Rachel wrong on NRO and CBS

Iain’s National Review Online piece on Rachel Carson’s other legacy — alarmism as a political tactic — was also picked up by CBS News online:

First, identify your cause and the laws you want to see enacted. In the environmentalist’s blinkered view of the world, everything is connected linearly, not in the multifaceted manner of the real world. Therefore, in the green’ view, the removal of a problem will not cause other, unforeseen, problems…

Second, create an apocalyptic scenario…

Third, claim there’s a threat to children…

Fourth, don the mantle of science and dismiss any evidence that contradicts your position…

Fifth, use the previous three steps to create a clamor that rules out rational debate. With a potential catastrophe, a threat to the innocent, and a ream of supposedly empirical data on your side, you have a recipe for urgent action — though one based on emotion and uncritical acceptance of assertion…

Finally, once your measures have been adopted, defend them ruthlessly. The alarmist model relies on its successes being unassailable…

The CBS News site allows for comments, which has provided for some rather hysterical reactions, which illustrate Iain’s point.