Climate Scientist Katharine Hayhoe has noticed that calling someone a “denier” tends to end the conversation. Her solution – call them an evidence “dismissive” instead.
There Must Be More Productive Ways To Talk About Climate Change
May 9, 20175:03 AM ET
Rachel Martin talks to climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, who stresses how unproductive it is to label someone a “climate denier.”
With the White House threatening to pull out of the Paris accord, environmentalists are speaking up more strongly than ever about the need for policies that help reduce the effects of climate change. This is getting personal. When Scott Pruitt was tapped to leave the Environmental Protection Agency he was labeled a climate denier, and that has become the go-to phrase for anyone who expresses skepticism about climate science.
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MARTIN: What do you think about the term climate denier? What does it conjure up for you?
HAYHOE: Climate denier is a good way to end the conversation. So if our goal is to label and dismiss whoever it is that we are speaking with or to, then that word will do it. What I use instead is a word I think is actually more accurate, as well as having less baggage associated with it, and that is the word dismissive. I use that. It comes from the six Americas of global warming, which separates people into a spectrum of six different groups depending on how they feel about climate change science and solutions.
The group starts with people who are alarmed. And then there’s people who are concerned. And then those who are cautious, which are actually the biggest group. Then there’s people who are disengaged, those who are doubtful. And then at the very end we have about 10 percent of the population who is dismissive.
And I think that’s the perfect term because a dismissive person will dismiss any evidence, any arguments with which they’re presented because dismissing the reality of climate change and the necessity for action is such a core part of their identity that it’s like asking them to, you know, almost cut off an arm. That’s how profound the change would be for them to change their minds about climate change.
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Is calling someone a “dismissive” better than calling them a “denier”? Both pretty insulting.
Scientists like Hayhoe can’t bring themselves to call people who disagree with their speculative theories “skeptics”, because skepticism is such an important part of science – except apparently when it comes to expressing skepticism about the validity of the estimated lower boundary of the IPCC climate sensitivity range, which seems to be totally forbidden.
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will dismiss any evidence, any arguments with which they’re presented because dismissing the reality of climate change and the necessity for action is such a core part of their identity
How does dismissive differ from alarmist, given that each one has its own “necessity for action”?
The only “necessity for action” I see is for these warmistas to get over themselves and do something useful with their time.
The slight walk back to dismissive is calculated by the embarrassment to main stream culture of calling someone a “Holocaust Denier” over a political dispute.
What goes on in small academic circles is transformed as the debate is mainstreamed to the larger electorate. The move isn’t sincere and more a cover up of the hate culture of the Green left base.
OK, if they want to be PC, the new terms should politely convey the information whether the person is afraid of some ongoing or coming climate change or not.
So I recommend “climate heroes” for the skeptics and “climate cowards” for the alarmists.
Word capture and destruction has a long leftist heritage. Nothing worse then the current use of the word “science” as a accusatory term at those who oppose ones political policy dressed as “science”. In the common left culture at the street level the GOP must of course be “anti-science” while the collectivist climate advocate wing are “pro-science” in their group think fashion.
In the early Clinton Presidency there was a huge word play effort regarding “fairness” which meant rationalizing tax-increases. The MSM went into overdrive on the use and social definitions to support “fairness” and again any opposition was of course labeled? Right “unfairness”! It lingers to this day but was obsessive in the early 90’s.
Something more obscure to illustrate again; When the Soviet was falling a legislature was formed during the Yeltsin crisis years. The American media in particular went to the trouble of creating a word convention to label the old Soviet Communist hard line wing of that assembly as “Right Wingers” again as a pejorative to those who supported individual rights in the West and the U.S.. For hundreds of years the coding of left and right was derived from the French tradition of assembly. Those most associated to social revolution and radicalism, collectivists and communist as we would modernly label them sat on the left side of the assembly. Conservatives, perhaps monarchists, would sit to the right of the parliamentary assembly. Of course the Soviet “hardliners” were by in large of the old state communist variety yet American leftist media created their own convention of calling them illogically “Right Wingers”. It was done for a propaganda purpose. Word dishonesty is nothing new and if you read a high school text book regarding this historical period you can well find the word convention smear of those years still conveyed. The irony and scope is chilling.
So while Hayhoe is a tool and the pejorative substitution seems obscure, unlikely or laughable there is a broader cultural implication about word conventions and about what is accepted and what should be rejected. Every time you see the term applied, “denier” it should be immediately referenced to “Holocaust Denier” which often leads to back tracking and equivocation of the proponents of AGW orthodoxy using the term. Moderate debate observers, at least some, realize the fanaticism of the application. So does Hayhoe who might not ever be less fanatical but realizes the tactical need for the word re-write and is making her case. Whatever the word that is ultimately chosen will ultimately become the same authoritarian code as “denier” which means “Holocaust Denier”. It should always be contested aggressively which in part why Hayhoe’s actions can viewed as a form of capitulation. The “Denier” smear is failing and as the public debate broadens in scale it looks even more difficult to maintain and support the pejorative’s of the core AGW community. This is a benefit of a broader public debate and an example of how small specialized debate culture changes for a larger anticipated audience.
“Denier” should never be forgotten. It should always be pointed out in public debates as it ultimately defines the nature (totalitarian) of the at large AGW advocate culture and community.
When Dr. Hayhoe came to town just over a year ago, I showed her this nearly hundred-year-old photo of potatoes grown with and without the benefit of CO2 supplementation from blast furnace exhaust, and I pointed out how important enhanced agricultural productivity due to CO2 fertilization is for alleviating starvation and poverty:
http://sealevel.info/CO2_fertilized_potatoes_1920_50pct.png
I also showed her this graph of an especially high-quality, 168-year long (very obviously linear) sea-level measurement record:
http://sealevel.info/120-022_Wismar_2016-05.png
I also pointed out that it had been 125 months since the USA had been hit by a Cat3+ hurricane, and I showed her this graph of hurricane frequency (not increasing):
http://sealevel.info/frequency_12months.png
She was… dismissive.
BTW, this is what I showed her:
http://sealevel.info/theory_vs_evidence_2016-04-06.htm
I personally don’t like the term skeptic either . I have always associated skepticism with people who debunk illusions, magicians and fortune tellers , a modern day party pooper. In fact using the six categories in the article I think there are terms which better portray them accurately. For those who spread alarm I would call them Charlatans, those who are concerned , Gossip mongers, those who are cautious, Gullible, those who are disengaged are Normal, those who are doubtful as Pragmatists or Realists and those who are dismissive as Heroes. Without the active resistance of climate heroes there is very little that stands between a functional live and let live global situation and a global Nanny state dictatorship seeking to control all aspects of your life