A study from the UK’s Tyndall Centre finds that alarmist messages about the dangers of global warming tend to promote feelings of apathy and helplessness in the audience:
“There has been over-claiming or exaggeration, or at the very least casual use of language by scientists, some of whom are quite prominent,” Professor Hulme told BBC News.
His concern is that these exaggerations have given the green light to the media to use the language of fear, terror and disaster when covering scientific reports – even when those reports are much more constrained in their description of the course of likely future events.
He says extravagated claims simply generate a feeling of helplessness in the public.
“My argument is about the dangers of science over-claiming its knowledge about the future and in particular presenting tentative predictions about climate change using words of ‘disaster’, ‘apocalypse’ and ‘catastrophe’,” he said.
It’s about time that someone in the climate change movement realized this. Al Gore and his disciples waste no opportunity to warn Americans that unless we dramatically change our lifestyles today, the Earth is doomed. Indeed, it’s ‘Earth in the Balance‘ at ‘This Moment‘ — a message almost as encouraging as ‘Repent! The End is Near!’ Is it any wonder so many throw up their hands with a sense of futility at this message? If we can set aside the doomsday warnings for a minute, perhaps we can have a conversation about legitimate concerns regarding climate change.
