4 ANALYSIS & FEATURE
Sometimes information poses a global threat
Journalists, politicians should be held accountable for propagating misinformation
By Chris Williams
“China’s end of the world city”
“Apocalypse soon” “We’re pump-
ing out CO2 to the point of no re-
turn” “Now we know why we
are all doomed”
Apocalyptic headlines are
now a regular aspect of the
news. Korean versions are usu-
ally more localized — “Korean
relations heading towards cata-
strophe” or “Apocalypse Asia,”
and from the Korea IT Times,
“The robot apocalypse will begin
in Korea.” It is important to be
informed about global threats,
but could this apocalyptic over-
load do more harm than good?
It is not just journalists who
are using apocalyptic imagery.
Last week British Prime
Minister Gordon Brown told
world leaders at the Major
Economies Forum in London
that they had 50 days (before
the Copenhagen climate change
talks) to save the world from
“catastrophe” because “there is
no plan B.”
The next day British TV car-
ried a government advertise-
ment that aimed to make par-
ents save energy, for the sake of
their children. A father telling
his child a bedtime story was
shown with a cartoon book de-
picting a flood. A cat was float-
ing on a table, a dog was drown-
ing, and a pub was named “The
world’s end.” Following com-
plaints to the Advertising
Standards Agency, the advert
was suspended.
Similar messages appear in
the titles of books by respected
academics such as “Our final
century” by Martin Rees, James
Lovelock’s “The vanishing face
of Gaia,” George Mobiot’s “Bring
on the apocalypse,” and John
Leslie’s “The end of the World.”
Leslie’s book is meticulously ev-
idenced and argued, but there is
one assertion — “I don’t buy the
argument that talking of the
risk of doom spreads despon-
dency, thus increasing danger.”
But the truth is, we don’t know.
Each separate source of apoca-
lyptic information may attempt
to present the case in a measured
and responsible way. But the re-
cipients, often children, do not
just get one such message. They
get thousands, and the messages
are reinforced by seeing appar-
ently apocalyptic events.
So what’s new? Religions have
been propagating messages
about apocalypses for millennia,
and this has made remarkably
little impression on daily life.
There have been major disasters
such as the bombing of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the
Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and
mass industrial killings such as
that caused by the Union
Carbide factory in Bhopal.
Millions have died and suffered
in hideous wars. Millions suffer
daily from food and water short-
ages. Yet life goes on.
But however horrible these
events, they leave room for
hope. Somewhere, someone,
Is ‘clean coal’ part of solution?
CHARLESTON, West
Virginia (AFP) — Coal super-
powers China, India and the
United States are set to domi-
nate world climate talks next
month, but even in the heart-
land of U.S. coal there are
doubts their re-branded fuel can
be part of the solution.
In the rugged tree-cloaked
hills of rural West Virginia, coal
is as much a way of life as blue-
grass music, pickup trucks or
the hundreds of wood-clad bap-
tist churches that spot the coun-
tryside.
Mountain tops have been re-
moved to get it, endless trains
hurtle across the state carrying
it and atop roadside heaps every
conceivable piece of industrial
equipment is employed to lift,
drop, clean or shift lumps of the
black sooty rock.
Generations living in and
around the Ohio River Valley —
which forms the state’s south-
western flank — have mined
coal, and earned a living doing so.
Coal is, almost literally, the
bedrock of the local economy.
For negotiators packed in
Copenhagen’s urbane confer-
ence rooms this December,
Appalachia and its coal produc-
tion will be a world away, but it
could hardly be more relevant.
Chris Williams
● Chris Williams is based at
the Center for International
Education and Research,
University of Birmingham,
United Kingdom.
● He can be reached at
chrisunula@yahoo.com
somehow would survive, and
something from those who were
extinguished might continue.
Religious apocalypses always
have a happy ending — the cho-
sen few will survive to build a
new and eternal heaven on
Earth. The difference is that the
present vision is of a finite end.
It is of the acute terminal de-
cline of planet and humanity —
the end of posterity.
Historians point out that “all
predictions are based on knowl-
edge of the past.” But “the end”
has never happened in the past.
So how might we predict the re-
sponse to apocalyptic overload?
