Beer and climate change. More heavy lifting by “could”

As we’ve shown previously, dire warnings of impending climate catastrophes rely on a lot of heavy lifting from the word “could”.

Here’s the latest example; beer could be more expensive in the future climate dystopia.

Don’t bother following the link to the article for any actual details or hard predictions of by how much or by when this price increase will be experienced. This is climate science, after all, the normal rules of the Scientific Method don’t apply.

We’d link to the academic study but it hasn’t been published yet.

Which illustrious ancient seat of academia is responsible for this auspicious and credible claim?

The University of East Anglia.

Now where have we heard of that institution before? Oh yes, Climategate.

Bill’s Opinion

If you are a British taxpayer, consider how you feel about paying money for a study grant that results in some vague claim about a future crisis in the beer brewing industry, and is motivated by a desire to get you to change your life and pay more tax for “green” issues.

In the meantime, let’s make some predictions of our own.

1. A pint of beer will cost about 10% more, at least, in 10 years time because of inflation. Did the East Anglians consider that?

2. Barley grows quicker in a CO2 rich atmosphere. Did they reference and factor any studies of relative rates of growth in their study?

3. If my mother had wheels, she could be a trolley.

We’ll revisit this once the actual study is published. Our suspicion is it is a bullshit paper written purely to spark headlines like these.

Lastly, I wonder if there’s a clue to the study’s unbiased motivation?

What we’re saying is that … if people still want to have a pint of beer while they watch football, we have to do something about climate change.

I’d translate that into even more frank and honest English but I suspect the message is already hiding there in plain sight.

Somebody has been reading George Orwell;

So long as they (the Proles) continued to work and breed, their other activities were without importance. Left to themselves, like cattle turned loose upon the plains of Argentina, they had reverted to a style of life that appeared to be natural to them, a sort of ancestral pattern…Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.