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CNN, 27 May 2023<\/strong>: \u2018Murderers\u2019 and \u2018criminals\u2019: Meteorologists face unprecedented harassment from conspiracy theorists<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cMurderers.\u201d \u201cCriminals.\u201d \u201cWe are watching you.\u201d<\/p>\n These are just a handful of the threats and abuse sent to meteorologists at AEMET, Spain\u2019s national weather agency, in recent months. They come via social media, its website, letters, phone calls \u2013 even in the form of graffiti sprayed across one of its buildings.<\/p>\n Abuse and harassment \u201chave always happened\u201d against the agency\u2019s scientists, Estrella Guti\u00e9rrez-Marco, spokesperson for AEMET, told CNN.<\/p>\n But there has been a rapid rise recently, coinciding with extreme weather in Spain. A severe drought has shrunk water levels to alarming lows<\/a>, exacerbated by record-breaking April temperatures<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The article considers Spain first, but of course this kind of thing is going on everywhere.<\/p>\n National weather services, meteorologists and climate communicators in countries from the US to Australia say they\u2019re experiencing an increase in threats and abuse, often around accusations they are overstating, lying about or even controlling the weather.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That “chemtrails” conspiracy theory is still a thing. (Several years ago I chatted briefly with the woman gardener who serviced my next door neighbor — the neighbor I’ve only spoken to once, briefly, in eight years — and this gardener wanted to be sure I understood the seriousness of the chemtrails that those jets in the sky that we could see above us. I listened politely for a minute or so, and she concluded by saying “Thank you for listening.”)<\/p>\n Examples also from France, Australia, the UK, and of course the US.<\/p>\n US meteorologists and climate communicators have not escaped the barrage of abuse and conspiracies.<\/p>\n \u201cWhenever I posted about global topics, like the yearly temperature report, the comments section would be filled with political jabs and conspiracy theories,\u201d said Elisa Raffa, a broadcast meteorologist with Queen City News, based in Charlotte, North Carolina.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And goes on to discuss conspiracy theory trends, especially beginning with Covid.<\/p>\n These kinds of conspiracies are usually grounded in the idea that a set of institutions is \u201cusing the pretext of climate change, or the pretext of solving public policy issues, to enact some insidious agenda,\u201d she told CNN.<\/p>\n And the weather is an easy way in. Many aspects of climate science can feel very technical or abstract, but the weather is something people interact with frequently, said King.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a much more immediate way to bring a wider audience into that skepticism \u2026 planting seeds of doubt against the climate agenda writ large,\u201d she said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And<\/p>\n Conspiracy theories feed on this fear by offering a simple, enticing explanation, said L\u00f3pez-Borrull. It\u2019s easier to believe climate change is fake, or a manipulation by powerful people, than get your head around the complex problem and what it means for society.<\/p>\n \u201cChange is hard and scary,\u201d Francis said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And it’s easier to think a problem is faked that to honestly try to solve it.<\/p>\n \\\\<\/p>\n I referred to this item earlier but couldn’t find the link. I found it. This piece is analogous to the one above in that people of a certain conspiratorial mindset aim their thinking at everything they can. (My take as always is that these are by nature very frightened, paranoid people.)<\/p>\n Scientific American, Naomi Oreskes, 1 May 2023:<\/strong> False \u2018Facts\u2019 about Science and Social Security Share Origins<\/a>, subtitled “Fake claims that Social Security is broken and that climate action isn\u2019t urgent all come from flawed free-market ideology”<\/p>\n Oreskes is the co-author of The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market<\/b><\/a> and author of Why Trust Science?<\/b><\/a>. This piece begins:<\/p>\n Whether they work on climate change, evolution, vaccine safety, or any of a host of other issues, scientists frequently face resistance from people offering \u201calternative facts.\u201d How did we come to live in a world where so many people feel vaguely supported opinions are just as valid as evidence-based scientific research\u2014where people can’t tell the difference between opinion and fact?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Then her thesis:<\/p>\n Republicans in Congress have recently threatened drastic cuts to Social Security and even privatization<\/a>. Their ostensible reason is the need to balance the federal budget<\/a>. \u201cThe numbers can’t work\u201d without big cuts to Social Security, former Republican finance committee aide Chris Campbell has declared<\/a>. In fact, Social Security isn’t a drain on the federal budget; it pays for itself<\/a> through a dedicated payroll tax.<\/p>\n Why do conservatives<\/a> keep attacking a successful program that pays for itself? Because of its success. Social Security is \u201cbig government\u201d that works. Its accomplishments refute the conservative refrain that federal programs are costly failures and that the government should just leave things to the free market.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In fact,<\/p>\n Most federal programs that conservatives love to hate were implemented in response to the failures of free markets<\/a>. In the late 19th century anticompetitive business practices strangled markets and replaced them with monopolies. In the early 20th century one in every 1,000 U.S. workers was killed on the job. In the 1930s millions of able-bodied Americans were thrown out of work and onto breadlines through no fault of their own<\/a>.<\/p>\n It wasn’t the private sector that fixed these problems. It was government, particularly the federal government. The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 was passed to protect competition. Workers’ compensation laws ensured that people injured on the job would receive redress. Laws were passed to limit child labor, expand access to education and\u2014during the Great Depression\u2014rescue American capitalism from a state of near collapse. Unsupported \u201calternative facts\u201d frequently surfaced in debates over these programs. They appeared in later arguments over Social Security, too.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And concluding,<\/p>\n …reasoned discussion is blocked by ideology that ignores evidence. This is the same fruitless dynamic that stalls action on the climate crisis. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York popularized the adage that \u201ceveryone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.\u201d Moynihan could have been talking about science, but he said this during a debate over Social Security.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n (Of course, I’ve previously mentioned the interstate highway system, and NASA, as big government programs that actually worked.)<\/p>\n \\\\<\/p>\n And the connection between American Christians and Uganda’s “kill the gays” policy.<\/p>\n NY Times, Maddie Bender via Nicholas Kristof, 27 May 2023<\/strong>: When Your Sexuality Is Against the Law<\/a><\/p>\n The NYT columnist presents the winner of his annual journey to take a university student to highlight an issue that needs attention. This year it’s Maddie Bender (who mentions that she is bisexual), recent Yale graduate, writing from Sierra Leone.<\/p>\n Sierra Leone is one of more than 30 African nations<\/a> (over half the continent) that criminalize same-sex relations. While most of the gay people I spoke with there did not seem to fear being arrested, they said discrimination against them was widespread in housing, employment and family life.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, American Christian groups with records of fighting L.G.B.T.Q. rights have poured millions<\/a> of dollars into African countries, according to a 2020 report<\/a>. Some American evangelicals have been known to encourage<\/a> anti-L.G.B.T.Q. legislation in countries such as Uganda.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Still, Africa is huge — look at a globe, or some of those map comparison pages (that I’ve linked), to see that the US and China and more could fit inside Africa — and the writer finds support groups in S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe, an island nation off the west coast of Africa, and makes this key point:<\/p>\n\n
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