Results of the study show that the term “Climate Change” is too bland to excite people
Story submitted by Eric Worrall
Bryan Walsh, writing for Time Magazine, has published a claim by the Yale Project on Climate Communication, that the term “global warming” is more effective at engaging people’s attention than “climate change”. People apparently associate “Global Warming” with terrifying climate catastrophes, such as melting ice and coastal flooding. See the story here:
http://time.com/119517/global-warming-climate-change/
“Climate Change”, on the other hand, tends to be associated with unusual, but not necessarily terrifying weather events.
Bryan concludes with the suggestion that environmentalists should consider their use of language when attempting to motivate their audience.
Who knows – perhaps this study heralds the exciting return of the term Climate Change – at least until the next El Niño fizzles.
For example, according to the Yale study, the term “global warming” is associated with:
- Greater certainty that the phenomenon is happening, especially among men, Generation X (31-48), and liberals;
- Greater understanding that human activities are the primary cause among Independents;
- Greater understanding that there is a scientific consensus about the reality of the phenomenon among Independents and liberals;
- More intense worry about the issue, especially among men, Generation Y (18-30), Generation X, Democrats, liberals and moderates;
- A greater sense of personal threat, especially among women, the Greatest Generation (68+), African-Americans, Hispanics, Democrats, Independents, Republicans, liberals and moderates;
- Higher issue priority ratings for action by the president and Congress, especially among women, Democrats, liberals and moderates;
- Greater willingness to join a campaign to convince elected officials to take action, especially among men, Generation X, liberals and moderates.
– See more at: http://environment.yale.edu/climate-communication/article/global-warming-vs-climate-change/#sthash.qv2Aqdrq.dpuf
I love how the rational for choosing “Global Warming” for the tag line has nothing to do with the world being measurably warmer. It’s all decided based on perception and consensus. I guess it would simpler if they could just say that they use “Warming” because it’s actually getting warmer.
Of course, one of the reasons for going to “climate change” was because there was, you know, no warming, and they wanted to push extreme weather as something to fear.
Agree fully w/ what Andy wrote. Truth doesn’t matter.
They really should go back to the old Favorite, “The Wrath of God!!!”
that’s the time-tested choice of doom-sayers over the millenia.
Jo Nova has a good post on this:
Yale says “Global Warming” is a better misused-phrase for propaganda — dump “climate change”
What’s the point of language — especially in science? If you are naive, you might think it’s to communicate a fixed concept so everyone understands and can voice an opinion on the same thing. You would be wrong. The real purpose of scientific terms is to motivate the punters to behave differently (especially if that means “give us more money”).
All change, back to goreball warming.
They do have a problem. It’s hard to argue that the climate is not changing or that a changing climate may have bad effects somewhere.
Given that it isn’t actually warming right now it is easy to argue against Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming (CAGW).
If they say something (climate change) that isn’t falsifiable the people won’t be scared.
If they say something that will scare the people (global warming) it’s too easy to falsify.
Nasty dilemma. LOL
Extreme weather is real. It’s something we should fear, and plan/prepare for.
But made by man and CO2 it is not!
I don’t know why they don’t just call it “Kim Kardashian”.
Well, we are all gonna melt in a burning, smoldering pile of stinking, rotten flesh right? What a bunch of nutters.
Of Course! Think about the timing. They changed it to Climate Change when the climate would not cooperate (the hiatus). At the same time. the prognostications of impending doom failed to materialize (virtually all indices of catastrophic events have declined during that period as well).
So they hear the constant drum beat of “Climate Change” and associate it with wimpy weather! People (as a whole) are not too much smarter than Pavlov’s dogs.
Is this the end of The Pause, after 17 years?
Global Warming is coming back !!!
Wouldn’t Global Searing be more helpful?
Polling to test effectiveness of message sound bites and labels is political science, not climate science. Yale blew that cover here. And, further showed that not only is the science not settled, it’s mislabeling isn’t settled either. What is a dedicated warmunist to do?
From a public realtions viewpoint, climate activists have made a couple of mistakes…
1. Changing the name from global warming to climate change to climate disruption, which hardly gives the perception that “the science is settled.”
2. Not contesting the obviously wild claims made by some, perhaps in a belief that “lying for a good cause” is okay. This destroyed the credibility of climatologists among many who were following the controversy.
3. Using the word “denier”, an insult to those who take the Holocaust seriously. The word is even used against those who accept most of the precepts of global warming, but challenge it on points such as climate sensitivity or the validity of computer models. This needlessly polarized the debate, creating enemies where there should have only been disagreement.
4. Attempts or suggestions to silence (or even jail) those who disagreed with them, and to curtail free enterprize, suggesting to many that climate activists were intolerant, illiberal, and only in it to further their political agendas.
