MEDIA LANGUAGE ABOUT HURRICANE KATRINA ANALYSED

In an exclusive analysis by The Global Language Monitor, the worldwide media was found to abound in Apocalyptic-type terminology in its coverage of the unfolding disaster of Hurricane Katrina in the American Gulf States. Using its proprietary PQI (Predictive Quantities Indicator) algorithm, GLM found the ominous references to include: Disaster, Biblical, Global Warming, Hiroshima/Nuclear bomb, Catastrophe, Holocaust, Apocalypse, and End-of-the-World. "These alarmist references are coming across the spectrum of print and electronic media, and the internet," said Paul JJ Payack, president of GLM. "The world appears stunned that the only remaining super power has apparently been humbled, on its own soil, by the forces of nature."

The global media are mesmerized by the constant bombardment of television images of apparently rampaging, out-of-control elements, apparently in control of a good part of New Orleans, as well as the inability of the authorities to keep their own people fed, sheltered, evacuated, and, even, from dying on the street.

'Refugee vs. 'Evacuee': GLM's analysis found, for example, that the term for the displaced, refugees, that is usually associated with places like the Sudan and Afghanistan, appeared 5 times more frequently in the global media than the more neutral 'evacuees,' which was cited as racially motivated by some of the Black leadership. Accordingly, most of the major media outlets in the U.S. eliminated the usage of the word 'refugees' with a few exceptions, most notably, the New York Times.

The September 3 edition of The Times (London) has a story to illustrate the current state of affairs. The head: "Devastation that could send an area the size of England back to the Stone Age." The first 100 words sum up the pervasive mood found in the GLMs analysis of the Global Media.

"AMERICA comes to an end in Montgomery, Alabama. For the next 265 miles to the Gulf Coast, it has been replaced by a dangerous and paranoid post-apocalyptic landscape, short of all the things fuel, phones, water and electricity needed to keep the 21st century switched on. By the time you reach Waveland, Mississippi, the coastal town of 6,800 where corpses lie amid a scene of Biblical devastation, any semblance of modern society has gone. "

According to GLM's analysis, the most frequently used terms associated with Hurricane Katrina in the global media with examples follow. The terms are listed in order of relative frequency.

* Disaster -- The most common, and perhaps neutral, description. Literally 'against the stars' in Latin. Example: "Disaster bares divisions of race and class across the Gulf states". Toronto Globe and Mail.

* Biblical -- Used as an adjective. Referring to the scenes of death, destruction and mayhem chronicled in the Bible. " ...a town of 6,800 where corpses lie amid a scene of Biblical devastation". (The Times, London)

* Global Warming -- The idea that the hand of man was directly responsible for the catastrophe, as opposed to the more neutral climate change. "...German Environmental Minister Jrgen Trittin remains stolid in his assertion that Hurricane Katrina is linked to global warming and America's refusal to reduce emissions." (Der Spiegel)

* Hiroshima/Nuclear Destruction -- Fresh in the mind of the media, following the 60th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. "Struggling with what he calls Hurricane Katrina's nuclear destruction, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour shows the emotional strain of leading a state through a disaster of biblical proportions". (Associated Press).

* Catastrophe -- Sudden, often disastrous overturning, ruin, or undoing of a system. "In the Face of Catastrophe, Sites Offer Helping Hands". (Washington Post)

* Holocaust -- Because of historical association, the word is seldom used to refer to death brought about by natural causes. " December's Asian catastrophe should have elevated "tsunami" practically to the level of "holocaust" in the world vocabulary, implying a loss of life beyond compare and as callous as this might make us seem, Katrina was many things, but "our tsunami" she wasn't. (Henderson [NC] Dispatch)

* Apocalypse -- Referring to the prophetic visions of the imminent destruction of the world, as found in the Book of Revelations. " Call it apocalyptic. Whatever you want to call it, take your pick. There were bodies floating past my front door. " said Robert Lewis, who was rescued as floodwaters invaded his home. (Reuters)

* End of the World -- End-time scenarios which presage the Apocalypse. " "This is like time has stopped Its like the end of the world." (Columbus Dispatch)

Then there are those in the media linking Katrina with the direct intervention of the hand of an angry or vengeful God, though not necessarily aligned with Americas enemies. "The Terrorist Katrina is One of the Soldiers of Allah, But Not an Adherent of Al-Qaeda," was written by a high-ranking Kuwaiti official, Muhammad Yousef Al-Mlaifi, director of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Endowment's research center. It was published in Al-Siyassa. (Kuwait).

