In the midst of a Times "deal professor" column by Steven Davidoff Solomon about how electronic cigarettes are supposedly inspiring the Lorillard-Reynold American merger, comes this:
people are already predicting that sales of e-cigarettes will surpass those of regular cigarettes — well, by 2047, according to one analysis by Bloomberg Industries.
By 2047, many of us could also be underwater because of global warming, assuming we are alive.
Here we thought we were in the middle of an article about a tobacco business deal, not sea level rises linked to climate change. The Times itself reported in 2012 that "One estimate that communities are starting to use for planning purposes suggests the ocean could rise a foot over the next 40 years, though that calculation is not universally accepted among climate scientists." That same 2012 front-page Times report said "about 3.7 million Americans," or less than 2 percent of the population, live within a few feet of high tide and would be at risk from such a rise.
Anyway, if the Times is going to inject this kind of fatalistic note into its reporting on the tobacco merger, why not include a sentence or two about global warming in every news article. "The Yankees won last night, but who cares because by 2047 we may all be underwater." "Efforts intensified to reach a cease-fire in the Middle East, but by the time a peace deal is fully implemented we may all be underwater."