Global warming would last until the next cold winter.
Agree with previous statements.
Possibly, people are connecting global warming to more than a decade ago, when there was actually global warming and the science appeared authentic, with plenty of evidence, including milder Winters in their backyards.
When the term got changed to climate change, after the global warming of the 80’s/90’s was over,the evidence(really lack of it) is what made man made climate change a bogus expression.
A “Super Storm’ in one place in one year(not nearly as bad as the ones in 11954 for that region), then a drought in the Cornbelt(after 24 years without widespread drought), tornado outbreaks in 2011, followed by a tornado drought, 1 huge typhoon but not a pattern of huge typhoons. Increasing snow and extreme cold, which is the opposite of what we were told a decade ago.
And, most importantly, something that didn’t exist over a decade ago like it does not.
Numerous skeptic sites, this one at the top of the list, that show authentic data and principles that contradict CAGW from scientists that did not have a voice to be heard in the 1990’s.
So, I think even if global warming had been used all along, that term would have lost credibility.
It’s just that discrediting CAGW, with the most damage incurred, happened to coincide with the term climate change(which was a marketing term to offset lack of warming and count everything).
Using the term “global warming” this last frigid and snowy Winter in the Midwest and Eastern US, could not have possibly been better than climate change.
This is why I think Dr. Holdren, using the expression global warming (from greenhouse gas warming) to predict more extreme cold like we were having at the time, was a catastrophic blunder.
I’m always thrilled at opportunities to provide the link again:
http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2014/01/john-holdren-video-polar-vortex
People don’t understand the science between increasing CO2 and climate change. This provides the opportunity to bamboozle them with manipulated data and theories.
They do understand the link between increasing CO2 and global warming from greenhouse gases………….enough so that if you tell them it’s causing increasing snow and extreme cold and they get the highest heating bills in their life, as they freeze their butts off, it enters a realm outside the brainwash that causes them to question WTF the source is talking about.
I would bet this is in anticipation of the Super EL Nino. It would be kinda hard to pull off the global warming part at the moment due to the last 17 years of no such thing.
This will be spun in the mainstream like it is a new item.
Reminds me of a song from the Spinners, “Games People Play” ! Music video redacted ……..
Climate Change, Global warming, Boll***s; It all means the same thing doesn’t it?
Glowbull Warning.
Definitely something with bull in it.
We have a strong El Nino developing in the eastern pacific. Since that can be epected to be replay of ‘ the one we experienced in 97, we can also expect global temps to climb up to a peak as a result. No dought the lemmings in the warmist camp are gonna have a heyday when it does.
Upon further review, the video is unredacted! 🙂
It just seems to fit too well for they absolutley will be “Spinning” this hard knowing the games people play from the study ………..
Let’s force them to use the full term, Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming.
We can do this by constantly saying that a little bit of Global Warming isn’t bad.
“Scotch Mist”
http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/scotch+mist.html
there is article on this matter that attributed the change in terminology from “Global Warming” to “Climate Change” to the Bush administration. As CC was less alarming/frightening than GW, the AGW lost public attention. I suppose the initial GW is enough to alarm most left wingers.
There was a MAJOR grammatical error in the above article — the PAST TENSE should have been used — every time — for phrases such as this:
“People apparently associat{ed} “Global Warming” with terrifying climate catastrophes,… .”
Now?
Average Joe and Maria: Meh, global warming global shmorming, whatever… .
“Global warming…. global warming….. diarrhea…. diarrhea…. .”
***********************
Correction:
“… {Enviroprofiteers} should consider their use of language when attempting to
motivatedec1ve their audience.”***********************************
CO2 UP. WARMING STOPPED.
“Global warming” is soooo over, heh.
(as pointed out by Col. Mosby at 9:23am)
Only problem is globe is not warming and with AMO cooling in coming years, joining overall cooler PDO Globe likely to cool till around 2030 in jagged downturn much like the upturn that occurred in the 80s, 90s.
Ha! My correction needs a correction, LOL — hav fun pointing it ou.
hehe – someone paid money for a study to determine that global warming is worse than climate change! Seems someone at the commissar needs to remind them the whole reason the terms “global warming” were replaced with “climate change” in the first place. But, hey, who am I to argue with them going back to global warming again.
When you hope a rebranding will save your failing product, you’ve got problems. Global warming, climate change, global weirding, climate disruption and back to global warming.
Interesting how Democrats and liberals are more easily scared by a word.
Let’s have a contest/poll to find the scariest word imaginable.
White House Science Advisor John Holdren continues to beat the drum for his favorite term, “climate disruption.” I guess he’s getting frustrated that nobody is listening to him. http://news.sciencemag.org/climate/2014/05/lets-call-it-climate-disruption-white-house-science-adviser-suggests-again
Is “Global Warming” about to make a comeback?
