[Futurework] Alarmism

[Lawrence de Bivort]

Greetings, everyone,   The problem of course is the greater the legitimate crisis the more those who warn of it will sound alarmist.   This from Peiser’s list:   “Environmentalism is dead. Alarmism - the environmental movement's basic strategy - has led to this dead end. Not that this history of crying wolf has chastened contemporary environmentalists. Activists and researchers still issue dire warnings with mind-numbing regularity. Although such scare mongering persists, it has reached the point of diminishing returns. Knowing the movement's track record of false alarms, the American public dismiss dire environmental warnings out of hand. Thus, on the 37th anniversary of Earth Day, the environmental movement is looking increasingly long in the tooth. Alarmist environmentalists have overshadowed moderate, careful researchers, and undermined the credibility of the entire movement. Until environmentalists cease depending on nightmare scenarios, they will fail to influence the public at large.”     --Piotr C. Brzezinski, The Harvard Crimson, 20 April 2006

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