Pirate's Cove

Warmists are Very Concerned over public support for Doing Something about “climate change” waning in recent years, and are hoping that Sunday’s climate change march in New York City will reinvigorate the movement. The UK Guardian’s Adam Corner offers 3 ways to rebuild that support, because, otherwise, we are doomed, despite almost 18 years of The Pause

This weekend marks a crucial turning point for climate change campaigning across the world. The People’s Climate March (expected to attract hundreds of thousands in New York, and smaller crowds in London and elsewhere) is the beginning of a journey that will end in Paris, December 2015, when UN negotiators have a chance to improve on the dismal outcomes of the now infamous Copenhagen talks five years ago.

Can’t wait to see the photos of all the trash they leave behind

But we have to learn from our mistakes, and ask what could be done differently this time. Here are three important ideas for re-inspiring public support – in the hope that the road to Paris has a happier ending than the long bus journey to Copenhagen:

1. Strike the right balance between ‘brightsiding’ and apocalypse

Scaring someone is certainly likely to attract their attention, but with an issue as intangible, distant and all-encompassing as climate change, it is also likely to leave them feeling unable or unwilling to take steps to reduce the threat they feel. It is much easier – as we can all attest – to ignore it.

Good luck with this. Especially since there will be tons of doom and gloom on display at the march, along with lots of apocalyptic prognostication about fossil fuels in between all the Warmists taking fossil fueled travel to get to and to leave NYC.

2. Redouble efforts to engage across the political spectrum

Like the NHS, or any other major, ongoing intervention by governments for the public good, regulating the world’s carbon emissions can only happen with support from across the political spectrum. But a fiery and deepening polarisation has gripped the Australian and American political systems on climate change. A recent poll of Westminster politicians found that among Conservatives – and only among Conservatives – sceptical views are still rife.

Shouting at Conservatives that they are wrong, irrational, or misguided is not going to help. Climate change is still seen as toxic and left-wing to many on the centre-right.

Again, good luck with this. Start with the notion about “ongoing intervention by governments for the public good“, which simply means more taxation and control of citizen’s lives by Government, more Progressive policies, and you can immediately expect the center and the right to say “no thanks!” Plus, let’s fact it, Leftists are nasty people. They are virtually incapable of being civil.

3. Nurture communities of conviction – this is not a problem to face as individuals

In his new book, Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains are Wired to Ignore Climate Change, my colleague George Marshall argues that our inability to grasp and respond to the issue of climate change is fundamentally related to the lack of social infrastructure for sharing, validating and strengthening our beliefs about this challenge.

Climate change is a dealt with almost exclusively in private. With barely any public or political discourse against which to calibrate our own views, we can easily come to convince ourselves that hardly anyone shares our positive views about climate change solutions, when in fact a majority does.

Say what? The issue is constantly on the front burner. Everything is blamed on “climate change”. It’s not private in the least. It should be, in terms of the believers practicing what they preach, which should have been the fourth way to build deep public support. Why in the heck should I believe what you’re selling when you seemingly do not believe strong enough to even make token changes in your own lives?

Lefties may like being sheep led by people who are deluding them, following the popular trends as pushed by their political masters, all without realizing the damage the Progressive policies will do to their own lives, but the rest of us are rational, thinking, and thoughtful, and refuse to become involved with this junk science escapade. The real data does not support the hysteria and doomy prognostication of Warmists, and, 100 years from now, people will be laughing over the idiocy of Warmists.

Meanwhile, another Guardian article has the headline Climate change is real. Want to live? It’s up to people like you. Nothing apocalyptic about that.