Monday, August 27, 2007

Climate hype cooling

Weather affects people's perception of climate and climate change. As this article points out, the cool (North American) and wet (European) weather enjoyed by many parts of the developed world this summer has been reflected in both a lack of media hype around climate change and is a subsequent reduction in the political profile for the issue. One thing successful politicians know: if the public isn't in agreement, get off the bandwagon.

All ecomyths go through cycles of great attention and then ebbing enthusiasm. My prediction? Now that global warming has morphed into climate change, it will slowly become absorbed into the next dominant narrative for eco-hype. Same rhetoric, same actors, different set of acronyms: eco-hype recycles endlessly.