Here’s a letter to the Wall Street Journal; the same itch to stir-up hysteria and to fear-monger also drove much ‘reporting’ on covid:
Editor:
Holman Jenkins rightly criticizes the Washington Post and other media outlets for continuing, despite lack of evidence, to treat hurricanes as portents of climate-change’s alleged “existential threat” to humanity (“Stop the Hurricane Climate-Change Babble,” October 12). Most media, alas, have discovered that truth and context generate far less revenue than do hysteria and fear-mongering.
As NYU physicist Steven Koonin wrote on page 15 of his 2021 book, Unsettled?,
Imagine instead headlines like “Record high temperatures are becoming rarer,” “Hurricanes show no sign of human influence,” or “Global warming won’t have much impact on the economy.” I think you’re unlikely ever to see those headlines, even though they’re a lot closer to what the science actually says.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
and
Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
