Goodbye Global Warming
This one proved too contentious for my editors but I’m including it here as a bonus article so you can decide for yourself. “To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.” Thomas Paine. I want you to stop talking about ‘Global Warming’. The toothless phrase has become too glib, too cosy, too easy to argue against. In fact, thanks to human psychological quirks like the Backfire Effect and Confirmation Bias, ‘global warming’, as a catchphrase, has actually become counterproductive. It’s meaning and use has morphed from a simple factual description into a banner announcing political allegiance. It’s interpreted as a virtue signal that turns off as many people as it engages, a prompt to just stop listening. It’s become divisive in an area where cooperation is paramount. We need something less confrontational, that better reflects the reality and the dangers we currently face. ‘Climate emergency’ won’t do. It might be the Oxford Dicti