New York Times Patrons Cancel Subscriptions Over Climate Change Column
New York Times' new hire Bret Stephens may have landed the daily newspaper into fresh controversy as the writer's debut column sparked outrage from readers. Subscribers of the award-winning newsgroup have started an online campaign to cancel their subscriptions so as to slam the paper's decision to publish Stephens' column for the way it expressed his views on climate change.
Stephens' op-ed column titled "Climate of Complete Certainty," published on Friday, April 28, began by comparing the processes and data used to back up the climate change policy to Hillary Clinton's defeat during the presidential campaign last year. Citing details from Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes' "Shattered," the New York Times' fresh hire drew a parallel between the Clinton campaign team and the work that went into the complex models that attempt to predict man's influence on climate change.
"There's a lesson here. We live in a world in which data convey authority. But authority has a way of descending to certitude, and certitude begets hubris," Stephens wrote in his column.
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The writer invited readers to assume that the process by which climate change policies are supported are built on "misleading" certainty. "We respond to the inherent uncertainties of data by adding more data without revisiting our assumptions, creating an impression of certainty that can be lulling, misleading and often dangerous," Stephens said, trying to speak for all human endeavors who rely on the collection and understanding of data.
Is Stephens correct in assuming that this also happens in climate change studies? Many think that he is not. Environmentalists and other concerned individuals took to social media to express their opposition to Stephens' article. They expressed outrage by canceling their New York Times subscription, according to CNN. An online campaign has sprung up with the #ShowYourCancellation tag, wherein subscribers join the fray in showing their protest against Stephens' column.