Algore desperately hopes so.
Fearmongering. It’s worked for millennia, why stop now?
The problem is then what do you call it when it’s freezing like last winter?
How did the name change from GW to CC come about? Can it be traced to a single source? It’s pretty remarkable that the culture went along and made the switch on a dime. Since CO2 is blamed for climate change and every other change, maybe CO2 caused the name change, too.
Global Warming will eventually go down in history as one of the great marketing slogans. It’ll be right up there with:
It’s not just a job, it’s an adventure
Be all you can be
Innocent until proven guilty
…
The project at Yale University does not realize that its attempt at relabeling is not that significant in the broader context of climate change or global warming.
The virtual absence of critical MSM makes ordinary critical citizens the significant creators of the context of climate change or global warming.
John
I just read yet another piece from the esteemed Joe Bastardi documenting how we have been in a lull regarding hurricanes, tornadoes and general climate mayhem compared to the 1930’s right thru the latter part of the 20th century. I can’t imagine the uproar if we ever see another hurricane like Camille. They army, on orders from POTUS, would shutdown all the gas stations, coal-fired power plants and institute martial law. How can we ever get the correct message out to the masses??!!
Kate Forney says:
May 28, 2014 at 9:40 am
I don’t know why they don’t just call it “Kim Kardasian”.
Great idea! We don’t know what it really is, we don’t know what it will look like tomorrow, we don’t know why it did what it did yesterday, but we are fasincated by the uncertainty of what might happened but the certainty that whatever happens will be exciting.
We could call this new term for “global warming” “K2” for short, because just like the mountain, the higher you climb in the global warming debate or greater your interest is in Kim Kardasian, the less oxygen there is in your brain.
How many different ways can they admit it can’t be proven with science…..
…I still like Irritable Climate Syndrome
Greater certainty that the phenomenon is happening, especially among men, Generation X (31-48), and liberals… A greater sense of personal threat, especially among women, the Greatest Generation (68+), African-Americans, Hispanics, Democrats, Independents, Republicans, liberals and moderates;
Well, that covers just about everyone.
====================
SMC says:
It’s not just a job, it’s an adventure
Be all you can be
Innocent until proven guilty
The new Coke…
David: “So, we became the Originals.”
Nigel: “Right.”
David: “And, uh, we had to change our name, actually.”
Nigel: “Well, there was another group, in the east end, called the Originals and we had to rename ourselves.”
David: “the New Originals.”
Nigel: “the New Originals.”
David: “Yeah.”
Nigel: “And they became…”
David: “…the Regulars.
They changed their name back to the Regulars. And we thought we could
go back to the Originals, but what’s the point?” -Spinal Tap
The cold winters and lots of ice and snow did in “Global Warming”. Maybe the CAGW propagandists are betting on a warm winter this year.
Have they used “Global Boiling” yet? What about “Global Ice-Age”? Seems to me they’ll want to try every combination so as to “reach” all of us, a bit like their papers cover every eventuality so they can claim sure-fire “they got it right”.
Also, why do I get the feeling that the term “Global” has begun to have the same sense of meaning as “Anthropogenic”? As in, if it’s global it must be human-caused and therefore (of course) Bad with a capital B. “Global” seems to go hand-in-hand with “It’s worse than we thought!” It’s like, “Oh no, and it’s GLOBAL.”
Soon it will be, “We have weather – and it’s GLOBAL.” Along with a stare of accusation, like it’s our fault. They’ve used “Global” alone to pack a punch – the rest is just a lens, changed regularly to hook in newbies and try and revive interest in those who are bored.
Summer is coming, so it’s time to emphasize warming again. When winter comes, it will be time to drop the warming and go back to emphasizing extreme weather. These people have no idea how predictable they are.
http://thepeoplescube.com/peoples-blog/shortage-of-frightening-new-euphemisms-latest-climate-crisis-t13985.html
Global warming, climate change, climate disruption – bullshit is bullshit by any other name.
Some climate activist added to the press release spread under the MSM here, that “climate change” was promoted by the Republicans in the US (Frank Lutz, 2003), because it sounds less scary.
When did the IPCC started? 1988.
What means the CC in IPCC? Climate Change…
As Hillary Clinton would say, “What difference does it make?” Bullshit is bullshit is bullshit.
I should like to introduce North Americans to the term: ” Reverse Ferret!”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_ferret
‘Bryan concludes with the suggestion that environmentalists should consider their use of language when attempting to motivate their audience.’
I conclude with the suggestion that environmentalists should tell the truth, even if it is as boring as hell.
They are either scientists or paid experts and, if they consider themselves a ‘pressure group’, then their ministrations should be taken with all the caution normally afforded to financial product salesfolk, estate agents and politicians.
