The Toronto Star misinforms readers that “In a strategic retreat in the fight against climate change, the United Nations has acknowledged that Earth has lost its chance to prevent some of the worst of global warming’s harms. So now the world must figure out how to get temperatures below the danger zone and back to safety, officials say.” And for connoisseurs of polemical error, yes, the author of this Associated Press item is indeed Seth Borenstein once again. Exactly how many inaccuracies are in that passage? About the same as the number of phrases, which would be a remarkable achievement except it’s not an achievement. Let’s take a look.

First, it’s not a strategic retreat. The UN is blowing the trumpet to charge, whatever one thinks of the plan for an advance or the probability of anyone charging. Second, they don’t say the chance is lost, they say we must act decisively to do it. Third, “the Earth” hasn’t lost anything as it is a large moist rock in space. And fourth or perhaps 3a, the biosphere has manifestly flourished at far higher temperatures as during the age of the dinosaurs. Fifth, or call it 3b, “the world” doesn’t have to figure anything out whether by it you mean the physical object or every single person on it or all the governments. Various specific actors, from states to activists, have to put forward a plan that actually makes sense and then convince a lot of other individuals and individual organizations to agree and act. And finally, there’s no “danger zone” and if there were, 1.5C above 1850-1900 wouldn’t be it; it was a target picked arbitrarily for its alleged polemical value though even that was wrong. It’s incredible how many inaccuracies can fit into 52 words.

Of course the Star was not alone. The herd of independent minds stampeded for this clickbait including Scientific Advocacy, which wrote that “The world is on track to exceed the Paris Agreement’s target of no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming above preindustrial temperatures within the next few years, the United Nations admits in a new report.” Admits? The UN is one of the chief promoters of climate hysteria in virtually every form. So it doesn’t “admit” this claim, it bellows it and tells us all to submit to its plans.

Supposedly, in the SA version:

“If the report has any good news, it’s that the U.N. maintains that the warming trend is reversible with urgent action – even as many countries, and particularly the U.S., roll back climate protections and scale down clean-energy projects.”

Uh so the lost chance isn’t lost. But the report doesn’t contain much “good news” or, indeed, much true news.

Instead it goes on about stuff like “Every fraction of a degree avoided and every year by which overshoot is shortened will save lives, protect ecosystems and reduce economic losses,” when fractions of a degree can’t be measured and nor can their impacts. Especially if unlike the writers you remember that 1/1000 is a fraction, or that cold still kills more people than heat worldwide, even in warmer countries. As for economic losses, the gentle and largely natural warming since the Little Ice Age has seen more people live better than at any point in our history. And as for ecosystems, if everyone weren’t obsessed with getting rid of plant food maybe some of this time, effort and money could go to protecting them.

If only news outlets were skeptical of advocacy rather than engaged in it.