This is what happens when you have a 17-year "pause" in supposedly human-caused "global warming" and need to maintain appearances.
The Associated Press's Stylebook has now given journalists who pay attention to its guidelines permission to use the term "climate change" when they would previously have felt it necessary to call it "global warming." The agenda-driving clue is seen in the wire service's laughable explanation for the change (HT Twitchy):
Spare me, guys. I can hardly stop laughing.
"Climate change" isn't "more scientifically accurate." It's more scientifically vague, and deliberately so. "Climate change" can be in either direction — warming or cooling.
Further, AP has now given cover to those who want to blame man's activities for every bad or good weather event which occurs on planet earth — more or fewer storms, contracting or expanding sea ice, harsher or milder winters, etc. No matter what happens with the weather now, "climate change" can be blamed.
Using the term "climate change" conveniently avoids implicitly reminding readers that there hasn't been any global warming for nearly two decades. Readers can rest assured that unless and until any kind of meaningful warming returns, they will rarely if ever see "global warming" cited in AP reports, or the reports of other journalists following its stylebook.
Some AP reporters appear to have gotten a bit of a heads-up concerning the Stylebook change. With the exception of an item about a two-week Antartica expedition time-stamped early this morning for which the narrative would have largely been produced before the change, a search on "global warming" (not in quotes) at the AP's national site returns no story after March 25.
A Friday evening story by the AP's Mark Stevenson gives us a glimpse of what we are to expect from here on out:
Mexico sets 25 pct pollution cut by 2030 for climate talks
Mexico has become the first developing nation to submit pollutant reduction goals for next fall's Paris climate change talks, pledging Friday to cut greenhouse gas and short-lived climate pollutants 25 percent by 2030.
... Carbon price involves making polluters pay for their emissions and border adjustments are meant to ensure those carbon taxes are spread fairly. Developing countries like Mexico have also called for mitigation of climate change effects and low-cost financing and technology to help bring emissions down.
... The White House said in a statement that Mexico and the United States will launch a "high-level bilateral clean energy and climate change policy task force" this spring. The joint U.S.-Mexico effort will focus on "clean energy, grid modernizations, appliance standards and energy efficiency" as well as more fuel-efficient vehicle fleets.
While the first and third "climate change" references are to government-related event and task force, respectively, the second begs the question of what "climate change" effects Mexico is trying to mitigate. Stevenson clearly had to try to avoid using what is now understood to be a virtually forbidden term: "global warming."
It is clear that we can expect future AP reports on global warming-related matters to be less and not more informative.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