All kidding aside, has anyone else gotten the impression that there has been a recent deluge of global warming scare stories? I’m accustomed to seeing the daily boogey man article on Yahoo! every day. But now there a couple of article wedged in between all the CAGW scare stories. They’re really ramping up. Any idea why?
Maybe Americans simply stopped paying attention after they replaced global-warming with climate-change. It became just one more neon sign on the main drag. And it was also being brought to them by the same people.
I can think of a catchier title, but it might not get past moderation.
As other commenters have already stated, this is in anticipation of the expected El Nino warming..
What we need to do now is to alert mainstream media as to what the cause of the warming is, how it works, how it can be predicted, how long it will last and what sort of temperatures we can expect and if there is a large El Nino event, it also has the significance that natural warming is greater than anthropogenic.
You can bet your backside the AGW proponents will be putting this down to AGW so we have a chance to do something in advance.
Yes, please bring back “Global Warming”, it’s easier to adapt to and easier to measure. It is also easier to prove wrong or right (depending on when).
Best of all, it is easier to survive than global cooling or climate extremes.
Bryan concludes with the suggestion that environmentalists should consider their use of language when attempting to motivate their audience.
Why not go ‘real old school’ and use REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR. That phrase motivated millions and got everyone working on a common goal and big government really grew.
I vote for Human-Induced Global Climate Apocalypse.
“the Greatest Generation ”
LOL is that P.C. term for old gits now ? Cool , I’m not getting old, I’m getting “great”. sounds much better.
@Greg
Actually that has been the name of the people who lived through the great depression and survived WW II since the term “Baby Boomer” was coined. You may be getting old, but that is all you are doing.
Obama is rolling out major environmental initiatives, implemented through the EPA. I think there’s going to be a major announcement next week. That’s almost certainly why Kerry keeps spouting off.
Whether environmental groups are in on the orchestration is a question I’ll leave to those more paranoid than I.
Does this mean The End of Climate Change?
Re: “REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR”
THAT rallying cry, UNLIKE “save the planet” and “global warming,” ….
was based on FACTS.
All those sailors and marines killed were real.
In the interests of truth, to prevent historical revisionism,
here’s a little data for ya:
“A day that will live in INFAMY… “
Anti-Climate Stagnation.
“They’re really ramping up. Any idea why?” (Tom B, 12:23pm)
Yep.
Windmill futures are in BIG trouble.
“…little attention is being paid to the {lapsing} Production Tax Credit (PTC) for wind energy …
… The tax extender package passed out of committee … “If the bill becomes law,” reports the Energy Collective, “it will allow wind energy developers to qualify for tax credits if they begin construction by the end of 2015.” The American Wind Energy Association’s (AWEA) website calls on Congress to: “act quickly to retroactively extend the PTC.” The PTC is often the deciding factor in determining whether or not to build a wind farm.
According to Bloomberg, wind power advocates fear: “Without the restoration of the subsidies, worth $23 per megawatt hour to turbine owners, the industry might not recover, … .”
(emphasis mine)
Source: http://www.cfact.org/2014/04/21/the-2014-state-of-wind-energy/#sthash.zkngQnFv.dpuf
And the story is similar or even better (yea!) around the world.
Oooooh,
“A greater sense of personal threat, especially among women…”
Gee might this not be construed by some to be politically incorrect? Coming from Ivy Leaguers, who invented PC, I guess it’s been through the office of the Gender etc. Diversity Police on campus, so it’s probably okay.
Are you sure the study wasn’t paid for by a tax-payer funded grant?
Definitely time to end taxpayer subsidies for environmentally ruinous, as well as uneconomic, so-called “renewable” energy. Wind turbines, methinks, are worth more as scrap metal or recyclable plastic than as power generators. Tear them down.
Also time to cut off the flow of money for propaganda masquerading as research – note that the House cut out Obama’s climate change budget for the military – can we hope it will cut off other wastes of funds on this exercise in recklessness and stupidity?
Just think of how many people in poor countries could be provided with electricity and clean water with the monies being wasted on chasing the CO2 bogeyman.
Kate Forney says: call it Kim Kardashian.
Excellent then catastrophic anthropogenic KK can be CAKK.
As in the very expressive Afrikaans phrase “Gaan kak in die mielies” “Go s**t in the corn field”
or in the other phrase Cakk handed as in left handed
They can bring back what ever phrase they want, but it will be hard to sell it once there is a mile high glacier approaching NYC…
Also I should add, I have just rechecked the IPCC models and its worse than we thought, aliens with acid for blood are landing next week, but we can stop it if we all believe in Al Gore and send him money….
Great comments and wonderful alternatives. “Irritable Climate Syndrome” is my favorite.
