Global Warming Fears Trigger Murder Suicide
March 2nd, 2010
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I’ve been told that I’m falling for the neo-conservative nonsense when I say that many are taking fears of catastrophic global warming just a little bit too far. Well, perhaps this will change that. It seems that the hype about the world being on the cusp of a global catastrophe have caused at least one couple to enter a suicide pact and decide that it was better to kill their own child, rather than allow her to live in the world that global warming will bring.
A BABY girl survived three days with a bullet in her chest as she lay alone beside the dead bodies of her parents and toddler brother in Argentina.
The Daily Mail reported Francisco Lotero, 56, and Miriam Coletti, 23, shot their seven-month-old daughter and two-year-old son before killing themselves.
The pair allegedly agreed to a suicide pact over fears about global warming.
The couple’s son, Francisco, died instantly after being shot in the back, the paper reported.
The baby girl, whose name has not been released, escaped the apparent murder attempt after a bullet from her dad’s handgun missed her vital organs.
Worried neighbours alerted police three days later, after discovering the bodies.
Paramedics then rushed the blood-soaked baby to a hospital.
The miraculous survivor is now recovering in a hospital in the town of Goya in northern Argentina and is out of danger, according to the paper.
Police discovered an apparent suicide note by the girl’s parents in which they outlined their global warming fears.
The New York Daily News reports the letter was found on a table expressing the couple’s anger at the government for not responding to the environmental crisis.
It’s amazing (though not miraculous) that the baby girl has survived thus far with a bullet lodged in her body. Hopefully, she’ll be able to recover, although three days without food and water is no small thing for an infant, and add a bullet in the back to that, and the situation is definitely critical.
Before blaming this entirely on the media hype over global warming, it’s important to note that there’s a pretty good chance that the parents were mentally unstable to begin with, and global warming fears may very well have just been the spark that touched off an already explosive situation. (The fact that the mother was 23 and the father 56 already makes me wonder how stable these two were to begin with. Unless he’s a rock star or just very rich, that’s a pretty rare situation.)
This does, however, show that media hype can be a very dangerous thing when it’s combined with already unstable persons who are already sensitive to irrational fears and prone to potentially violent action.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 at 5:18 pm and is filed under Bad Science, Culture, Enviornment, Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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March 2nd, 2010 at 5:37 pm
If true this is a shame, but perhaps it will draw attention to the need for real reform. Both in Australia, where their global warming bill was recently defeated, and here in the states, where we have yet to pass any major legislation (though cap and trade did pass the house and would be a good start).
A lot more people then this are going to die if we don’t control carbon dioxide emissions. This might sound harsh, but it is a simple reality.
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March 2nd, 2010 at 5:49 pm
I guess it is a matter of which hype you listen to. There is certainly plenty of “AGW is a hoax” going around, too.
It would be great if the media would simply make an effort to be accurate and dispassionate. Yeah right!
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March 2nd, 2010 at 5:55 pm
Bruce said:
Well, the problem with Australia is that they currently get the vast majority of electricity from coal, so if they pass binding legislation for carbon dioxide reduction and don’t accompany that with building some reactors, they’re going to be sitting in the dark… or perhaps with candles. Of course, candles would contribute their own emissions, but I suppose a few candles would likely still be less than all the power plants in the country.
Of course, lack of light would be the least of their problems. No refrigeration, sewage treatment, pumping of drinking water, electronic communication, air conditioning and so on would be even worse.
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March 2nd, 2010 at 6:27 pm
While generally there is no perfidy on the part of public media I am happy to accuse them of, there really seems to be confusion on global warming. What it does show though, is that there are not the journalistic skills present in that trade any more to get to the bottom of what is going on.
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March 2nd, 2010 at 6:33 pm
[...] the original post: Depleted Cranium » Blog Archive » Global Warming Fears Trigger … Tags: been-told, Global Warming, hype, little-bit, taking-fears, the-hype, the-neo-conservative, [...]
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March 2nd, 2010 at 7:28 pm
Hmm. Crazy people find a reason to be crazy. News at 11.
Or, in less flippant terms Steve, you caution against laying the whole blame on media treatment of global warming, but I would need convincing that we should lay any blame there. Even though I’d normally love to blame the media for inaccurate and sensationalist science reporting.
What changed in the media world since sixteen months ago when they decided to have another child? Not very much, I’d argue. If this appeared in a fiction I wrote, “Daddy” would just have been given six months to live – I’d watch for the autopsy results.
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March 2nd, 2010 at 8:03 pm
Joffan said:
I blame the media for confusion about global warming, but for this, I blame the parents. Sure they’re dead, but I’ll still trash their memory and reputation: they’re a couple of murderers of the lowest kind, whether or not they’re crazy.
Joffan said:
I doubt they decided to have another child. People like this are generally just too stupid to use birth control.
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March 2nd, 2010 at 9:38 pm
Shame … disqualified for a Darwin Award, and they would otherwise have been such strong contenders.
What’s strange is that this story has received so much attention. After all, these are hardly the first people on Earth who have killed themselves as a result of excessively strong religious beliefs.
Steve’s on to something here. The hype has bred an unhealthy environment, and we are only just now beginning to see the consequences.
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March 3rd, 2010 at 1:19 pm
[...] Depleted Cranium » Blog Archive » Global Warming Fears Trigger … [...]
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