Global Warming Science: www.appinsys.com/GlobalWarming

 

Psychologists Promote the Global Warming Scare – It’s Good for Busine$$

 

[last update: 2010/11/13]

 

 

Psychologists are lining their pockets with lucre from the big climate scare.

 

This document contains sections on:

 

 

 

[http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture-society/feel-the-guilt-save-the-planet-6127/]

“Never underestimate the effectiveness of guilt. “I wouldn’t want to overstate its power, but it’s one tool we should consider if we want to motivate behavior,” said social psychologist Mark Ferguson of the University of Calgary. “What we’ve found in the research we’ve done so far is that people’s patterns of behavior seem to be almost identical to the patterns of guilt they experience.” Ferguson’s research, which has just been published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, provides important information for governments, environmental organizations or anyone else grappling with the tricky issue of how to persuade people to adopt a more environmentally friendly lifestyle. He found catalytic feelings of collective guilt can be elicited”

 

 

See also: Fear: http://www.appinsys.com/GlobalWarming/Fear.htm

 

 

 

2010 UK Climate Change Communication Advisory Group

September 2010: Advisory Paper: Communicating climate change to mass public audiences

[http://coinet.org.uk/sites/coinet.org.uk/files/Communicating_climate_change_to_mass_public_audiences_0.pdf]

(Published by the Climate Outreach and Information Network: “Our aim is to facilitate the process by which people: overcome denial about climate change; act collectively”

 

“This short advisory paper collates a set of recommendations about how best to shape mass public communications aimed at increasing concern about climate change and motivating commensurate behavioural changes.”

 

It contradicts the environmental organizations who are always promoting small steps towards solving the “climate crisis”. “David MacKay, Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK Department of Energy and Climate change writes: “Don’t be distracted by the myth that ‘every little helps’. If everyone does a little, we’ll achieve only a little” (MacKay, 2008).”

 

Highlights:

 

  • “People aren’t stupid: they know that if there are wholesale changes in the global climate underway, these will not be reversed merely through checking their tyre pressures or switching their TV off standby. An emphasis upon simple and painless steps suppresses debate about those necessary responses that are less palatable – that will cost people money, or that will infringe on cherished freedoms (such as to fly). Recognising this will be a key step in accepting the reality of loss of aspects of our current lifestyles, and in beginning to work through the powerful emotions that this will engender. ”

 

  • “Through the enhanced awareness of what other people are doing, a strong sense of collective purpose can be engendered. One factor that is likely to influence whether adaptive or maladaptive coping strategies are selected in response to fear about climate change is whether people feel supported by a social network – that is, whether a sense of ‘sustainable citizenship’ is fostered.  … There are few influences more powerful than an individual’s social network. Networks are instrumental not just in terms of providing social support, but also by creating specific content of social identity – defining what it means to be “us”. If environmental norms are incorporated at this level (become defining for the group) they can result in significant behavioural change (also reinforced through peer pressure).”

 

  • “A nationwide climate change engagement project using a group-based behaviour change model with members of Trade Union networks is currently underway, led by the Climate Outreach and Information Network. These projects represent a method of climate change communication and engagement radically different to that typically pursued by the government – and may offer a set of approaches that can go beyond the limited reach of social marketing techniques.”

 

  • “The importance of public demonstrations of frustration at both the lack of political progress on climate change and the barriers presented by vested interests is widely recognised – including by government itself. Climate change communications, including government communication campaigns, should work to normalise public displays of frustration with the slow pace of political change. … Climate change communication could (and should) be used to encourage people to demonstrate (for example through public demonstrations) about how they would like structural barriers to behavioural/societal change to be removed.”

 

 

 

2009 Behavior, Energy, and Climate Change Conference

January 2010: Third annual BECC took place Nov 15-18, 2009

[http://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2010/01/becc.aspx]

 

Highlights:

 

  • “Elke Weber, professor at the Columbia University Center for Research on Environmental Decisions … pointed to research showing that the first presented option is often seen as the default and that people generate more reasons to support selection of the first option. This bias can be exploited to nudge people toward pro-environment behaviors. … The electronic registration form that conference participants completed was designed so that the vegetarian, low-carbon-producing lunch option was listed before the meat option and was pre-checked.  About 80% of conference participants chose the vegetarian over the meat option, in contrast to only 5-10% of participants who selected the vegetarian option at previous BECC conferences.”

 

  • “US Congressman Brian Baird (D-Washington), who is a clinical psychologist and former psychology professor, gave a plenary address emphasizing the need to change the public’s understanding of global climate change, suggesting that the phenomenon be renamed “global over-heating.”  He discussed how many people, especially in the winter, think that warming would be pleasant, but that over-heating always creates an image that people find undesirable. … In a separate panel session on translating ideas into policy, Katrina Lassiter from Rep. Baird’s office described the effort in Congress to create a new office on behavioral and social science research within the Department of Energy.  This proposal has been approved at the committee level and is awaiting a vote by the entire House.”

 

[Baird shows his ignorance of the science: most of the warming has been in winter and in increased minimum temperatures – the opposite of overheating. He has also shown his confusion about energy: In an interview with Grist (http://www.grist.org/article/2010-03-12-brian-baird-this-is-not-government-mind-control) he says: “the quickest way to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, to save consumers money, lower the deficit, and improve the environment is to begin to save energy … People say, "I like long, hot showers." I understand that. Do you like passing $1.3 trillion in debt on to your kids? Do you like having them possibly enlisted in wars to go fight for foreign oil?” So long hot showers caused the government deficit and Baird thinks that domestic hot water is heated with foreign oil. Ignorance reigns supreme with these idiots.]

