Claim: Climate communication needs to be less optimistic, more ‘climate disruption’

Story submitted by Eric Worrall

Holdrens_new_nameDoug Sisterson, senior manager at the Argonne National Laboratory, thinks climate alarmists need to ditch the positive mental attitude when communicating about climate, that they need to make the message more frightening.

According to Forbes;

“… according to a climate scientist at Argonne National Laboratory who says it’s time to replace the term climate change, itself a replacement for global warming, with a new term: climate disruption.

“Positive mental attitude is a really wonderful way to deal with change,” research meteorologist Doug Sisterson told about 200 people at the University of Chicago’s International House Tuesday night. “We’ve learned that we want to be optimists and have a positive mental attitude, and the way we deal with that is by thinking ‘Not all change is bad.’ Well, talking about climate change, it’s not good. So maybe it’s wrong to portray climate change with a positive mental attitude.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2015/03/12/forget-global-warming-and-climate-change-call-it-climate-disruption/

It is a little difficult to see exactly how climate alarmists could tone down the optimism in their doom laden pronouncements. How do you reduce the optimism implicit, in say James Hansen’s boiling ocean / runaway greenhouse scenario?

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/04/10/why-a-compelling-theory-is-not-enough/

Maybe Sisterson means that the message needs to be be more vivid. Instead of simply saying “the oceans will boil”, perhaps climate scientists could accompany this statement, with an artist’s impression of what the boiling oceans will do to the Easter Bunny.

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rabbit
March 12, 2015 9:29 am

Climate activists’ constant harping is not working with the general public. Skepticism abounds. Sisterson’s solution? Crank up the alarmism.
But it’s the over-the-top alarmism which has likely created the skepticism in the first place. When you make dire predictions of catastrophe and they don’t materialize, the public loses interest.

Janice Moore
Reply to  rabbit
March 12, 2015 9:43 am

Perhaps, Rabbit, the alarmist hyperbole got our attention…, but what confirmed the science realists’ position that CO2 emissions (human or natural) are highly unlikely to be the cause of significant climate change is:
truth.
Truth stands the test of time.
CO2 UP. WARMING STOPPED.
**************************************
Despite the feebleminded troll’s “Done” above — the speculation about CO2 causing shifts in climate has NEVER been proven. Not — even — close.

Tom Crozier
March 12, 2015 9:37 am

If these guys want a newer scarier name they should find someone more imaginative than they are. “Climate Disruption” doesn’t scare me at all. Maybe “Imminent Planetary Annihilation?
/s

Janice Moore
Reply to  Tom Crozier
March 12, 2015 9:44 am

Aliens again. 😉

jimothylite
Reply to  Tom Crozier
March 13, 2015 2:23 am

Worldwide Atmospheric Condition Interruption. WACI. But I’ll drink to IPA (Imminent Planetary Annihilation) as well!

Tim
March 12, 2015 9:37 am

The AGW folks just keep redefining how stupid they can be. Their newest solution is to stop being so optimistic? Really? They have been? And then idiots like Flashman come along and try to redirect us from the glaring AGW stupidity with his own brand of smoke, mirrors, and mix of disinformation/misrepresentation/inaccuracy/myth/tales/distortion/evasion/fabrication/distortion.

Janice Moore
Reply to  Tim
March 12, 2015 9:47 am

Oooo, yes, Tim. No more “Mister Nice Guy.” Cover your children’s ears, we’re gonna tell you the truth: %$#$%#&$^%&%^$%$#$%EDRH1!!
(that’s “troll” for: give us more money NOW or you will d1e)

Keith Sketchley
March 12, 2015 9:43 am

Well, there’s a life-determining difference between being a Polyanna and confidence one can figure things out and cope.

RWturner
March 12, 2015 9:43 am

Hmm, how to make climate alarmism less optimistic? This is like saying the Holocaust needs to be less funny, water needs to be less dry, up less down, and climastrologists less logical.

Janice Moore
Reply to  RWturner
March 12, 2015 9:48 am

+1

John Whitman
March 12, 2015 9:44 am

The ‘everyone is being too conservative’ strategy of the community that sees alarm in some myopically focused limited subset of the research on climate science has been around at least three years.
I was in the audience when Oreskes (currently of Harvard University) gave a talk at the Fall Meeting of the AGU (in San Francisco) in 2 or 3 years ago. Her talk explicitly mentioned that (paraphrasing her statement from my memory) ‘the IPCC is too conservative in its assessment of AGW due to fossil industry pressure on the IPCC to downplay effects of AGW’.
Oreskes is an intellectual mother of that intellectual ploy.
John

Keith Sketchley
March 12, 2015 9:45 am

They’ve been scare-mongering for years now – recall polar bears falling from the sky, pet dogs drowning, …..
Desperate and dumb.
(I suppose it might match their view of humans as incapable of thinking, but that’s probably giving his ilk too much credit.)

