Throbgoblins: Feeding the Hand That Bites You

Marc Roberts





















There's been a lot of debate lately about whether this or that extreme weather event - from China to Australia - is a symptom of Global Warming or merely a surprisingly large cluster of normal freak events. Are these disasters the last of the rare disasters or the first of the common disasters?

This seems to me to be like asking - whilst under violent assault - whether one's assailant is the familiar local nutter or a scout for the rampaging army of zombie psychopaths that are on their way to ravage your neighbourhood but at present are still some miles away enjoying a breakfast of griddled brains in a nearby town.

The fact of imminent zombie invasion should surely be focusing our minds rather better than it is. But the general consensus seems to be that, untill our shopping malls are actually being over run with slavering mutants, there is no need for any action that might interfere with the day's business.

Changing the lightbulbs in the mall isn't going to stop an army of zombies. We may need to choose a different battlefield.

Related Reading:
Throbgoblins: End Daze
Throbgoblins: Burning Man

3 comments

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C Robb W. 429°

I thought the zombies had already overrun the mall.

Written in February

Charles M. 110°

The other factor is globalised media and reporting. It is hard to know if there really are more events or we are just seeing more because very second person has a camera phone shooting video clips that they put on youtube etc.

I remember seeing a minor tsunami in Africa about 25 years ago. It was reported in the papers but there were no photos. These days there would be video clips and photos with TV channels each trying to out-hype each other and show more dramatic imagery.

So, instead of people seeing a once-in-a-lifetime event first hand they now get to see thousands of these events second hand. Video etc makes pretty good documentation that can be analysed by experts who can report that an event occurred (when previously they'd just have heard some unverifiable symptoms that they would be hrad pressed to classify as an event).

Making an apples to apples comparison with the past has got to be impossible.

Written in March

Marc Roberts (anonymous)

True. Very much like crime statistics, the reporting numbers can indicate chaos were none exists. This problem also surfaces with the tendency for media to "balance" AGW stories with over-represented denialist counter interpretations - giving the impression that there is more doubt than there actually is.

Written in March

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  • Posted on Feb. 19, 2009. Listed in:

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