A State of Fear
This was an amazing novel by Michael Crichton. There was a section in it that rang a little true. Easy discussion topic.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15860.State_of_Fear
A sociology professor in the novel suggested that all the environmentalist scares (ozone hole, global warming, etc) began around the late 80s. The theory is that was the year the Berlin Wall fell, which ended the USSR and the threat of global nuclear annihilation. There was no longer a major fear gripping the western world. Apparently, the government and news media seems to need to operate on the basis of FEAR, not just in controlling populations but also selling widgets to the public.
I remember it was around the 1990s when Algore published "Earth In The Balance" (which by the way inspired the Unabomber). All the theories about global environmental catastrophe seemed to hatch around that era.
One of the biggest fear theories was global warming. Problem is, the environmentalist groups found it difficult to fund raise based on global warming. Seems like when winter came, people had trouble believing the planet was actually warming up.
Climate change replaced global warming because scare tactics like coastal flooding, more extreme weather and storms, etc, seemed to scare the public a lot quicker than worrying about the planet warming up. I can see a connection.
(Crichton also gave pop culture the Jurassic Park franchise. That was good for several high box office drawing movies.)
We've already had the traditional arguments about human fossil fuel use adding CO2 to the greenhouse gasses, changing the weather and warming the planet, versus water vapor being 97 percent of all greenhouse gasses.
The idea of selling fear is a new angle.
Again, it's from a work of fiction. Then again, Earth In The Balance wound up being a work in fiction as well.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15860.State_of_Fear
A sociology professor in the novel suggested that all the environmentalist scares (ozone hole, global warming, etc) began around the late 80s. The theory is that was the year the Berlin Wall fell, which ended the USSR and the threat of global nuclear annihilation. There was no longer a major fear gripping the western world. Apparently, the government and news media seems to need to operate on the basis of FEAR, not just in controlling populations but also selling widgets to the public.
I remember it was around the 1990s when Algore published "Earth In The Balance" (which by the way inspired the Unabomber). All the theories about global environmental catastrophe seemed to hatch around that era.
One of the biggest fear theories was global warming. Problem is, the environmentalist groups found it difficult to fund raise based on global warming. Seems like when winter came, people had trouble believing the planet was actually warming up.
Climate change replaced global warming because scare tactics like coastal flooding, more extreme weather and storms, etc, seemed to scare the public a lot quicker than worrying about the planet warming up. I can see a connection.
(Crichton also gave pop culture the Jurassic Park franchise. That was good for several high box office drawing movies.)
We've already had the traditional arguments about human fossil fuel use adding CO2 to the greenhouse gasses, changing the weather and warming the planet, versus water vapor being 97 percent of all greenhouse gasses.
The idea of selling fear is a new angle.
Again, it's from a work of fiction. Then again, Earth In The Balance wound up being a work in fiction as well.
