learn more details about the cold year 2007, too. I also plan a rather detailed summary of theoretical physics in 2007.

But back to the main topic of this short posting.

The New York Times has just sharply criticized Al Gore and other alarmists:

John Tierney: In 2008, a 100 percent chance of alarm
Bonus: TierneyLab I, II

If you want to get an idea about this great article, here is the last paragraph:

“In the last few months,” Mr. Gore said, “it has been harder and harder to misinterpret the signs that our world is spinning out of kilter.” But he was being too modest. Thanks to availability entrepreneurs like him, misinterpreting the weather is getting easier and easier.

Well, I won't hide that John Tierney has been my favorite NYT columnist for quite some time, partially due to his attitude to feminism and its influence on science, to the teaching of history, and other issues.

In his newest column, he explains how the "availability entrepreneurs" selectively search for evidence, repeat it, and hype it in order to deform the public opinion. We have talked about similar issues many times, e.g. in the context of amplification of opinions and the marketing of pseudosciences.