editiorial mish-mashing

[Dan Goncharoff]

The way I read it, the change of tense was mandated by a change from a
description of current facts to forecasts. The writer (and editor) chose
the wrong tense for forecasts. "...the worse would be yet to come" seems
better, and 'posed' should be 'poses'.
On Mar 31, 2014 10:10 AM, "David Barnhart" <dbarnhart at highlands.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       David Barnhart <dbarnhart at HIGHLANDS.COM>
> Subject:      editiorial mish-mashing
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Still,
> <
> http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/mar/31/climate-change-threat-fo
> od-security-humankind> The Guardian says the report concludes that climate
> change is "already having effects in real time - melting sea ice and
> thawing
> permafrost in the Arctic, killing off coral reefs in the oceans, and
> leading
> to heat waves, heavy rains and mega-disasters. And the worst was yet to
> come. Climate change posed a threat to global food stocks, and to human
> security, the blockbuster report said."
>
>
>
> This excerpt from NPR is troubling.  It starts out in the present
> progressive tense (i.e. is having, [is] melting . and thawing., killing .,
> and leading..).  However the next sentence is "And the worst was yet to
> come.  Climate change posed a threat.."  The cause of the discontinuity of
> tense was caused by hasty editorial extraction without due process (i.e.
> proofreading the consequent copy).  It is sloppy at best and totally inept
> at worst.
>
> Is this a disease and, like global warming, got [sic] worse?
>
> Regards,
>
> David
>
> barnhart at highlands.com
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org