In the interest of being “fair” and “supportive” why doesn’t WUWT start a contest?
Select the best 10-15 entrees (Watts Editors make the first cut) … and let’s vote on them. Our “polling” will be as statistically sound as Yale’s and we can provide the list of the top three to Time, Yale, the environmentalists, and the public.
Yes, someone early on in the process forgot the Marketing Plan for CAGW.
Too late now, just cut to the chase and use good old-fashioned “Armageddon”?
That should sell a few newspapers.
At this stage it worth remember why the global warming label was dropped in the first place , and it nothing to do with science. As the years rolled by without ‘global warming ‘ the smart alarmists started to work out that using this label was not doing ‘the cause ‘ any favours given there was no warming , although they never admit that in public . So switched to all purpose ‘climate change’ which had the added benefit that any extreme but not usual weather event could be jumped on as ‘proof’ for the cause , the days of saying weather is not climate have now long gone.
The trouble is people are smarter than the alarmist give them credit for , its actual one of their weakness that they cannot see how holding ‘joe public’ in contempt hurts their cause , so they really did not buy into the ‘anything and everything ‘ approach to proof no more then they bought into the idea that all AGW sceptics where climate change deniers has they knew that in fact these people fully acknowledge that climates changes .
And so their hunting around for a new label , they tired a few such has global weirding , but they not really worked . Frankly I think we should encourage them to make more extreme and madder statements, for these can only have one affect with the same ‘joe public ‘ and it is not the one the alarmists want at all.
VAGW = Virtual Anthropogenic Global Warming
It is the man-generated global warming (CO2), that exist, almost entirely, within computer model’s/game’s virtual reality. By cooling the past and bumping the present… it does seem to affect reality. Much like neutrino(s)… I guess. GK
Perhaps the term for the current state of climate should be Climointeruptus?
Is this a study to prove that dems / libs are more gullible than average?
Greg says:
May 28, 2014 at 1:21 pm
“the Greatest Generation ”
LOL is that P.C. term for old gits now ? Cool , I’m not getting old, I’m getting “great”. sounds much better.
Greg,
No. It is not a ‘PC’ term. It is an honorific applied in the USA to the generation that fought and won WWII. It applies to all of my uncles and both of my parents, now deceased et.al. It is a term of respect. Please use it as such.
Mac
“**Kate Forney says:
I don’t know why they don’t just call it “Kim Kardashian”. **”
Thank you for the question, Kate- and it’s a good one.
The answer of course, is – because, the CAGW crowd is walking a fine line here. They want to get people’s attention in the developed West to the point where everyone is willing to submit to unnecessary, costly, destructive-to-humanity social/economic changes and oppressive governmental control of our lives – but they do not want to alarm people in the developed Western societies to the point where mass suicide is a result – that would be bad PR for the CAGW powers-that-be. Huge loss of human life in the 3rd world is, of course , acceptable to the high-level cretins that control the “public face” of the CAGW crowd like puppets, and is line with these cretin’s severe population reduction goals for the 3rd world, but those in the 3rd world currently don’t know who Kim Kardashian is (thank God or small favors). Perhaps vast distribution of Kardashian reality shows (not just Kim Kardashian – all of the Kardashians would be most effective strategy here ) to the 3rd world cause the most despair and would help further their repugnant goals for those regions of the planet.
Is “Global Warming” about to make a comeback?
If the predicted El Nino we are currently flirting with ever develops into a significant El Nino for the USA, the main stream media here will trumpet ‘+400ppm CO2 Induced Global Warming‘ as the ’cause’ of a possibly mild winter. The drought ending rains it will bring to the desert southwest, from California to Texas and Oklahoma, and the regional drought that was previously attributed to ‘Climate Disruption’ will be studiously and with 97% certainty ignored/forgotten! The headlines will read: Global Warming – It’s BAAACK!
Like Ouroboros, the mythical CO2-emissions-cause-global-warming snake will travel full circle to eat its own tail.
John is right. We need something really terrifying, so that everyone will know we’re doomed. I will raise to
Human Induced Life-Threatening Global Warming Climate Apocalypse.
Any advance on that?
Of course, conspicuous in its absence are the Baby Boomers.
That is because you have Boomers at Yale performing the study, labeling and psychoanalyzing all the other generations, triangulating and targeting, with almighty money from the NSF to perform “interdisciplinary” studies to pursue their “Anthropocene Age” paradigm.
Speaking of soft sciences and political psychology research questions, what makes the Baby Boomers such experts on every subject under the sun and capable of micromanaging other people’s lives? Was it too much drug and alcohol exposure during their college years while listening to Marxist professors, which in turn damaged to their underdeveloped frontal lobes? More study is needed.