Indications come from studies of
communities hit by catastrophic
events such as Robert Jay
Lifton’s book, “Life in death:
survivors of Hiroshima.” The
outcomes are predictable.
Individuals suffer hopelessness,
depression, and paranoia. Social
consequences include loss of
trust, lawlessness, and a return
to “survival of the fittest.”
Some people will be in denial.
In the words of the R.E.M. song,
“It’s the end of the world as we
know it. And I feel fine.” Some
religious groups may even wel-
come the end of humanity, as it
fulfills their apocalyptic teach-
ings. Last week a local Jehovah’s
Responsible for 41 percent of
global carbon dioxide energy
emissions, coal is cheap, plenti-
ful and increasingly popular.
It is also horrendously dirty
— by far the most polluting fos-
sil fuel according to the U.S.
government’s Environmental
Protection Agency.
The EPA’s figures show coal
produces 50 percent more car-
bon dioxide than oil and twice as
much as natural gas in electric-
ity production.
And the future looks smoggi-
er.
Global carbon emissions from
coal are expected to triple be-
tween 2000 and 2050, according
to a landmark study by the
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) published in
2007.
China, thanks to breakneck
economic growth, is thought to
build the equivalent of two
medium sized coal plants per
week, a direct challenge to any
deal to tackle climate change.
But U.S. usage is also grow-
ing, and with it political obsta-
cles to a deal.
West Virginia’s Congressional
representatives are loathe to
support emissions taxes, cap
and trade or other carbon-re-
ducing measures, which the in-
Witness helpfully gave me a
leaflet headed, “How can you
survive the end of the world?”
There is certainly evidence
that information can cause
mass hysteria. The presentation
of H.G. Wells’ book, “War of the
Worlds,” as a radio news item in
1938, apparently caused wide-
spread panic across America.
Studies of “sociogenic illness”
show that information alone,
even if incorrect, can cause
symptoms of illness. In one U.S.
example, children suffered vom-
iting, headaches, and nausea,
caused by a belief among their
parents that they had been ex-
posed to a toxic gas leak at
school. There was no gas, but
false information was enough to
cause actual illness.
Another problem caused by
information stems from the
“doomsday dilemmas” — the
“lose-lose” impasses that typify
global threats. Bio-fuels seemed
an alternative to burning fossil
fuels, until it was realized that
this would threaten scarce food
supplies and destroy carbon-ab-
sorbing rainforests. This week
The Times newspaper carried
the headline “Climate chief: give
up meat to save the planet.” It is
possible that carbon emissions
would be reduced if we became
dustry warns will be crippling.
They will likely have to be
won over if the U.S. Congress is
to pass climate legislation that
would support a deal at
Copenhagen.
With U.S. coal supplying half
of the country’s electricity
needs, producers also have a
substantial say.
But despite a massive cam-
paign to re-brand the fuel as
“clean coal,” many in the indus-
try vehemently oppose new reg-
ulation to tackle climate chang-
ing “greenhouse gases.”
Still, in Copenhagen negotia-
tors can count on support from
one small portion of West
Virginia’s coal industry, which
sees the drive to green the
smoke-stacks as a multi-billion
dollar opportunity.
On the banks of the Ohio
River this week French engi-
neering firm Alstom and the
American Electric Power un-
veiled a facility that they say
could help save the industry
and the planet.
A small adjunct to the
Mountaineer coal-fired power
plant, it is a mesh of pipes and
valves that captures carbon
dioxide from the plant and in-
jects it in liquid form to aquifers
kilometers beneath the surface.
TUESDAY NOVEMBER 3, 2009
vegetarian, but that would pre- is not the only scenario. It could his regime on laws made by nite except the universe and hu-
sent a host of nutritional prob- also fuel deceit and despotism. Ayatollah Khomeini, which of- man stupidity.” Adding, “But
lems such as iron deficiency. One outcome of a widespread ten have little to do with Islam I’m not sure about the uni-
Cambridge anthropologist, apocalyptic belief would be a or Persian tradition. They pro- verse.” Is it beyond human in-
Gregory Bateson, discovered sense of meaninglessness. And vided a sense of meaning for a telligence to outlaw the danger-
that information in the form of history tells that there are al- lost revolutionary population, ous misuse of information? It
such “double binds” resulted in ways power elites who are quick but have now mutated into infi- could be stated in a simple ethic
“learned patterns of confusion to exploit “meaning vacuums” to nite religious edicts which give — if information, which is pur-
in thinking and communica- poison minds. the middle-men — politicians ported to be fact, is false and
tion.” The 11 year old who sud- Toxic meaning comes in the and clerics — absolute power. causes harm, then those respon-
denly said to me, “I wish I could form of the “isms,” from funda- Yet true Islam, like Judaism sible should be held to account.
