Global Warmenizing at its Best

There are a few tactics that the Global Warming crowd likes to use in furthering its goal of policy change and behavior modification. Describing global disaster scenarios is one of them. You start from the presumption that the worst case of the climate change models is true, and then extrapolate consequences from them. These are not science stories. These are Discovery Channel productions like "When the Comet killed the Dinosaurs," or something like that. Mass extinction is one of the great scenarios what-if science stories like to trot out, just like this one.

First, state your doomsday device; the lede will do nicely: "Thousands of plant species are being pushed to the brink of extinction by global warming, and those already at the extremes are in the greatest danger." This is an important sentence because it has both the words "extinction" and "extreme" in it, so you better believe it!

Next, throw down your global warming cred: "leading botanist [...] Paul Smith, head of Britain's Millennium Seed Bank." He's a leading(!) botanist according to... this story!

Now, wail your impassioned plea to do something, before it's too late: "Smith's team is on target to have sorted and stored seeds from 10 percent of the world's plant species by 2010 in a race against time." If the habitats change due to climate change, what's the point of this? You can't just willy-nilly transplant foreign species into new habitats. That would be "interfering" with nature!

Give us a little something to "prove" how serious this is: "[O]n Robinson Crusoe island off Chile scientists found there had been eight extinctions in just the past decade." Eight out the known 242,000 world species. It's a race against time!

Make sure you put in that evil, evil industry is to blame: "[G]lobal temperatures rise due to burning fossil fuels for transport and power." Because we've already proved this, just ask Al Gore!

Throw in a "fact" that is easy to check but don't let the details get in the way of the message: "[T]he drylands of the world which cover 40 percent of the earth's surface." Land covers 29.2% of the earth's surface. But we don't have time to fact-check the Millenium Seed Bank's press release, because it's a race against time! Update: For clarification: drylands make up 40% of the earth's LAND surface, which is not apparent in the article (h/t to reader Petrarchan_Motif).

Finally, stick in something about how this affects YOU: "While drought stress and pest attack [in England] was starting to cripple some indigenous species, dry climate trees like Eucalyptus from Australia, Turkish Hazel and the Sweetgum from the United States were finding the new growing climate very much to their liking." See, the drought is caused by Global Warming, because it's hot, and it's been going on for a few years, and IT MAY NEVER STOP! See, just sticking your head out your window in hot weather, and you can FEEL the global warming. It's real, people, and WE DID IT TO OURSELVES!

So, is this a science story? No. This is straight up propaganda. And what's worse, it is the official position of the British government: "Climate Change Minister Ian Pearson said scientists predicted that in Britain alone rainfall would have halved by 2080." "Scientists" predicted this, without names, without quotes, without citing a published paper. But you have to believe it, because the scientists who agree with "us," said it.