Honolulu Lite
Guess what? Because you use detergents, buy plate lunches in plastic containers and drink guava juice from metal cans, you're responsible for the deaths of more than a million people in Africa. Excessive news
pollution clouds realityFeel guilty? If you don't, the news media will help you get there. The American press, for some reason, is in the guilt business. More and more stories on television news shows and in newspapers -- except this one, of course -- seem designed to make us feel guilty about all the problems of the world.
Take a recent story that appeared nationally, as well as in a certain morning Hawaii newspaper headlined "Pollution blamed for Africa famine."
The story tells us that "scientists" have determined that a famine that killed more than a million people in North Africa was caused by pollution generated by industrialized countries in North America, Europe and Asia. We are shown pictures of starving children and starving livestock to heighten our shame.
The message clearly is that factories and power plants from greedy, spoiled "industrialized" -- read "rich" -- countries are responsible for killing people in "non-industrialized" -- read "poor" -- countries.
You have to see the whole story (which you can only find on the Internet) to find out that the "scientists" who conducted the study are from a single research agency in Australia and they don't actually blame pollution for causing the African drought. The scientists say that, according to their computer model, pollution MAY have been PARTLY responsible. Other scientists -- not quoted in the local version of the story -- called the pollution findings "highly speculative" and said the computer model didn't even match up with known rainfall around the world during the drought.
SO, THE NEWS media should have reported that a small group of scientists think pollution MAY be PARTLY to blame for the famine, but scientists from equally respected organizations disagree. That is too boring to fit into a sexy headline so let's just go with "Pollution blamed for African famine" and then throw in some 30-year-old photos of starving cows as a guilt-trip bonus!
Listen, eat your plate lunch out of the Styrofoam container and drink your canned juice and enjoy it. Because I'll tell you a little secret the rest of the press won't share: We are living in the absolute best times in the history of the world by any measure you employ. Most famines are caused by politics, not lack of food (See: North Korea, Somalia, et al.) Fewer babies are dying, people are living longer, diseases have been wiped out and, despite tensions in the Middle East and the terror problem, the world is generally at peace.
And although you won't hear it from most of the American press, the greedy and spoiled "industrialized countries" are responsible for ALL of those successes and more.
Charles Memminger, winner of National Society of Newspaper Columnists awards, appears Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. E-mail cmemminger@starbulletin.com