Frosty
March 12, 2015 9:55 am

He’s so passe, “Climate disruption” was so 2010, it had a slight come back in the Autumn collection of 2014, obviously just a passing trend, it didn’t catch on then either!
http://www.google.co.uk/trends/explore#q=climate%20disruption
He’s missing a trick, something like “Climate Flatline” could work for multiple demographics 😉

philincalifornia
Reply to  Frosty
March 12, 2015 3:36 pm

Yep
Scaring people with the weather is so 1350 !

Mike Dubrasich
March 12, 2015 9:56 am

Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science
Budget: $760 million
Workforce: 3,398 total employees (FTEs), 1,395 scientists and engineers, 1303 postdoctoral scholars, 940 graduate and undergrad students, 230 joint faculty, 6,500+ facility users
The actual alarm is about Argonne’s budget, which is not nearly enough to satisfy their abounding greed. Gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme …
The actual fact is that global warming would be a GOOD THING if it were ever to happen. So would be a total defunding and shut down of Argonne.

Louis
March 12, 2015 9:56 am

If only the boy who cried wolf had made his cries more “frightening,” things would have worked out much better for him. /sarc

Janice Moore
Reply to  Louis
March 12, 2015 9:59 am

+1

Reply to  Louis
March 12, 2015 10:55 am

Well said.

Leon Brozyna
March 12, 2015 10:04 am

Or, perhaps …
Climate Chaos
Climate Disaster
Degenerating Climate
Decaying Climate
Climate Turbulence
or we could go for the really big one …
Wildly Fluctuating Climate

JohnS
Reply to  Leon Brozyna
March 12, 2015 10:16 am

…or Koyannisclimate (let’s see who get that one)

Janice Moore
Reply to  JohnS
March 13, 2015 7:44 am

None of us, apparently, John S..

BallBounces
Reply to  Leon Brozyna
March 12, 2015 10:31 am

Climate Inflation
Climate Extremism
Republicanized Climate
Climate Fascism
Climate Death Spiral
or we could go for the really big one …
Climate Cessation

emsnews
Reply to  BallBounces
March 12, 2015 1:39 pm

How about ‘climate cesspool’?

Reply to  Leon Brozyna
March 12, 2015 2:14 pm

Catastrophic Anthropogenic Diaper Change?

David A
Reply to  Max Photon
March 12, 2015 10:37 pm

I will go with “Climate Yoyo” (Every thirty years it will be popular again) And like a yoyo, they can cry about an ice age on the way down, and a hot box on the way up. Since that is what they are doing I would support it as aptly named and a provable theory.

philincalifornia
March 12, 2015 10:18 am

Was anyone in any doubt at all that they are going to have to lie harder?
Predictions of this on here over many years have been way more accurate than climate model predictions.

March 12, 2015 10:22 am

All climate education must be applied with a fully charged cattle prod. Any questions about any climate models and facts are to be responded to with utter contempt for the audacity to actually question “climate change, global warming, human produced CO2 is bad” meme. Furthermore the ministry of climate truth will decide what terms and phrases will be allowed in any discussion of climate change , any digression from the party line will be met with a shock from said cattle prod followed by tasering and hand cuffs and detention in a climate change denier prison where both data and persons are tortured until confession. Everyone convicted of the crime of questioning the ministry of truth’s climate science will be required to wear a prominently displayed patch with the insignia of CCD (climate change denier) on it. The new phase Anthropogenic Atmosphere Catastrophe is currently under review for appropriate scariness…… sarc/

PeterinMD
March 12, 2015 10:37 am

I think it should be:
Catastrophic Anthropogenic Climate Adjustment
CACA for short!

rh
Reply to  PeterinMD
March 12, 2015 12:56 pm

Perfect!

K-Bob
March 12, 2015 10:40 am

Maybe they should hire Stephen King to write some stuff for their cause?

Reply to  K-Bob
March 12, 2015 10:45 am

K-bob, that will backfire as soon as people realize that the conclusion of every 12,000 page report is that a clown or a demonic child is responsible. After a while, it just gets predictable ya know? 🙂

Reply to  Aphan
March 12, 2015 11:00 am

Blaming the children for global warming. LOL. That’d be a new one! 🙂

emsnews
Reply to  Aphan
March 12, 2015 12:19 pm

But clowns did cause it!!!

Bob Boder
Reply to  Aphan
March 12, 2015 3:40 pm

I hate CLOWNS

Reply to  K-Bob
March 12, 2015 12:44 pm

They probably would have liked Michael Crichton to write some of their stuff and he saw the fiction in their story. But he turned out to be one of their highest profile enemies. He compared Global warming scam to eugenics. The Progressives and Environmentalists no doubt were horrified.

“I am not arguing that global warming is the same as eugenics. But the similarities are not superficial. And I do claim that open and frank discussion of the data, and of the issues, is being suppressed. Leading scientific journals have taken strong editorial positions of the side of global warming, which, I argue, they have no business doing. Under the circumstances, any scientist who has doubts understands clearly that they will be wise to mute their expression. ” – Michael Crichton.
source: http://www.michaelcrichton.net/essay-stateoffear-whypoliticizedscienceisdangerous.html

RIP Michael Crichton.. You will be avenged.

jimothylite
Reply to  Joel O’Bryan
March 13, 2015 2:28 am

+ a whole bunch

March 12, 2015 10:42 am

Whew! Luckily no one on the alarmist side will take Sisterson seriously anyway….he’s just a meteorologist! (Wink and nod to Anthony who totally gets what I mean)

tadchem
March 12, 2015 10:45 am

If nobody listens anymore when you cry “Wolf!”, it won’t do you any good to keep piling on scary adjectives such as “big”, “bad”, “hungry”, “man-eating” or whatever.
You can’t fix a lack of credibility with IN-credibility.

