Atlantic Monthly is on of the few dead tree publications worth the subscription. Here is a short extract from Greg Easterbrook’s Some Convenient Truths article on Global Warming. (subscription required).
One reason the global-warming problem seems so daunting is that the success of previous antipollution efforts remains something of a secret. Polls show that Americans think the air is getting dirtier, not cleaner, perhaps because media coverage of the environment rarely if ever mentions improvements. For instance, did you know that smog and acid rain have continued to diminish throughout George W. Bush’s presidency?
One might expect Democrats to trumpet the decline of air pollution, which stands as one of government’s leading postwar achievements. But just as Republicans have found they can bash Democrats by falsely accusing them of being soft on defense, Democrats have found they can bash Republicans by falsely accusing them of destroying the environment. If that’s your argument, you might skip over the evidence that many environmental trends are positive. One might also expect Republicans to trumpet the reduction of air pollution, since it signifies responsible behavior by industry. But to acknowledge that air pollution has declined would require Republicans to say the words, “The regulations worked.”
I've categorized this under journalism. This is because the journalists are always looking for stories that proove that the world is getting worse. One has to read very carefully to discover such convenient truths as the fact that Clinton's welfare reforms have succeeded in reducing poverty; warfare is declining; life expectancy at birth has increased dramatically over the past 100 years; and gasoline is less expensive now than 30 years ago when measured in constant dollars.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200609/global-warming
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