The Rise and Rhetoric of the Climate Chicken Littles, by Roger Koops

Notwithstanding that the sky is still standing after many warnings that it’s fall is imminent, people still believe the Chicken Little routine. From Roger Koops at brownstone.org:

For those who may not recall Chicken Little (AKA Henny Penny), the character was derived in the 1880s and was meant to be an allegorical character. Chicken Little was never intended to be the whimsical Disney fantasy character that it became. Chicken Little was infamous for over-exaggerating threats to existence, most notably, with the phrase “the sky is falling.”  

As I watched the BBC a couple of days ago, I could not help but notice that the alias of the BBC should be “Chicken Little.”  

Of course, you can add ABC, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the Associated Press, NHK (in Japan), PBS, France 24, CBC, CNN, Yahoo, MSNBC, Fox and literally dozens of other mainstream “news” outlets to the list. They all have been Chicken Littles for many years now. People should be adept at recognizing this new media persona.

Remember also that these have been the same news sources who were proclaiming that a common respiratory virus, a coronavirus, was somehow equal to or maybe worse than Ebola. Or that monkeypox was going to be a new scourge on humanity. Or if you step out of your house some terrorist is ready to blow you up. If you eat not enough of this then you could die or if you eat too much of that you could die. I think I could go on but I will leave everyone to their own favorite lists. 

These same “News” sources have had no problem in presenting false data, ignoring counterarguments, conducting personal attacks (or firing their own) on those who question their narratives, and so on. These traits alone demand that they be viewed with a heavy dose of skepticism. But, when you add on the alarmist Chicken Little persona, you have something that defies logic. But, that has been recently defined as “Panic Porn,”  and maybe aptly so. 

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