Alarmism

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Alarmism is the production of needless warnings, often with the objective of influencing public opinion through inducing mass hysteria. The term as an adjective is usually used in a negative manner, to express disapproval of alarmed opinion or in an otherwise dismissive context. Many issues have, rightly or wrongly, been presented as "alarmist". Some prominent issues that have either been presented in an alarmist manner or otherwise described as "alarmist" include:

• Early warnings issued on the ideas that will be the most destructive in the current century.^[1]
• The threat of terrorism, nuclear or biochemical attacks;
• Consumption of junk food and foods high in sodium, fat, oil, sugar, cholesterol, or calories as being deadly;
• The possibility of an oil crash ("peak oil") in the near future;
• The possibility of an economic depression or Stock Market crash (similar to the Wall Street Crash of 1929 or the "Black Monday" in 1987 Stock Market crashes);
• The economic damage that was supposed to occur because of the Montreal Protocol on [[ozone depletion];
• The potential effects of global warming, and other environmental dangers;
• The economic damage that may result due to cutting greenhouse gas emissions;
• The population bomb, or Malthusian catastrophe, to cause mass starvation;
• The threat of genetically modified foodstuffs;
• The negative effects of banning DDT;
• The negative effects of DDT;
• The prediction of end times events from the Bible;
• The tendency toward more economic and political globalism and away from nationalism;
• That Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, preceding the Iraq War;
• The extent of bride burning incidents in India annually;
• The 2002-2003 SARS incident;
• Possibility of an bird flu epidemic, killing hundreds of millions.
• Mutual assured destruction or nuclear winter through the possibility of a full-scale nuclear war, causing mass extinction (the Doomsday Clock uses a symbolic clock to imply that civilization is on the verge of self-destruction);
• The dangers involved in the use of nuclear power, and the severity of the Three Mile Island incident or the Chernobyl disaster;
• The possibility of an impact event on Earth, causing an extinction event;
• Y2K bug causing breakdown of the world's computer systems;
• Carcinogenity of electromagnetic radiation from power lines or microwave ovens, mobile phones and various food products;
• Backmasking;
• The Clash of Civilizations;
• Dysgenics bringing about the downfall of the human species;
• Intelligent (manmade) Robots taking over the world and eliminating all humans;
• The economic or social damage and upheaval that might result from either side of politics controlling government after new elections are held.

[edit] See also

• Club of Rome (international issues - think tank)
• Culture of fear (fear and anxiety in public discourse)
• Moral panic (threat to societal values)
• Scaremongering (use of fear to influence the opinions)
• Sociology of disaster (a special branch of sociology)
• State of Fear (a novel by Michael Crichton)

[edit] References

1. ^ Foreign Policy Special Reports contributors (2004). The World's Most Dangerous Ideas. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=2696. Retrieved 2007-11-29. 

[edit] External links

• Panic Watch - Lists and blogs concerning media panic, health scares, paranoia, and conspiracy theories