 

 

 

The Psychological and Political Challenge of Facing Climate Change

Conference:  University of the West of England, Centre for Psycho-Social Studies 7 March 2009

 

“Man-made climate change poses an unprecedented threat to the global ecosystem and yet the response, from national policy makers right through to individual consumers, remains tragically inadequate. The Centre for Psycho-Social Studies at the University of the West of England is organising a major interdisciplinary event Facing Climate Change on this topic at UWE on 7 March 2009. Facing Climate Change is the first national conference to specifically explore 'climate change denial'.” [http://info.uwe.ac.uk/news/UWENews/article.asp?item=1438]

 

 

[http://www.uwe.ac.uk/hlss/research/cpss/events/2009/20090307_facing_climate_changes.shtml]

 

 

“The evidence is now irrefutable that man-made climate change poses a huge and unprecedented threat to the global ecosystem and therefore to ourselves. … The extremes of complacency (denial) and despair (retreat), with their common feature of narcissism, are equally lethal in face of this pressing challenge. The conference aims to address the obstacles both to recognition and to effective action.” And “psychological perspectives are of the utmost Importance … Ever since Freud’s discovery that mental health often means thinking the unthinkable, the need to face painful truths and to understand the power of denial has been at the heart of therapeutic work.” [http://www.uwe.ac.uk/hlss/research/cpss/events/2008/climate_change.pdf]

 

Some of the people behind this conference:

 

  • George Marshall, Founder, Climate Outreach and Information Network, author of “Carbon Detox”– Sleepwalking into Disaster – Strategies of Evasion and Denial in Social Attitudes to Climate Change – ”The knowledge of the problem is remarkably well established yet we clearly refuse to recognise the implications of that knowledge”
  • Paul Hoggett, Psychotherapist, Professor of Politics, UWE, and Director of CPSS – The Politics and Emotions of Climate Change Denial -- “We will examine denial from a variety of different perspectives - as the product of addiction to consumption, as the outcome of diffusion of responsibility”

·         Mary-Jayne Rust, Jungian analyst, Ecopsychologist – The Myths by Which We Live, or Die? – The Psychological Dimensions of Our Environmental Crisis

 

You can even join a “social dreaming matrix” associated with the conference to help with the psychobabble.

 

“The conference is for anyone who wants to share and discuss their concerns about denial and avoidance of climate change at an individual or social level, for psychologists and the psychologically-minded who want to develop their insights and skills in the face of powerful defence mechanisms, and for psychological therapists who are increasingly encountering guilt, fear, distress and confusion about the subject, in the course of their work.” [http://coinet.org.uk/news/facing_climate_change_conference]

 

More funny stuff: One of the workshops: “Between denial and despair: the psychodynamics of practical work on climate change” with Rosemary Randall says: “Since 2005 we have worked with over 2500 individuals in both personal and practical ways, achieving measurable CO2 reductions, through a variety of methods from our technique of ‘carbon conversations’ at public events … I am a founder member and director of Cambridge Carbon Footprint” – and the link to cambridgecarbonfootprint.org has only advertising – for cosmetic dentistry etc.

 

These eco-psychological babblers have discovered a new focus for increasing their lucre.

 

 

 

American Psychological Association Promote Greenwashing at their Annual Convention

Convention:  15-16 August 2008

[http://www.apa.org/releases/globalwarmingC08.html]

 

The American Psychologists Association (APA) wants "to launch a national initiative specifically targeting behavior changes, including developing media messages that will help people reduce their carbon footprint ... stepping up efforts to foster a broader sense of eco-sensitivity that the group believes will translate into more public action to protect the planet". The 148,000-member APA will now participate in the brainwashing trying to turn grey matter green. 

 

[http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2008-08-13-green-psychology_N.htm]

 

 

The USA Today article also notes: "News stories that provided a balanced view of climate change reduced people's beliefs that humans are at fault and also reduced the number of people who thought climate change would be bad, according to research by Stanford social psychologist Jon Krosnick. ... Krosnick found that adding 45 seconds of a skeptic to one news story caused 11% of Americans to shift their opinions about the scientific consensus [on global warming]. Rather than 58% believing a perceived scientific agreement, inclusion of the skeptic caused the perceived amount of agreement to drop to 47%."

 

The APA states: "Psychologists need to examine the attitudes and behaviors in the wider context of beliefs about environmental and social change. ... developing an international agenda for psychology and climate change." [http://www.apa.org/releases/globalwarmingC08.html] Jessica Nolan, whose presentation was entitled: “Creating a Culture of Conservation”, discussed “a study of 98 University of Arkansas students showing that most were relatively unwilling to punish fellow students who did not engage in such energy conservation measures as recycling.” At least people are generally smarter than psychologists.

 

 

 

“Green” Groups Target Children

 

The “best social environmental ad” (as displayed at treehugger):

[http://www.treehugger.com/galleries/2009/06/coolest_environmental_advertis.php?page=1]

 

 

10:10 Creates Totalitarian Video

Exploding children

[http://blogs.forbes.com/warrenmeyer/2010/10/07/why-blowing-up-kids-seemed-like-a-good-idea/]

[http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2010/10/al-gore-meets-movie-gore-climate-alarmism-jumps-the-bandersnatch.html]

 

 

Greenpeace Hitler Youth Pushing Totalitarian Vision

Exploiting children

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf53N1CR_XU]