I keep checking, but today is not April 1st:
In the Fox News universe, the world is definitely not warming. Quite the opposite: Climate change is “bunk,” a spectacular hoax perpetrated on the rest of us by a cabal of corrupt scientists. But while embracing climate skepticism may be good for ratings, the execs at Fox News’ parent company, News Corp., don’t see it as good for the long-term bottom line. By the end of this year, News Corp. aims to go carbon neutral — meaning that the home of über-global warming denialists like Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck may soon be one of the greener multinational corporations around.
News Corp. announced its plan in May 2007 with a groundbreaking speech from chairman Rupert Murdoch. “Climate change poses clear, catastrophic threats,” declared Murdoch. “We may not agree on the extent, but we certainly can’t afford the risk of inaction.” Formerly skeptical about global warming, Murdoch was reportedly converted by a presentation from Al Gore — whom Fox News commentators have described as “nuts” and “off his lithium” — and by his green-leaning son James, who is expected to inherit his business empire.
But Murdoch wasn’t acting out of altruism. For News Corp., he said, the move was “simply good business.” (Fox News barely mentioned the boss’ remarks.)
Murdoch’s logic was that higher energy costs are inevitable, given coming carbon regulations and dwindling supplies of conventional fuels such as oil. So why not get ahead of the game? “Whatever [going carbon neutral] costs will be minimal compared to our overall revenues,” the media mogul has remarked, “and we’ll get that back many times over.”
Incentives matter then. Perhaps after hell freezes over and unfreezes back again some of that action will filter down to the discourse?
Incentives matter, it seems. Perhaps after hell freezes over and unfreezes back again there will be a chance some of that will filter down to the actual discourse?
Sorry for the double posting. The spam filter insisted 6+7 wasn’t 13, for some reason – and then actually posted the reply…
Oops … I must have left the spam filter in “Fox News” mode.
If hell can freeze and unfreeze, I guess that implies that it has a low heat capacity compared to the underlying heat of earth’s core and stochastic variation in hellfire. So, I guess that makes this weather, not climate, and we shouldn’t draw any conclusions.
What are you two, some kind of liberal eco-Nazis? Or maybe worse, Socialists?
By the way, were you aware that Linkedin has EMOTICONS? 🙂 🙁