Global Warming is the more honest and accurate term. But Warming, schwarming, whatever term the dictators decree shall be used, the sheeple will obediently use – without question.
They are changing back to Warming because they are just about to “discover” that all the temp records for the last 100 years are incorrect. The new records will show that temperatures have been rising at the rate as per the models. The error in the temp records wil be attributed to the ink used by the past observers being unstable and will result in a 0.3 degre adjustment. The older the ink the less accurate the record so they will have to make the older records cooler still. This will of course prove that the models are accurate and that the world is really getting hotter. /sarc
call it whatever…no-one’s paying attention.
more “unintended consequences”?
28 May: Bloomberg: Alex Morales: London’s Dirty Secret: Pollution Worse Than Beijing’s
It’s the law of unintended consequences at work. European Union efforts to fight climate change favored diesel fuel over gasoline because it emits less carbon dioxide, or CO2. However, diesel’s contaminants have swamped benefits from measures that include a toll drivers pay to enter central London, a thriving bike-hire program and growing public-transport network.
“Successive governments knew more than 10 years ago that diesel was producing all these harmful pollutants, but they myopically plowed on with their CO2 agenda,” said Simon Birkett, founder of Clean Air in London, a nonprofit group. “It’s been a catastrophe for air pollution, and that’s not too strong a word. It’s a public-health catastrophe.” …
For Green Party Leader Natalie Bennett, the solution is simple: Get people out of their cars…
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-27/london-s-dirty-secret-pollutes-like-beijing-airpocalyse.html
Greg says:
May 28, 2014 at 1:21 pm
“the Greatest Generation ”
LOL is that P.C. term for old gits now ? Cool , I’m not getting old, I’m getting “great”. sounds much better.
Greg”
I give you one chuckle for your attempt at humor ;), but as you can see from the single response you’ve garnered thus far, it is only modestly funny. I don’t know if you are American or not, but I suspect not since you apparently have not heard this pretentious, self-serious phrase. The so-called “Greatest Generation” thesis a dubious, historically amnesiac, self-indulgent term of self-congratulation on the part of the WWII generation, set forth in risible book from the febrile mind of one of America’s most moronic News Anchormen. (See Tom Brokaw) Or should I tell you what I really think of it?
Before I start something that will derail this thread, cause a flame war and annoy our excellent hoist, I’d best point out that I bow to no one in my admiration for the men who fought – especially on the front lines, in WWII. Anyone who fights honorably in my nation’s service has my thanks and utmost respect. As a younger man, I believed – and to a lesser extent, still do – that war is mans greatest endeavor. I’m so well read in the history of WWII, I can give you, off-the-cuff, a pretty comprehensive history of the causes, men, events, strategies, tactics, campaigns, politics, and especially the missed opportunities of the entire affair. But the idea that the Depression / WWII generation is America’s greatest? Don’t get me started …
They are now stuck, for the time being at least. Climate change was increasingly embraced because of the lack of Warming (irrespective of the name IPCC). If they embrace global warming and it cools, then what? Over to disruption?
What’s your rationale for using the word “rational”?
Relax, it’s a joke.
Notice that they did not make any reference whatsoever of Irish demographics. Or redheaded Leprechauns. We have our beliefs, but global catastrophic climate doom ain’t one of em.
Re: “… “Greatest Generation” {is} a … self-indulgent term of self-congratulation on the part of the WWII generation, … .” (T-Bird at 5:59pm)
Setting aside your other highly debatable claims, “self-congratulation” is simply incorrect. Tom Brokaw, regardless of his merits as an author or a journalist, was not himself a member of the “Greatest Generation.” He was lauding his parents’ generation.
I wouldn’t even dignify your fatuous sneer of a comment with a response but for the fact that those of my grandparents’ generation, at least those from the United States, are known for their reticence about their alleged greatness. They would be the LAST to trumpet their own worthiness.
And the few still alive won’t speak up here.
Thank you, all you WWII vets and their contemporaries, SO grateful that I am living “in a land that’s free” (“God Bless America” by Irving Berlin). Driving around on bald tires, eating chipped corn beef hash — again, saving tin, working overtime to push out a new bomber off the assembly line EVERY HOUR, …. you set a stellar example of how to get the job done.
And I know you would be the LAST people on earth to claim that you are “the greatest.”
So, I did it for you.
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@Janice Moore – you are correct about Tom Brokaw (even a stopped clock is correct twice a day, so him being right once in his life should not shock people) and the Greatest Generation. My grandparents did not talk about it either. Which is a shame as a lot of history was lost when they passed away.
in the MSM today it is! links can easily be found, tho nothing worth reading.
