Heated Words

Readers of the present weblog, who are ipso facto connoisseurs of all that is rational, temperate and urbane, will be disturbed to discover that online communication these days is not universally characterised by moderation in language and civility of discourse. Scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research have found that aggressive online behaviour tends to increase by more than twenty per cent when temperatures rise to heat-wave levels, and by up to twelve per cent when they fall below freezing point. While it hardly seems surprising that people should become more hateful when forced to stay in with their families, the researchers' conclusions may also indicate yet another good reason why the more zealous purveyors of traditional patriotic values view our increasingly extreme climate conditions with such insouciant unconcern.