THE GUARDIAN IS NOT A SUPERHERO. At least not this Guardian. Nor is it a movie about a sedate blind priest sitting at his open window, protecting our world from the gates of Hell. This Guardian is a British daily newspaper, founded in 1821 as The Manchester Guardian. Today, the paper’s readership is generally on the mainstream left of British political opinion.
Its reputation for social liberal and left-wing editorials has led to the derogatory use of Guardian Reader and (my fave) Guardianista by those on the other side of the chasm. While it seems to have a liberal reputation—not something that is difficult to achieve among rightwingers who see anything left of right-of-center as revolutionary—the editors of Encyclopedia Britannica have a rather different take on it:
“The Guardian has historically been praised for its investigative journalism, its dispassionate discussion of issues, its literary and artistic coverage and criticism, and its foreign correspondence. The Guardian’s editorial stance is considered less conservative than that of The Daily Telegraph and The Times, its main London competitors, but its reporting is also marked by its independence.”
In a 2018 research poll designed to interrogate the public’s trust of specific titles online, The Guardian scored highest for digital-content news, with 84% of readers agreeing that they “trust what [they] see in it.” (Wikipedia)
The Guardian debuted in Star-Spangled Comics #7 (April 1942), the creation of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. The story involves police officer Jim Harper, who designs a costume and learns to fight to take on the criminal element. He is assisted by four street-smart kids who peddle newspapers and are therefore known as the Newsboy Legion, who suspect that Officer Harper is also the Guardian. (Dave’s Comic Heroes Blog)
Today’s extreme is tomorrow’s sedate
On October 5, 2020, The Guardian launched a new project, Environment Now, that will “track a selection of the planet’s vital signs, from carbon dioxide levels to Arctic sea ice, and automatically update from reliable feed sources, providing a visual representation of the climate crisis.” Author Alan Evans states:
“The Earth is changing faster than at any point in modern history as a result of human-caused global heating. From the mid-19th century, when we began burning fossil fuels on an industrial scale, we have been modifying our atmosphere and causing the planet to heat up.”
Climate scientist Dr. Joëlle Gergis notes, “As a climate scientist, the thing that really terrifies me is that weather conditions considered extreme by today’s standards will seem sedate in the future.”
The January 27, 2020, digital edition of The Guardian expressing fear that as many as 100,000 people may have the “new” virus around the world. There are also featured pieces on actor David Schwimmer, Saudi crown prince Nesrin Malik, and an obituary for basketball great Kobe Bryant.
One easy-to-follow source
So, readers wanting to keep up with global changes using one easy-to-follow source, give Environment Now a shot. The page will review the following aspects of global climate change:
Global temperature change
This gives the monthly temperature variation compared with a baseline using the years 1951-1980.
Atmospheric CO2
This gives the weekly carbon count at Mauna Loa, Hawaii.
Greenland ice mass
This gives the change in the ice mass of Greenland since 1992.
Sea level
This gives the Greenland global sea-level change.
Arctic ice extent
This gives the Arctic monthly mean sea ice extent.
To see the Environment Now page, click HERE.
We are now seeing the very worst of our scientific predictions come to pass and everyone’s patience has worn thin. Click To Tweet
FEATURED IMAGE: The photo at the top of this page accompanied the article “Scientific Predictions Come To Pass” on another Guardian page. Dr. Joëlle Gergis exclaims, “As a climate scientist I find prime minister Scott Morrison’s request for people to be ‘patient’ as infuriating as it is condescending. With respect to the prime minister, the science of climate change has been ignored in this country for decades. We are now seeing the very worst of our scientific predictions come to pass. Everyone’s patience has worn thin. The Australian people are justifiably angry and are now demanding true leadership in the face of this climate emergency.”
Mystically liberal Virgo enjoys long walks alone in the city at night in the rain with an umbrella and a flask of 10-year-old Laphroaig who strives to live by the maxim, “It ain’t what you know that gets you into trouble; it’s what you know that just ain’t so.
I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn, and a college dropout (twice!). Occupationally, I have been a bartender, jewelry engraver, bouncer, landscape artist, and FEMA crew chief following the Great Flood of ’72 (and that was a job that I should never, ever have left).
I am also the final author of the original O’Sullivan Woodside price guides for record collectors and the original author of the Goldmine price guides for record collectors. As such, I was often referred to as the Price Guide Guru, and—as everyone should know—it behooves one to heed the words of a guru. (Unless, of course, you’re the Beatles.)
