When will Americans (and hence Canadians) support action on climate change? When it’s framed as a national security issue.
That’s what Republican pollster Frank Luntz concluded (he who coined the term ‘death tax’) after doing messaging research (with, of all groups, the Environmental Defense Fund):
Security tops every other reason to support cap and trade. (Climate remains near the bottom; creating a “new energy economy” doesn’t do too well either.)
Ending dependence on Middle Eastern oil is a message that Luntz’s research indicates works for Americans all along the political spectrum. However, to avoid a default to support merely for more domestic fossil fuel extraction, messages should focus on security from dirty fuels — not just foreign or Middle Eastern oil — and on a shift to healthy, safe, home-grown energy that can never run out.
Not too surprising, really. ‘National security’ is the issue that trumps almost everything. It’s certainly true in post-9/11 America, but it was even more the case during the cold war. Remember, the Interstate freeway system was sold as a system of ‘National Defence’ highways, justified not only as a way to move troops but also for the evacuation of cities in the event of nuclear attack. Neither was really possible. Freeway bridges were too low for tanks, and mass evacuation in the timeframe of nuclear attack was an absurd possibility.
Didn’t matter. It justified the commitment to build the world’s greatest public works project – and the Motordom world that followed. And now maybe ‘national security’ will be the rationale to deal with the consequences.
PS – The floods in Pakistan certainly have a security consequence, and are the result of a Monsoon equal to ten times the rainfall of the entire month. Climate change seems more and more not to be a threat for the future but the reality of today.
“When will Americans (and hence Canadians) support action on climate change? When it’s framed as a national security issue.”
It’s too late for that, the public has heard enough about climate change, they’ve been hearing about it every day for years now and they are saturated. You can reframe it if you like, but the public is not listening anymore. You’ll have to wait 20 years before the next generation is old enough to fall for the old ‘reframe the issue’ ploy. By that time, climate change will have been completly discredited. Lol!
Get your head out of the sand, you’ve lost, go home.
Cheer up folks, climate change is dead.
Action on climate change? Sorry Gordon, more and more people are realizing “save the planet now!….or ELSE!” is another green on the outside, red on the inside, grab for power and our wallets.
It’s been clearly established that there is a giant rot of corruption in climate science.
Isn’t this the sort of corruption you should be fighting against, instead of supporting?
Nothing of the kind has been clearly established, Robert, except in the minds of those suckling at the fossil fuel teat.
The corruption is the control the oil patch has over government, which actively suppresses science in order to continue killing the planet in the name of pure greed. With the spewing BP well in the Gulf and further crimes against the Earth, this is becoming far too obvious for you and fellow travellers to continue to spin. Your puppet masters will have to give the drug trade a boost to be able to continue successfully selling this garbage to the public.
“Nothing of the kind has been clearly established, Robert, except in the minds of those suckling at the fossil fuel teat.’
Um, that would be you too, since you live in the West.
If the spigot were turned off tomorrow, I could continue just fine without it.
Romeogolf,
You’re entitled to your own opinion, not your own facts.
My puppet masters say you need to adjust your tinfoil.
It’s not my opinion, nor my facts, Robert. It is simply opening one’s eyes to see what scientists have been telling us, with ever greater certainty, for decades. Mind you, I expect your paycheque depends on ignoring the glaringly obvious. It must be getting rather lonely on the fringe when even the Pentagon and the “National Post” acknowledge the crisis — neither noted bastions of “liberalism,” as if the too even equate.
I know the oil patch is going to fight like hell to prevent their perverse profits from being taken away from them. As long as someone can make a buck from destroying the planet’s capacity to sustain life, there will be a lineup for that position and someone willing to go all the way. The question is, will the rest of us sit passively by and watch them do it.
Yup, just me and the chickadees out here on the fringe, enjoying sunflower seeds and ignoring the glaringly obvious.
Lucky for all of us you’re out there mixing it up with eyes wide open…..perhaps Gordon can have a “Salute to Romeogolf day”
Some of us try to make genuine and positive change. Others just type big.
You’re quite the keyboard warrior.
Oh, do tell us about your “genuine and positive change,” Robert since, so far, you haven’t offered much substance to support your opinions.
Gosh no, romeogolf, this is all about -you-!
You should reread what you’ve written. What are the highlights of the substance -you- have offered here?
It’s unfortunate that the likely fact that I do more than you and do more than just type upsets you. I don’t have to prove I’m doing more than you. I can just read what you write and know what I actually do in contrast.
Perhaps you should get into comics, print or web. “Romeogolf vs The Scourge of the Earth!” Episode 1 – It’s lonely on the fringe…..
As I thought, Robert. Deflection = no substance, no credibility. If you want to be taken seriously, you need to offer more than blather. Otherwise, don’t bother. Of course, you’re likely being paid to be Lord Haw-Haw.
Your mistake Romeogolf, is that you presume you’re competent enough to judge me.
Reread your posts here sir, you’re the one tossing out pompous blather.
…crimes against the earth…puppet masters….drug trade…perverse profits…..
I mock your “substance” and your “credibility”. Are your getting the drift……
Romeogolf, you would fit in as the fourth!
http://www.cartoonsbyjosh.com/ankle_of_integrity_scr.jpg