So what should we make of the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail editorial teams agreeing that Climate Change is caused by people and they agree with the scientific evidence? These are papers that have been serial publishers of committed climate change deniers like James Delingpole, yet now, quietly we’ve discovered they accept the evidence and the concerns.
What there now needs to be in these papers is a prominent editorial that makes clear to the readership that they were sceptical but that they were wrong, and that there is the need to accept the facts. There also needs to be a comment added at the start of all of the denial commentary pieces and stories with an update, making clear that this would not be published now.
We’ve seen with “Winterval” and other stories, the Daily Mail have demonstrated an extreme reluctance for an apology/clarification to be printed even when they have clearly been wrong, and still persist in linking to their version. As a result, the story has continued to be used to perpetuate the meme of “political correctness gone mad” and regularly been revived around social media.
The same risks remain while these Delingpole commentaries and Daily Mail “news” stories on climate remain. Sceptics will continue to trade off old stories as the source of new ones dries up. Blogs will be published passing off these old stories as evidence and used to continue to misinform the public.
While the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail’s new found respect for scientific evidence is to be welcomed, they have much further to go to repair the damage to their reputation and the delays they have helped to create in British society tackling Climate Change and its impacts. Our children and grandchildren deserve an apology and a real attempt to redress the harm they have done.
No comments:
Post a Comment