Which came first, the chicken or the clean air in Madrid?

If there’s one thing we’ve learned in two years of doing whatever the hell it is we do here at IHateTheMedia.com, it’s that things are not always what they appear to be. Especially when it comes to environmental news.

The Financial Times reports from Spain:

When Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, the mayor of Madrid, boasted of big reductions in air pollution since he had taken office in 2003, it seemed a moment for the city’s residents to celebrate an environmental breakthrough.

“Today we have better air quality in Madrid than ever before,” Mr Ruiz-Gallardón proclaimed.

Fabulous! That’s great news! Couldn’t be better! But it could be a bit, shall we say, misleading.

Unfortunately for him and for the 3.3m inhabitants of the Spanish capital, investigators concluded the improvements in air quality were an illusion.

The state prosecutor’s office found that in 2009 the Madrid municipality had quietly moved nearly half its pollution sensors from traffic-clogged streets in the city centre to parks and gardens.

This is, unfortunately, the way it is with environmental reporting.

One day we hear that a graph of the world’s average temperature has never been higher. The next day we learn that a huge number of weather stations in frozen Russia have been decommissioned and scientists say … well … ahem … perhaps so, but that surely has nothing to do with our funding … uhhhh … we mean … our results.

To paraphrase Mark Twain, “There are lies, damn lies and people getting federal grants.”

Source: Financial Times