Janice Moore
Reply to  tadchem
March 12, 2015 11:15 am

+1 #(:))

March 12, 2015 10:47 am

Not all change is bad.’ Well, talking about climate change, it’s not good.

Seeing as warmer climates are better for man than colder climates and the rate of warming was so slow over the last century that we needed million dollar research programmes just to spot it… this comment surprised me.
Then I realised he meant “talking about climate change, it’s not good.”

March 12, 2015 10:49 am

“Doug Sisterson told about 200 people at the University of Chicago’s International House Tuesday night.”
“Doug Sisterson told about 200 people at the University of Chicago’s International House of Pancakes on Tuesday night. Then the manager asked him to leave, he was bothering the customers.”
There I fixed it for you.

Janice Moore
Reply to  Mumbles McGuirck
March 12, 2015 11:16 am

lolololol
Nice fix!

March 12, 2015 11:04 am

Here is snippet from Doug’s bio-page at ANL:

“Specifically, Doug manages the Southern Great Plaines (SGP) site, the first and largest field measurement site established by the ARM Program. Scientists use SGP data to improve cloud and radiative models and parameterizations and, thereby, the performance of atmospheric general circulation models used for climate research. Doug also oversees the operation of the second ARM Mobile Facility that will be deployed on Gan Island in the Maldives in late 2011.”
source: http://www.anl.gov/contributors/doug-sisterson

My guess is Dougie’s little Maldives tropical paradise boondoggle is likely threatened by the GOP Congress continuation of sequestration-level budgets for DoE. Can’t have that and keep the fun Indian Ocean travel, and duty title. Need to gen-up a little more scary alarmism to try and give the Dems some ammo (especially Illinois democrats where ANL is) to keep climate science funded at increasing levels.
Someone (GWPF, SEPP, Heartland, etc) should do a FOIA request on Dr Sisterson’s emails at ANL. Look for encouragement and coordination of his latest statement with WH’s John Holdren. Might be interesting to see who gets cc:’d on those emails.

March 12, 2015 11:07 am

How about “Climate Kamikaze” or “Kamikaze Climate”?

Mike Henderson
Reply to  J. Philip Peterson
March 12, 2015 2:34 pm

How about “Climate Default” followed by “Climate Quantitative Easing.”

E. Martin
March 12, 2015 11:21 am

Where’s the Flasher? Did the going get too rational?

wws
Reply to  E. Martin
March 12, 2015 11:43 am

I was very disappointed in Flash, It’s like not even the trolls are really trying anymore.

Reply to  wws
March 12, 2015 11:55 am

I think he is away right now, rebranding,
going from “Flashman” to “Flashbangman”.
You know, trying to compensate due to his loss of “pop”.

Reply to  wws
March 12, 2015 3:37 pm

He’s normally wittier than that. Maybe he has other things going on.
Let’s be charitable and hope he’s OK.

Bob Boder
Reply to  wws
March 12, 2015 4:09 pm

Mcourtney
No he’s not!

March 12, 2015 11:51 am

I do not see NCEP government weather service data mentioned much and it is not on woodfortrees.com listings. The NCEP site does not seem to have global graphs that I could find so maybe weatherbell.com makes them from raw data. Anyway it seems to differ greatly from GISS data and I was wondering if this is an acceptable database for both sides of the debate since it shows very little warming of .067 deg C anomaly for the last 5 yrs? It shows last year as being .112 deg C above normal. Thanks for any input. http://models.weatherbell.com/climate/cfsr_t2m_2005.png

Gregg Hill
March 12, 2015 12:08 pm

The more the alarmists’ predictions fail to materialize the more insistent they become. Richard Landis describes this very well in his book, _Heaven on Earth: The Varieties of the Millennial Experience_. Landis calls it ‘upping the ante’, but it’s more descriptive to call ‘increasing the commitment’. Those who predict the second coming of whomever don’t loose their faith when he doesn’t come. I’m afraid we’re stuck with this.

DirkH
March 12, 2015 12:10 pm

Janice Moore
Reply to  DirkH
March 12, 2015 12:38 pm

Good one, Dirk. 🙂
How can you crank it up a notch when you’re already at max volume — heh.
You know what happens next: speakers blown OUT. lololol

DirkH
Reply to  Janice Moore
March 12, 2015 1:06 pm

Nope. They didn’t make the amplifiers stronger, they just changed the scales.

Janice Moore
Reply to  Janice Moore
March 12, 2015 1:54 pm

Yes, vis a vis that video, true, Dirk. But, what they will attempt next … . 🙂

Reply to  DirkH
March 12, 2015 2:20 pm

One of my all-time favorite scenes 🙂