NYT Dot Earth: Andrew C. Revkin: Americans’ Varied Views of ‘Global Warming’ and ‘Climate Change’
Guardian: Suzanne Goldenberg: Americans care deeply about ‘global warming’ – but not ‘climate change’
Time: Why ‘Global Warming’ Is Scarier Than ‘Climate Change’
Smothsonian: Ordinary People Respond More Strongly to “Global Warming” Than to “Climate …
CBS: Americans more concerned with “global warming” than “climate change”
Atlanta Journal Constitution: By any other name: global warming vs. climate change
NBC: ‘Global Warming’ or ‘Climate Change?’: Which Is the Proper Term?
PBS Newshour: Study finds ‘global warming’ elicits stronger reactions than ‘climate change …
Human Induced Thermally Latent Emitting Radiation
Zeke says:
May 28, 2014 at 4:22 pm
Zeke, my generation, aka Baby Boomers, is as varied as any other, despite your attempt to pigeonhole us all.
I served, but not in ‘Nam as many of my brothers did. Others ran off to Canada. You might want to check Gordon Duff’s recent column over at Veteran’s Today:
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/05/26/the-last-bayonet-charge-in-vietnam-continues/
My generation was the last to pass through the early formative years without the idiot box in the front room. My senior year in H.S., the President of the United States was gunned down on the streets of Dallas, and a month later, the Beatles showed up.
Well enough of that. How about a little One-ups-Gamesmanship?
Joe South, 1969, “The Games People Play.”
@ noaa programmer — LOL — perfect: an uber fascist for Envirofascist propaganda.
Back on topic: the first big theme/meme change was dropping the C for Catastrophic from CAGW.
Don’t let them off the hook! The curly lights, the war on coal were all predicated on impending catastrophe.
I vote for BW
or Bad Weather
I don’t know who coined this one but it’s still my favourite: “Climate Bollocks”.
How about “Global Cooling”?
Nice Janice!
Steve P, at least note in the above list in the Yale study, Gen X, Gen Y, and the Greatest Generation are mentioned as demographic cohorts. Yet the Baby Boomers are not listed, which is an interesting omission. (: (I just used some very slight, barely noticable speculation about why that is.)
Nice song though. Except all the hippies grew up to be the Tax Man (Beatles).
“Greater certainty that the phenomenon is happening, especially among men, Generation X (31-48), and liberals
Since warming climate is a subset of climate change, this tells a great deal about the intellectual capacity of “Generation X” and liberals.
“… Setting aside your other highly debatable claims, “self-congratulation” is simply incorrect. Tom Brokaw, regardless of his merits as an author or a journalist, was not himself a member of the “Greatest Generation.” He was lauding his parents’ generation.”
I am fully aware of that. Brokaw is the homage the Baby Boomer vices – they are legion – pays to -well, if not the virtues – the less troubling vices – of the WWII generation. However, I have heard no one of that generation “trumpet” their unworthiness and the baby boomers – that most spoiled rotten crop of brats ever to walk the face of this earth, had to come from somewhere, now, didn’t they? The apple does not fall far from the tree.
I have made no claims as yet or rather, save for the baby boomers, I have not pointed out all of the troubling questions raised by the specifics of Brokaw’s risible and treacly hyperbole. If you want the full litany, with – and only with, the host’s explicit permission to take this thread so badly off topic, I would be happy to oblige.
“Of course, conspicuous in its absence are the Baby Boomers.
That is because you have Boomers at Yale performing the study, labeling and psychoanalyzing all the other generations, triangulating and targeting, with almighty money from the NSF to perform “interdisciplinary” studies to pursue their “Anthropocene Age” paradigm.
Speaking of soft sciences and political psychology research questions, what makes the Baby Boomers such experts on every subject under the sun and capable of micromanaging other people’s lives? …”
Don’t back off, Zeke. You’re on to something.
And for the record, I am a baby boomer. Born a few weeks before Kennedy was shot. I know my generation.
Steve P, I know in every cohort, there are differences and degrees. But you’d have be pretty inattentive to miss the cultural damage the Boomers have done and are still doing to this country. The subject of this blog – the politicization and corruption of science, and every other academic discipline – is a symptom of it.
Steve P, I meant to say “in every cohort there are degrees and exceptions” in my last. If you are one of them, well and good.
Who funds this Yale project?
Is it like the Columbia University ‘telephone calls from the future” scam funded by tax payers?
T-Bird says:
May 29, 2014 at 3:47 am
Ah, so Korea, the rise of TV, the Cold War, Beatniks, assassination of JFK, ‘Nam, and the media promotion of the Hippies were all executed by Baby Boomers? And I suppose you think it was Baby Boomers who demonized Joe McCarthy, allowing the many Reds in the U.S. establishment to walk, and continue their work?
I suggest sir, you’re barking up the wrong tree.
