How to Bury the Lede

Are you an aspiring journalist for Reuters? If so, you need to know how to “bury the lede,” which is insider journo-talk for ignoring the real story in favor of the story you want to tell.

Here’s a great example. From the report – “millions to go hungry, waterless” – you’d think that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had found that global warming was intensifying.

Then we have this:

The panel is to release a report on Friday in Paris forecasting global temperatures rising by 2 to 4.5 Celsius (3.6 to 8.1 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels by 2100, with a “best estimate” of a 3C (5.4 F) rise.

Wait a minute. What did the last IPCC report say?

The globally averaged surface temperature is projected to increase by 1.4 to 5.8°C (Figure 5d) over the period 1990 to 2100.

Uh? You mean, not only has the new IPCC report found less warming, but it finds less warming since pre-industrial times (ie around 1800) to 2100 than the last report said would happen from 1990 to 2100.

Now that’s a story.

UPDATE:  The Reuters correspondent confused climate sensitivity with temperature projections.  That means that this post is, well, just plain wrong.  I should have spotted that.  Sorry.