David Roberts, Gristmill’s inexhaustible editor, posted on a few recent articles discussing whether global warming is entering overhyped territory at the moment. While the 24-hour news-spew has yet to throw Anderson Cooper out on a melting ice berg, sparring with a hungry polar bear, there is danger that the recent flurry of media attention – years overdue – could lead to articles that blur scientific speculation and verifiable fact. Possibly more worrisome is the risk of wearing out the fickle public and becoming the “monkey pox” of early 2006. Right now, global warming’s exposure places it around the Eva Longoria level on the National Annoyance Threat Chart. But with more sensational Time Magazine-style coverage, it could easily climb up to the Donald.

Particularly contentious is the thunderous trailer for the upcoming doc An Inconvenient Truth, with its tone of “Global warming will corner you on a dark road at night and kill your entire family with a meathook. Not figuratively. It will literally do that.” It’s standard Hollywood practice to emphasize the dramatics of a story in order to put butts in seats, but the ad probably does go too far at the end, with the frightened teenager getting crank calls from a melting glacier, and the police saying, “We traced that call from global warming… it’s coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE!”

The Global Warming Dilemma (Gristmill)

Yelling Fire On A Hot Planet (NYT)

Trailer – An Inconvenient Truth