Monday, 3 November 2008

Shouting fire on a crowded planet.

The Manchester Evening News leads today with something that ... isn't bleeding!
The headline reads “Firmen sent to Greece for 'climate change' training.

The story, and the comments on the website, all focus on it being a junket/a waste of money.

No-one seems to be focussing on the hypocrisy angle. These guys go off on a climate change- related course and get to where they're going by, er, flying. It's not mentioned whether they bought carbon offsets, but so what, those things are largely a scam anyhow.

Sigh.

The MEN is owned by the Guardian Media Group. It, and other newspapers, are dependent upon advertising for their operating costs and profits. The most reliable advertisers are often the most carbon-intensive- airlines and car-makers. But to say there's any self-censorship would be pure conspiracy-theory....

1 comment:

Steve Connor said...

I was pretty enraged by the front page story about the firemen - but mainly because I reckon it's the first time we've seen climate change on the front page, it just needed a bogus 'junket' news hook to get it there! In their defence I can see every reason for the fire service to attend this course: in the outlying reaches of Greater Manchester and up onto the moors, the risk of large-scale fires courtesy of climate change is very real and very dangerous.

One project we worked on recently put the cost of an upland fire at £65,000 to extinguish - before you even count the cost of closing the M62! So I for one think the fire service deserve credit for recognising the need to do some long range thinking and get ready to adapt to some of the climate-related changes that lie ahead.

And yes, I know, they flew.