Your generation was completely under the influence of the Boob Tube from day one, in contradistinction to my generation, the true Baby Boomers. We didn’t get a TV in my house until the televised Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954, which I watched with my grandfather, a WWI vet.
The true post-war baby boom was over by about 1955. You squeak into the expanded definition of the Baby Boom, and yet think you know my generation? The true Baby Boomers were born of fathers who’d served in WWII, as my father did, and who got to making babies upon their safe return.
But go ahead and blame the victims, that’s usually a successful ploy.
What they are actually saying is that the term Global Warming has more propaganda value than the term Climate Change. This may or may not be true. Note that the folks at Yale are not impressed by the fact that there has been no warming for over seventeen years. One of the problems with the term Global Warming is that those climes that experience nasty winters would welcome some warming. It was my impression that the use of the term Climate Change was to avoid this attractive aspect of warming.
But this sort of discussion is symtomatic of the fact that the alarmists have reached the end of their tether and their prospects of taking over the world have declined. In other words, the tide now flows against them.
But nonetheless, SKEPTICS SHOULD ORGANIZE
These people seem terribly confused. Is their project a scientific one, or an exercise in effective public relations? For the AGW cause, way back last decade, was based upon the argument that the world was heating up and humans were the cause. And if memory served me correctly, the Alarmists quite suddenly re-branded their efforts from AGW to Climate Change. Now, that most scientists admit that there hasn’t been any statistically measured warming going on 2 decades, some in the Alarmist camps which to switch back to Climate Change?
Does everything boil down to PR with these people?
JP says:
May 29, 2014 at 8:35 am
Please, everyone: Don’t play into the alarmists’ hands, and let them move the goalposts, or redefine their argument ex post facto
.
The original argument (and meme) was Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming – CAGW.
T-bird says in part, “the baby boomers – that most spoiled rotten crop of brats ever to walk the face of this earth, had to come from somewhere, now, didn’t they?”
This is as serious subject (though we may be tempted to use flippant terms) — it may have been that the Greatest Generation were terrible parents. My own grandmother, who was asked to speak and write quite often, did say that she thought that perhaps some of the institutions they were passing on were a bit cold, and that she understood the desire to experiment and question which she saw in her children. But she obviously felt that they would come back to value what was good and true in the end.
On the other hand, the other possibility is that the Boomers in most cases simply broke their parents hearts and flagrantly took a path of drug use, free love, rock and roll, perpetual student-hood, and collectivism.
The betrayal is truly staggering to me, when I consider that the Boomers, in many many cases, are now favoring more power and control by countries like Russia, China, and even Germany – countries and ideologies which the Greatest Generation fought hard to keep Europe and the world safe from. Now Boomers are trying to hand over power to the EU and UN as fast as they can. It is a truly devastating and very personal act of treachery in my opinion. I am sorry to say but even the more sensible Boomers still often carry on their attack and war to break down and destroy the middle class, because it is the middle class that is concerned about drugs, drug use, and other issues of self-control and moderation. Frugality, duty, ownership, marriage, and liberty are all foundational to the middle class.
And Boomers are still lying about their parents, saying that they were all bored and unhappy in their marriages with their white picket fences. That was unfair and I cringe when they do that. And now?! — they are keen to put everyone on sustainable plantations, implementing a system of micromanagement through environmental controls! So this absolutely proves that their “ideals” were never ever about individual liberty, but only about indulging themselves, and removing constraints from themselves. They now wish to take prosperity and freedom away from others “to save the planet.” I guarantee you, even playing Olympian Gods, they still won’t “get no satisfaction.” Even they know what they are like. They all have dreams of clouds in their coffee.
Any data to support your assertion that my generation is responsible?
Zeke, are my words so difficult to comprehend? Everything you attribute to Baby
Boomers was already in progress while we were still children.
You can’t judge a book by looking at its cover:
One for the road.
They made great ear candy and even the Rolling Stones can get it right sometimes…
Sympathy for the Devil lyrics,
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/rollingstones/sympathyforthedevil.html
I think this is “their” song;
“The US economy shifted into reverse in the first three months of 2014 shrinking by an annualised rate of 1%, official estimates have shown.
The fall in output was blamed on an unusually cold and disruptive winter – one of the coldest in the US for 20 years – and a plunge in business investment.”
But the idea that warmth is bad and to be covered by a mile thick layer of ice is somehow good is what is being spread right now.
How about “Climate Confusion”?
If GW is being rolled out, it’s probably in anticipation of the upcoming El Niño.
It’s interesting how everyone talks about the global warming debate, but it shouldn’t even be a debate.
The fact that one of the possibilities is that the world will end and lots of people will die means that we MUST eliminate that option from the table. It’s removing the greater of two evils. Sure, if we’re wrong and it doesn’t happen we’ll lose money but that’s not a big problem compared to the end of the world, is it?