The mindless rubbish about ‘global warming’ that is recycled on a daily basis by journalists, or spouted on radio and television, surely deserves its very own ‘Recycling Code’ to match that, say, for plastics. Global Warming Politics is happy to oblige.

So, here below, is your official 2008 ‘Guide to the International Symbols for Recycling Media Rubbish about ‘Global Warming’’. Please feel free to print out the labels, and to stick them onto relevant newspaper articles, news reports, or editorials, but be especially careful to place the offending clichés into the correctly-marked and correctly-coloured bins, also provided below(*).

Guide to the International Symbols for Recycling Media Rubbish about ‘Global Warming’

A particularly persistent piece of rubbish recycled by all ‘lazy’ journalists, sub-editors, and media (e.g. Will Hutton, The Observer). Place in bin marked: ‘Green Garbage’.

A particularly potty piece of rubbish recycled by (1) non-science journalists & (2) GW religious zealots. Place in bin marked: ‘Media Madness’.

An equally-potty piece of rubbish recycled by media which think they are a cut above (e.g. the Financial Times). Place in bin marked: ‘Media Madness’.

A more quixotic piece of rubbish recycled frequently by (1) ‘Green’ zealots and (2) political commentators/politicians who need a cause. Place in bin marked: ‘Crappy Canutes’.

A particularly hubristic piece of rubbish recycled to stress either desperation or total doom (used in Nobel citation for Al). Place in bin marked: ‘Crappy Canutes’.

A particularly hyperbolic piece of rubbish recycled by over-heated journalists (e.g. Andrew Rawnsley, The Observer). Place in bin marked: ‘Green Garbage’.

A nasty piece of rubbish recycled to avoid real debate by employing personal abuse. Daft, as critics believe inherently in climate change. Place in bin marked: ‘Bad Smell’.

(*) Warning: placing your ‘global warming’ rubbish in the wrong bin may lead to a fine and/or a criminal record. We should also like to weigh the bins secretly, but they are too full and heavy with rubbish.

[The above bin icons are adapted from the Tango! project offered at Wikipedia: reproduced here under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License]