Once settled on, that metaphor has to be deployed again and again, repeated so often it becomes exhausted – and exhausting – to those using it. This too clashes with progressive habit, which tends to hold to the “enlightenment fallacy”: the belief that the facts will persuade all by themselves. They don’t need to be repeated or simplified or embedded in moral or emotional stories: their sheer truth will prevail.
Perhaps this is why the climate movement has devoted relatively few resources to reaching or persuading the public, outside of periodic fundraising drives – certainly nothing to compete with their polluting opponents, who hire ad men steeped in marketing science to push their message relentlessly. “We’re in a propaganda war, but only one side is on the battlefield,” says Fenton.
The gorbal worming fantasists don’t use enough propaganda? Really?
When the entire idea of 1,5 C as a turning point is, in itself, invented propaganda. Seriously, Freedland must be one some good stuff to manage to write this with a straight face.
’Perhaps this is why the climate movement has devoted relatively few resources to reaching or persuading the public…’
They are doing the opposite of persuading the public!
You cannot lose what you don’t have…..
Interesting that the MSM haven’t mentioned Jo’Burg getting snowed on this week isn’t it?
Nor Oz having its’ coldest May night on record? (hope you’ve got your thermals on Bogan)
Or what about Brazils’ record breaking cold spell in June?
And all those heat related deaths ….., conveniently forgetting to mention that the cold kills ten times more people than the heat.
It’s almost as if there is some sort of conspiracy.
Addolff
The forecast for tonight is 10 degrees C. My four sweaters and a jacket should manage it.
Of course you dwellers in the Arctic wastes of Europe would probably be sweating even with the air conditioning roaring away.
Nothing spells out ‘Science’ like the expression “the climate movement”.
It’s another Awakening, an apocalyptic movement but without the interesting preaching and healing that that Jesus chap reportedly devoted himself to.
And like other Awakenings it’s given birth to a puritanical movement with an overt tendency to coercion. Put otherwise, it’s stupid, ignorant, hysterical cant. exploited by lying careerist bastards.
And where exactly might I find that pro-pollution propaganda? All I see is climate brainwashing. Planet-saving bollocks. Everybloodywhere. (Look, tmesis)
From wiki:
“After a gap year working on a kibbutz in Israel with the Labour Zionist Habonim Dror (where Freedland had been a mentor to Sacha Baron Cohen[5]), he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Wadham College, Oxford. While at Oxford, he was editor of Cherwell, the student newspaper.”
As we know, studying PPE at Oxford makes you so sharp that you can understand anything you turn your mind to. “Pan Pontification Expert”, perhaps.
ObWhich, yesterday on the news a university graduate was excitedly explaining “I’ve got a 2-1 in History of Art, four years’ hard work!” And exactly what employment do you think that degree is going to get you?
Gwynethe Paltrow has one, so I’d say the answer is a couple of lucrative marriages and a part in Iron Man.
The Pew poll which the article links to makes very interesting reading.
“Strengthen the economy” is miles clear at the top. If an accurate representation of the electorate’s priorities this suggests even more creative “fortifying the electoral process” will be needed in 2024 because the US economy is only headed in one direction.
I had to stop listening to The Long View because of him.
Like many in the “Climate Movement” they have to paint themselves as the underdogs against Big Oil and pretend that they have no resources and that no one listens to them.
This is one reason why I no longer bother even to argue with these idiots and just tell them that they are wrong.
The killer argument of course is that “Ed Davey believes in this shit.”
PPE graduate. Thanks, Sam, that explains it.
Can he tie his own shoelaces yet?
““enlightenment fallacy”: the belief that the facts will persuade all by themselves.”
It isn’t a fallacy though is it? It may take an awful long time, but the truth always wins out in the end. This is the real reason why the climate alarmists are losing the argument, because with every passing day it becomes more and more apparent that they are wrong.
As ever the left accuse their opponents of characteristics that they themselves are steeped in. cf racism, sexism, greed, violence and bigotry.
Via satellite imagery some scientists have discovered that the ocean is getting a little bit greener. They attribute this to more phytoplankton from increased CO2 absorption. (And also I suppose pollution by iron, nitrogen, phosphorous, sulphur and other chemicals essential to life.)
More phytoplankton means more zooplankton, means more fish…
They describe the result as “horrifying”.
What is the world coming to when more life is regarded as a Bad Thing?
Extinction Rebellion is in favour of extinction, like it says on the tin.
Does he have a mind to lose?
@Addolff – “Interesting that the MSM haven’t mentioned… It’s almost as if there is some sort of conspiracy.”
Not really. That has been dealt with quite a while ago. Global warming is the cause of weather which is hotter, colder, dryer, wetter, windier, calmer etc. Any change is explained by it, so there cannot be any evidence against it unless things stay exactly the same, and the scientific record shows that things never stay the same.
@philip – “They describe the result as “horrifying”.”
Yes. That’s because they are hyper-conservative. Everything must stay exactly the same. If a group of giant purple polka-dot newts is found in a patch of woodland in the north of England, then we must preserve them at all costs, even though ~20,000 years ago that area would have been under a kilometer or more of ice, the sea level >100 lower than today, and the global temperature 6C lower than today. And 20,000 years is far shorter than an eye-blink compared to the ages of geologial time. Of course 6C over 20,000 years corresponds to 1.5C over 5,000 years, so if we have warmed the planet by 1.5C over the last few hundred years, we may well be making things uncomfortable for ourselves. But it’s not the end of the world. Worst case, albeit extremely unlikely, humanity goes extinct, but once we acknowledge that the argument is over convenience – and convenience is not the same for everyone, as some will gain even if many lose – it will be easier to have a rational discussion over what should be done.
‘some scientists have discovered that the ocean is getting a little bit greener’
Yeah philip. I understand that fertilising the ocean to absorb all that CO2 is illegal. After all, if we’d pissed away all the money we’ve spent on ‘climate change’ doing that, the level of CO2 might have dropped. And of course caused an Ice Age.
Has Freedland stopped crying because Trump managed to win an election 5 years ago?
Tim,
at the bottom of the article is an explanation “Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian coumnist”