It's how we are governed

Philip Patrick has an interesting TCW piece on global shifts in climate scepticism.

At last, sceptics are shunning the climate scaremongers

A HUGE international survey measuring public concern about the threat of climate change appears to indicate growing scepticism across the globe.

The Gallup Risk Poll, which questioned 125,000 people in 121 countries, reported that less than half of those surveyed saw anthropogenic climate change as a very serious threat. There is now, it appears, a consensus of sceptics.

The most sceptical countries in the survey were China, where only 20 per cent view climate change as a clear and present danger, the Middle East and North Africa (27 per cent) and South East Asia (39 per cent). At the other end of the spectrum was the US, where ‘climate change awareness’ has grown, albeit slightly, since the survey was last undertaken.

Interesting in that it reinforces something we already know – the effectiveness of climate change propaganda is regional rather than global. 

And Professor Neil Ferguson may have done climate sceptics a huge favour by permanently discrediting the use of computer-based modelling informing government policy, as exemplified by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Seems unlikely to me. Too many people are not natural sceptics and are not inclined to spend significant amounts of time checking and testing the basis of their assumptions.

If one good thing ever comes out of the last two and a half years, it is a return of healthy scepticism in the face of a relentless monotonous government/media barrage pushing one narrative and brooking no dissent. This survey appears to show evidence of such a renaissance. Some would say it’s not before time.

This outcome, though desirable, also seems unlikely. Narratives of doom are intended to be plausible and manipulative, not true. They are more likely to morph into other, equally plausible, equally manipulative narratives. It’s how we are governed.