Information on Climate Change: What is actually true versus what we are led to believe.

Phrases like mis-information and fake-news are used nowadays with such abandon that they have lost all meaning, and in many cases are used solely to attack perfectly factual and correct information that simply doesn't align with the group-think of a particular media outlet or political party. In this article, I want to examine some of the more blatant instances of opinion being passed off as fact with the intention of furthering a certain narrative.

Deaths from natural disasters:

If you read or listen to any media outlet discussing the issue of deaths resulting from natural disasters, you would think we are on the verge of annihilation. However, as we see from the image below, over the course of the 20th century there was a significant decline in global deaths from natural disasters. In the early 1900s, the annual average was often in the range of 400,000 to 500,000 deaths. In the second half of the century and into the early 2000s, we have seen a significant decline to less than 100,000 – at least five times lower than these peaks.

Image from Our World in Data.

Rising Sea-levels:

We are constantly bombarded with talk of rising sea-levels, and no more vocal proponent of that narrative than former US President, Barack Obama. However, when we consider the proximity of his c.$12m dollar mansion to the sea, it is hard to take his claims seriously. Of course, his decision to live by the sea doesn't prove much one way or the other, but it is at least an indication of the man's longterm views on this topic.

Image from Town and Country.

Safest and cleanest forms of energy:

On this issue, there is near blanket oppostion from our media to nuclear power, yet it is among the cleanest and safest ways to produce energy. It is only narrowly beaten by solar on both counts, and, when we consider our ability in this country to produce sufficient energy from a sun we rarely see, it is a wonder we don't have more support for it from our politicians and media.

Image from Our World in Data.

Even in terms of deaths-per-unit of electricity produced, nuclear is a market leader. Yet again, this information is hard to come by in the pages of our newspapers.

Image from Our World in Data.

If we can't see through the nonesense, we have largely ourselves to blame. All of the above information, and far more besides, is readily available from reputable and reliable sources on the internet. We don't need RTE or BBC to 'simplify' this data for us, we can easily make up our own minds on any of the world's pressing issues. A little less mainstram media and a little more critical thinking would quickly liberate us from a hysterical and doom-laden narrtive.