What are the most common positions taken by climate change deniers and can you help invent powerful metaphors to counter these position?
I’m trying to reach people who sit on the fence. The fossil fuel industry has hired excellent marketing professionals who are aware of the full spectrum of human emotions. Therefore people who are concerned about the climate have to create good marketing strategies as well. Communicating numbers like ‘the 2012 average annual concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere was 394 ppm’ is not enough. For this reason I want to invent one powerful metaphor for each of the most common positions taken by climate change deniers. Here’s what I came up with so far:
1) Denying man-made climate change is like denying that cigarettes are addictive.
2) Denying global warming is like denying an increasing population of the United States.
3) Denying that CO2 and CH4 are greenhouse gases is like claiming that the planet Venus is made of green cheese.
4) Telling people that CO2 is fertilizer for plants is like telling people to eat more vitamin D pills.
5) Telling people that the use of fossil fuels is cheaper than green technology is like telling people that cars without seat belts are cheaper.
6) Linking a shift to green techologies to the end of modern civilization is like linking a shift to smaller computers to the end of information technology.
7) Blaming global warming on solar activity alone is like blaming car accidents on weather conditions alone.
8) Pointing to colder winters as a sign that global warming isn’t real is like pointing to the occasional smiles of a raped woman as a sign that she was never raped.
What is denial position number 9, 10, and so forth?
What would be good metaphors (easy to memorize) using this format?
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11 Answers
Sorry, I meant: to counter these positions
Denying climate change is denying one’s eyes! I think the best way to get people off the fence is to have them look at photos/video of the the devastation left hurricanes and tornadoes, the shrinking ice masses, the dead and dying sea life, the crumbling flood barriers, and everything else that science is proving is evidence for climate change.
Off-topic, but relevant: Fighting for peace is like f@cking for virginity.
All I know is 15 years ago, there would have been people at the beach today, instead I’m huddled up next to the heating. (15 years ago people did not even own heating systems on this island).
I’ve been told that climate change deniers take the missionary position 95% of the time.
@poisonedantidote That’s predicted by the climate models. Just as you get a swirling, seething mass of water when you put a previously quiet pot of cold water on the stove, putting heat into the Earth’s atmosphere causes it to swirl around, and that can include dragging a mass of frigid polar air down into the tropics.
Global warming deals with temperatures measured at a massive set of reporting stations all around the globe over a period of 150 years. Sticking your head out the window on one particularly cold day will not yield the results that rigorous scientific measurement does.
@mattbrowne The most common objection I hear is that Earth’s temperature cycles up and down over geologic time, and it always has. Therefore, whatever the climate is doing right now is normal. In answer, you might say that Earth’s forests have advanced and retreated as well over geologic time, but that is no proof that the clear-cut logging and slash-and-burn farming man is carrying out has nothing to do with current, rapid deforestation.
You had me up to “most common positions”. I thought this was an @ETpro like Friday question. Heh.
But then again, here goes nothing…
1. Denying climate change is like walking in circles outside the bathroom while your bladder is ready to explode.
2. You become that frog that dies sitting in a pot of water, slowly heating up.
3. Denying climate change is like sipping iced tea in your front yard just after you received a package of dead fish wrapped in newspaper from Don Corleone.
Great start! Keep it coming.
Denying climate change is like a lobster holding its breath before being dropped into a boiling pot of water.
Excellent. Thanks for all the suggestions.
Any more arguments presented by climate change deniers?
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