Source





ATMOSPHERIC METHANE PREVALENCE

Initial comment: Some people are beginning to realize that if we are going to blame global warming on gas emissions caused by humans, methane is actually a much more likely candidate than CO2. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas and is emitted in the course of many types of food production so with the huge rise in food production to feed the huge rise in human population over the last 100 years, we should all by frying by now according to Greenie logic. That we are not shows the importance of feedback mechanisms: Methane is readily oxidized (most of our gas stoves wouldn't work if it wasn't!) and CO2 is taken up by plants under photosynthesis. So we are beginning to see a few papers in response to that logic. One of them is below:

Unexpected Changes to the Global Methane Budget over the Past 2000 Years

By Ferretti et al.

We report a 2000-year Antarctic ice-core record of stable carbon isotope measurements in atmospheric methane (delta13CH4). Large delta13CH4 variations indicate that the methane budget varied unexpectedly during the late preindustrial Holocene (circa 0 to 1700 A.D.), . During the first thousand years (0 to 1000 A.D.), delta13CH4 was at least 2 per mil enriched compared to expected values, and during the following 700 years, an about 2 per mil depletion occurred. Our modeled methane source partitioning implies that biomass burning emissions were high from 0 to 1000 A.D. but reduced by almost plus or minus 40% over the next 700 years. We suggest that both human activities and natural climate change influenced preindustrial biomass burning emissions and that these emissions have been previously understated in late preindustrial Holocene methane budget research.

(The Doi (permanent) address for the full article above is here)

Below is a more plain-english summary of the same paper:

The atmospheric concentration of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, has risen from approximately 600 parts per billion (ppb) to more than 1700 ppb between 1750 and 2005 A.D., due mostly to a combination of biomass and fossil-fuel burning, land-use changes, and climate change. However, in the preindustrial past, human activity had a large impact on the global methane budget. Ferretti et al. (p. 1714) analyzed the isotopic composition of carbon in methane trapped in bubbles in a rapidly accumulating ice core from Antarctica. Large isotopic variations occurred between 1000 and 1700 A.D., despite the relatively stable atmospheric methane concentration during that time. They also found that the carbon-isotopic composition of preindustrial methane was much more depleted in the heavy isotope 13C than expected, especially during the period from 1 to 1000 A.D. They attribute these behaviors to changes in biomass burning emissions, driven by both climatic variation and human population dynamics.

Comment: So what the above study confirms is that, despite feedback mechanisms, methane concentrations HAVE increased in the industrial era -- almost trebled. Yet we are still not all frying to death! Why? A good question. It shows how dumb are simplistic theories about greenhouse gases. And the fact that there was a previous big rise in methane way back before the industrial era reinforces even more that much of what we supposedly "know" is actually guesswork.

On to another academic paper:

Rising Atmospheric CO2 Reduces Sequestration of Root-Derived Soil Carbon

By James Heath, Edward Ayres et al.

Forests have a key role as carbon sinks, which could potentially mitigate the continuing increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and associated climate change. We show that carbon dioxide enrichment, although causing short-term growth stimulation in a range of European tree species, also leads to an increase in soil microbial respiration and a marked decline in sequestration of root-derived carbon in the soil. These findings indicate that, should similar processes operate in forest ecosystems, the size of the annual terrestrial carbon sink may be substantially reduced, resulting in a positive feedback on the rate of increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration.

(The Doi (permanent) address for the full article above is here)

Comment: This paper is an experiment with CO2 feedback mechanisms. It shows that increased atmospheric CO2 is indeed taken up by trees -- stimulating their growth. It also shows, however, that this extra growth somehow liberates yet more CO2 from the soil. So the conclusion is that we cannot rely on trees to soak up extra CO2. The paper is appropriately cautious, however, in admitting that they have not reproduced real-life forest conditions and it would also appear that the authors have not explored the feedback mechanism very far. One might reasonably suppose that the amount of CO2 available in the soil is finite so the liberation of soil CO2 could drop off after a while and that ALL the extra CO2 should then be transferred into tree growth.

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Many people would like to be kind to others so Leftists exploit that with their nonsense about equality. Most people want a clean, green environment so Greenies exploit that by inventing all sorts of far-fetched threats to the environment. But for both, the real motive is to promote themselves as wiser and better than everyone else, truth regardless.

Global warming has taken the place of Communism as an absurdity that "liberals" will defend to the death regardless of the evidence showing its folly. Evidence never has mattered to real Leftists

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