What the CIA Taught Me
32 Years Ago
About the Weather
– And About Marketing
In the 70’s, I was so broke I lived under an assumed name to avoid the tax man.
I made a living by writing anything for anyone. Speeches, articles, presentations, ads, film scripts – they paid, I wrote.
What was my secret? I was quick.
One publisher used to give me a bundle of notes one day, and I would send back two or three finished chapters – on anything he wanted - in less than a week.
So I wrote part of The Marlboro Book of Cowboys. And three chapters on the famous Bugatti automobile (though I couldn’t even drive). Part of a guidebook to London. And a section of a book called The CIA and the World Weather Conspiracy.
I learned then that for most of the planet’s history, the world has been much colder than it is now.
And I learned something else. People are really gullible. They will believe just about anything, Not just the good things – How you can make thousands writing copy within 3 months – or you pay nothing (really?) … but also the scary things. In fact, they like being scared.
You don’t believe me? Remember the great Y2K panic? A panic about nothing – but the experts made millions from people’s groundless scares. (How often does some sect announce that the end of the world is due on such and such a date?)
And you can make a lot of money from such scares. Al Gore even got a Nobel Prize. Now read this from the Daily Telegraph in London, see what you learn about human nature.
Because if you want to succeed in this business, that’s where you start: studying human beings and what makes them tick.
So it appears that Arctic ice
isn’t vanishing after all
By Christopher Booker
There was some coverage of the chaos caused in central and southern China by their heaviest snowfalls for decades – but little attention was paid to the snow that last week carpeted Jerusalem, Damascus and Amman, none of them exactly known for their Dickensian Christmas card weather.
Similarly, Saudis last month expressed amazement at their heaviest snow for many years, in Afghanistan snow and freezing weather killed 120 people and large parts of the United States and Canada have been swept by unusually fierce blizzards.
The biologist who took this picture says the pair were within easy swimming distance of the Alaskan coast.
If the northern hemisphere’s chilliest winter in a long time was bad news for the propagandists of global warming, they also had to face serious questions about some of the most iconic images used to support the claims that the world is hotting up towards disaster.
Last autumn, the BBC and others could scarcely contain their excitement in reporting that the Arctic ice was melting so fast there would soon be none left.
Sea ice cover had shrunk to the lowest level ever recorded.
But for some reason the warmists are less keen on the latest satellite findings, reported by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on the website Cryosphere Today by the University of Illinois.
This body is committed to warmist orthodoxy and contributes to the work of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Yet its graph of the northern hemisphere’s sea ice area, which shows the ice shrinking from 13,000 million sq km to just 4 million from the start of 2007 to October, also shows it now almost back to 13 million sq km.
A second graph, "Global Ice Area", shows a similar pattern repeated every year since satellite records began in 1979; while a third, "Southern Hemisphere Ice", shows that sea ice has actually expanded in recent years, well above its 30-year mean.
Still more inconvenient was the truth about an image that has been relentlessly exploited to promote this panic over the "vanishing" Arctic ice. It is the photograph of two polar bears standing forlornly on the fast-melting remains of an iceberg which has been reproduced thousands of times to show that there will soon be no bears left (ignoring evidence that their numbers have risen recently).
Now, thanks to a Canadian journalist, Carole Williams (on NewsWithViews.com), we can read the story behind this picture, which was taken in 2004 just off Alaska by a marine biologist, Amanda Byrd. As Ms Byrd is happy to point out, the bears were in no danger so close to the coast (they can swim 100 miles). She wanted a photograph more of the "wind-sculpted ice" than of the bears.
The image was copied by another member of the crew and passed on to Environment Canada. Then it was eagerly adopted by the warmist propaganda machine - above all by Al Gore, who used it to powerful effect as an emotive backdrop to his highly lucrative lectures.
"Their habitat is melting," he likes to declaim, "beautiful animals, literally being forced off the planet."
As the old joke has it, it seems those famous bears were not drowning after all, they were just waving. But the BBC is no more likely to tell us that than it was to lead the news with last week’s snow in Jerusalem.
What can you learn that’s practical
about this revealing story,
besides the fact that politicians are not to be trusted?
- Received wisdom is often drivel, so question everything.
- Only by questioning do you come up with new answers.
- Fear is a powerful motivator – much underrated.
That last point is especially important. 25 years ago I wrote in the first edition of Commonsense Direct Marketing that “men fear to lose as much as they hope to gain.”
I was actually referring to the importance of closing dates, limited numbers and so on. But I have since read that in some areas – financial services especially – fear of loss is a GREATER motivator than hope of gain.
You’re deluged with so much great advice from Clayton and others who write here that you may sometimes wonder where to begin, so I will give you a clue from the great 18th century poet Alexander Pope, who said:
“The proper study of mankind is man.”
Never forget it.
Contributed by Drayton Bird, Hon. F IDM
Guest Contributor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE™
For more tips like this, e-mail drayton@draytonbird.com saying "Ideas" (www.draytonbird.com)
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3 Comments »
Join the Discussion!
Let us know what you think. Or ask us anything. Or offer your own sage advice.
The only rule: RESPECT THIS HOUSE! Postings that contain abusive language and/or personal attacks will be cheerfully VAPORIZED. One cross word and – POOF! – your well-thought-out post will be gone in a puff of smoke.
– Clayton
Comment by Allen — February 14, 2008 @ 8:46 am
There is another thing to keep in mind too.
Follow the money. Who is benefiting from the running of the story, and how are they benefiting.
Also, people will see what they are primed to see. Once their beliefs are set, it is really hard to change them. They will ignore evidence to the opposite and just get more dogmatic in their beliefs.
Comment by Nita Kapadia — February 15, 2008 @ 5:47 am
hi,
Ironically, i just read a special report on Forbes.The title was \’The Business of Fear.\’
Comment by Len Bailey — February 15, 2008 @ 6:19 am
Thanks for the great article, Mr. Bird.
One of the best lessons I\’ve learned as a copywriter is that people will usually work harder to keep something they already have than they will to get something they want.
Sincerely,
Len Bailey