Interpretation, context and a priori knowledge can change a story's emphasis

I

nterpretation, context and a priori knowledge are vital in arriving at a conclusion when considering reports and stories about climate change.

The Persian Gulf will sometimes be
 uninhabitable by humans
because of climate change.

Two stories, one on The Sydney Morning Herald and another on the America site, Slate, are based on the same information, but leave readers with a different understanding.

The Sydney story leaves readers with the impression that “business as usual” carbon dioxide emissions will make the Persian Gulf uninhabitable and to be fair, it says that will only by “sometimes” by the end of this century.

The overwhelming sense that readers leave the story with is that the gulf area will be uninhabitable if climate change continue unabated.

However, the Slate story, based on the same information, leaves readers with a wholly different conception about what climate change will do to the gulf area.

Neither of the outcomes are good and one just has a slightly more apocalyptic sense about it.

Read The Sydney Morning Herald story - “Forecast for Persian Gulf: a heat too hot for human body” and now compare it to that form Slate - “No, Climate Change Won’t Make the Persian Gulf “Uninhabitable”.