just kill all those people in mentalism and creationism, to and Christianity, warns that re- Politicians may not find this
Africa, because then they communism and monetarism. ligious communications should idea attractive, but there is a
wouldn’t have to suffer” was not These are sustained through never be through intermedi- prescient example. Korea’s on-
making a threat. She was sim- middle-men who base deceitful aries, but direct to God. line communications law pro-
ply expressing the cold logic promises on ideologies of “infi- So how long before “plane- hibits “spreading false online in-
that resulted from what she had nite purpose”. Kim Jong-il is an tarism” becomes a sacred justifi- formation with a harmful in-
been learning. obvious example. He controls a cation for a host of questionable tent.” Such a law could be used
The broader doomsday dilem- population through the infinite practices, for example unsafe in a heavy-handed way, as the
ma is that we are “damned if we purpose bestowed by the aptly technologies, unnecessary con- Minerva case demonstrated. But
do, and damned if we don’t” in- named, “Eternal President.” sumer goods, increased taxes, it is a progressive initiative that
form and educate about global Through juche, Kim Il-sung pro- oppressive political policies, and could ensure that global prob-
threats. Winston Churchill vided meaning and purpose for even recycled religions. In 2002, lems do not create the opportuni-
claimed that “There is nothing a decimated Korean community in his book “Straw dogs,” ty for information to be misused.
to fear but fear itself.” But in an that had probably lost all hope philosopher John Gray warned Perhaps Korea could encourage
era of instant mass information, of a normal existence. Now the that even benign environmental discussion of this precautionary
mass fear is something we need idea has mutated into an infi- concern can be seen as a faith- global ethic when it hosts the
to be afraid of. The biggest short- nite ideology of nationalistic based ideology. The slogan “God G20 meeting in November 2010.
term threat to human wellbeing control. is green” is now in use. The po- Whatever we feel about the
may not be the threats them- Islamic scholar Tariq Raman litical presentation of terrorism apocalyptic headlines that will
selves, but how we respond to talks of God as a “source” that is as an infinite problem provides pervade the media in the lead-
the information about them. “the absolute and the universal omens about how global threats up to the Copenhagen climate
Solutions seem elusive, but outside of time.” Suicide can become an excuse for politi- talks, we might keep one thing
we might start by trying to bombers show how religious vi- cal deceit and oppressive laws. in mind. How we create infor-
avoid avoidable problems. The sions of infinite purpose can be- After the Hiroshima and mation about global threats is
danger that apocalyptic infor- come perverted beliefs. Iran’s Nagasaki bombings, Albert the global threat over which we
mation could fuel despondency President Ahmadinejad bases Einstein said, “Nothing is infi- have the most control.
It siphons off just a fraction of
the plant’s output, but Alstom’s
hopes it will be major stepping
stone to a full-scale commercial
facility.
But the head of Alstom power,
Philippe Joubert, said for the
technology to catch on govern-
ments must provide an incen-
tive for companies to reduce
emissions.
“I need legislation to give a
framework, if there is no obliga-
tion why would they do it?” he
told AFP. “There is no real
choice between using coal or
not, the choice is being clean or
not.”
But not everyone is con-
vinced.
Vivian Stockman of the Ohio
Valley Environmental Coalition
said local attitudes to the
prospect of more coal-related ac-
tivity are “very volatile and
highly divided.”
That is evident at Racine, on
the Ohio side of the river, where
local resident Elisa Young sat
near a playground overshad-
owed by the Mountaineer plant’s
500-foot high cooling tower.
“All that carbon capture is do-
ing is keeping coal on life sup-
port,” she said, angrily accusing
the industry of ruining the
health of local residents. American Electric Power’s Mountaineer coal power plant in New Haven, West Virginia. AFP-Yonhap News