The Disinformation Cycle
http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2008/03/the_disinformation_cycle.php

I wonder if it would be possible to devise a set of broadcasting standards for particular debates?

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The blog-o-sphere for ya

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What a hoot this thread turned out to be!

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I recon we could learn something from this little experience.

When each of us saw and heard this, we seem to have taken it in different context depending on first impressions, and how much we read into it.

It looks like there were at least 3 different interperetations of what the elephant represented, and Greenpeace is probably reading these comments and thinking, “What the *@%# are they talking about, it was just a nice tune to pass the time and the elephant was a big animal with pointy bits on it”

So if we see a simple cartoon in so many ways it’s no wonder we see climate change, overpopulation and all the other complicated stuff in different ways too.

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DougT, I can’t see how warming could be considered a white elephant since that normally means something that appears to be a valuable asset but is actually an expensive liability, eg railways and parliament are both white elephants.

My immediate association was the phrase memory like an elephant but I think your wife’s explanation is the better one.
http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/memory+like+an+elephant.html

I think you are drawing rather a long bow comparing AGW with The Rapture. Unless of course you are suggesting that the IPCC is a new Church of Rome, that climate change models are a new Book of Revelations, which would make Hansen the new John the Revelator, and that Phil is a born again Vegan?

Of course AGW theory is scientific, just as medieval religion was scholarly.

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Yup – it’s the elephant in the living room surely.

as in an obvious truth that is being ignored…

http://www.shout.net/~bigred/ElephantRoom.JPG

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I think I’m wrong about the white elephant. My wife recons it’s the “elephant in the room” (look it up in Wiki if your like me and never heard that saying before) which makes more sense.

I still like the idea of it being a white elephant though, ‘cos the main parties think (although won’t openly admit it) that throwing money at global warming is a waste of money.

I could be reading too much into the tune too.

Frog, can you tell us all why that tune was used please? And what elephant is it?

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Nah sorry DougT I don’t know anything about that song – obviously a scathing indictment of the quality of primary school ‘religious instruction’ period in the early 90s.

I didn’t think of the elephant as white cos it ended up pretty dark but i guess thats a fair point.

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“The saints go marching in” is about the apocalypse or judgement day. The religious aspect is inconsequential.
It’s about the day that global warming jumps up and bites everyone on the bum.

The Elephant is a “White Elephant” because the politicians think that global warming is a white elephant.

Does that make any sense, or have I underanalysed it?

Would you like me to enlighten you as to what my cartoon idea means?

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DougT, Stephen isn’t the only one who needs enlightenment. Are we supposed to be thinking New Orleans or Salt Lake City?

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I like Pie…..

Are you just taking the p*ss Stephen, or do you really not know why they used the “Saints go marcing in” for the music?
And the elephant….
What colour is the elephant?

What would be a better cartoon is one of Mr Bumble from Oliver Twist with “Developed Nations” written on his pinny and thousands of little Oliver Twists standing in front of him all saying “Please Sir, I want some more”.
And in the doorway behind Mr Bumble you can see the cook holding a huge Oil drum with the last drop coming out, and a little wind turbine powering a tiny light bulb.

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I like red too, but only because I’m a Trotsky-ite.

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I liked the helicopter.

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Well whatever, obviously it’s greenpeace, ‘huzzah!’

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If you don’t mind my pedantry, I think it is the elephant that is the metaphor. And at the risk of over analysing this, I wonder if the saints are meant to be someone…

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Religious metaphors are entirely appropriate. This is a green site, after all….

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‘When the Saints go marching in”???

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