Living the hype

How many of you believe that a heat wave in your area is a sign of global warming? Seriously...

I've been thinking about this quite a bit today as some news organization and uninformed readers have claimed that the record 12 feet of snow in upstate New York is a result of global warming. Their claim: Global warming = warmer Lake Ontario = record snows.

*bangs head on desk*

The truth of the matter is that Siberia has seen the brunt of the arctic surge the first half of the winter, which allowed the eastern US to be warm. Hence, warm lake. Then when the arctic cold finally comes (along with some lift-enhancing disturbances) you get serious lake-effect snows.

But that's not the main thought that has crossed my mind today (as much as the global warming claims aggravate me). Unfortunately, it shows how media and political hype over controversial issues twists and distorts the truth. These organizations hype hot-button issues toward their side, presenting them as fact. In the case of global warming, as scientific fact. Then, when average people are presented with any claims to the contrary, those claims are marked as idiotic, uninformed, and externally motivated.

This is true in many of the politically charged issues right now. Global warming for one. The height of the global warming claims come from model simulations of what could happen if we continue doing X and Y. I'm all for cleaning the air, so when it comes to it, it's a good thing. But none of those models have verified as of yet, and the world can exist with temperatures warmer than they are now. Shoot, the vikings had dairy farms on Greenland!

Another topic, evolution. There is scientific fact to both claims, but anyone opposed to evolution is marked as a religious fanatic not willing to accept "scientific fact". In fact, it has gone so far as governments pulling funding for research to those that oppose evolution. And those are just two areas. Say nothing about how the media has made Islam and Christianity the sum total of their radical sects, and countless other politically-charged topics.

It all boils down to how easily we accept anything as "fact" the instant we see it. We have lost our critical eye in this information age, and these issues just scrape the surface of how lazy we have gotten. Maybe we simply rely on the media too much to give us a completely researched report. If we can't even rely on them, how more can we rely on citizen journalists?

I'm just as guilty as many of us in being easily distracted by shiny objects in the hype of news, but we are in for a lot of hurt as a culture if we don't start to regain that critical eye. Even more, if the media we have come to rely on continues to choose hyping up a story for ratings or politics over accumulating all the facts, yet we like lemmings continue to believe and accept it.

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