“I Have A Nightmare!” Activists Searching For A Climate Martin Luther King

Der Spiegel reports here on the latest ideas from climate activists to revitalize the stalled climate movement, which has run aground over the last year – thanks to Climategate and gross errors in the 2007 IPCC report. Hat-tip oekowatch.org.

Yawn – a “loser topic”

Surveys have found that the population is bored by the issue as a whole, and show that a majority of the public is not even interested in climate change. The topic is too technical, too dry and something that’s 100 years out into the future.

Der Spiegel writes that just one third of Dutch people are concerned about climate change, even though the country is highly vulnerable to rising sea levels! Der Spiegel writes:

Earlier, the telephone rang off the hook whenever we had extreme weather, recalls Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Now hardly anyone calls anymore. Climate has become a ‘loser topic’, he told a ‘Tagesspiegel’ editor on the German TV news program ‘Panorama’.”

Calls for the use of shock, emotion, sex and advocacy journalism

So what do you do to revitalise a dud issue? You repackage the product and re-market it. Der Spiegel piece presents the ideas that activists want to use to get the issue back into the headlines and in people’s minds.

According to the report, some activists want to use emotion, sex, critical debate, improved communication and a new scientific language to better communicate with the public. These are some of the less spectacular methods. Others are calling for more controversial methods, such as advocacy journalism. Der Spiegel writes:

Climate activists are currently financing million dollar training programs for environmental journalists. The target is to promote journalism that is interest-related.”

But experts warn this could backfire as the line between science and advertising becomes blurred. This could make the science even less credible than it is now (as impossible as that may seem).

A climate Martin Luther King /  and where’s Al Gore?

One particularly odd strategy activists are pushing for is the search for a charismatic Messiah. Der Spiegel writes:

A Messiah is needed: Like Martin Luther King spurred the black movement, we now need a climate-Messiah, so believes environmemtal scientist Andreas Ernst of the University of Kassel. The message could be something like: “I have a nightmare“. Al Gore, who for awhile played the role and won a Nobel Prize for his moving film, is hardly ever seen anymore.”

A Climate Messiah?  “I have a nightmare”?  Al Gore?

Folks, it’s over. What they need is Brünnhilde in Götterdämmerung.

18 responses to ““I Have A Nightmare!” Activists Searching For A Climate Martin Luther King”

  1. DirkH

    What they write about “advocacy journalism” makes one cringe. BBC and New Scientist have been doing this for ages now. Anybody at home at Der Spiegel???

    1. Michael Snow

      Same advocacy journalism has been all we get in the US from the mainstream media and our “public” broadcasting.. A year ago at this time, just before Climategate [which the msm, here, ignored, and the NYT would not print these “illegal” documents] our PBS “NewsHour” stated, “: “…this huge team of scientists from all over the globe issued these unanimous warnings about the really extreme danger to the planet.”
      That’s the ‘journalism’ that we get here.

  2. Ed Caryl

    I have a nightmare! 100,000 people in Europe freezing to death this winter for lack of affordable energy.

  3. R. de Haan

    There is still a lot of money fueling the AGW machinery.
    That’s the main reason it is going to take some time before the engine stops.

    However, I don’t think the Globalists will give up their objectives.
    The AGW scare is only one of the poison pills the have fed into our societies.

    There is one bright side of the story.
    Without the AGW scare we probably wouldn’t know anything about their sick plans.

    Now we know and work to do something about it.

  4. Mindert Eiting

    Don’t forget that in these days charlatans get Nobel Peace Prizes.

  5. R. de Haan

    From Joe Bastardi
    THURSDAY EVENING

    FROM GAVIN PARTRIDGE AGAIN… MORE CHILLING FACTS TO WARM YOUR HEARTS.

    Gavin has emailed me a correction on the CET temps.. Apparently the records only exist into the 1700s for the month, so, we cant be sure its the coldest week since the 1600s

    Here is what he said

    Its been pointed out to me that one of the facts I have given you is wrong.

    When I said its been the second 1st-8th December on CET record, with records starting in 1659, that was wrong. Whilst monthly CET records do indeed begin in 1659 the daily data only begins in 1772.”

    So it appears that we can only confirm this was the coldest since 1772 I am sure that will warm the cockles of all your hearts.

    Still a pretty long time since this kind of cold… we can agree on that, eh? Hmmm I wonder what the proxy tree rings say about all this.

    ciao for now ***
    http://www.accuweather.com/ukie/bastardi-europe-blog.asp?partner=accuweather

  6. ArndB

    The SPIEGEL reports from Cancun 12/09/2010
    http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,733690,00.html

    “Norbert Röttgen said on Wednesday during his first appearance at the UN climate summit in Cancun, Mexico. “People in business, in politics and in the society at large no longer see climate change as a threat, but as an opportunity and a challenge.”
    Now they talk about “Fifty Billion Annually” for a green fond. The party is not over.

    1. DirkH

      I like this one:
      “European Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard is already warning of the consequences should the summit fail. “I think that what is at stake here is multilateralism,” she said. “It’s absolutely crucial that this process, which is the only one we have, can prove that it can deliver results.””

      Yes – for the first time in her live, she is right – it is multilateralism that is at stake, and -this is now my opionion- YES, IT MUST FAIL !

    2. DirkH

      Oh and this one, about Norway’s Stoltenbergs plan to give away 50bn Dollar a year:
      “In total, Stoltenberg calculated, such measures could generate $50 billion annually — […]
      Still, economic rationality is far from the only game in town in Cancun.”

      What a wonderful definition of “economic rationality”; Der Spiegel shows its true worldview again.

      1. ArndB

        Der Spiegel, 02 Dec 2010 on sea level rise: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,732303,00.html
        “According to the most recent estimates, the sea level is expected to rise by about 1 meter (3.28 feet) — on average — in the next 100 years. This is the number that will be mentioned again and again during negotiations at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico over the next two weeks.”

        Der Spiegel, 30 Nov.2010; on: a Climate deal in Cancun;
        “According to climatologists writing in the journal Nature, the earth is on its way to becoming hotter by 3 to 3.5 degrees Celsius “; and
        “Röttgen is convinced that steps must be taken to avert this temperature increase, and that these efforts present an opportunity for Germany, because environmental change will create new opportunities for economic growth.”

        Der Spiegel, 09 Dec.2010, on Global Warming Summit (link above) “Climate change itself is changing — from an existential danger to civilization into an opportunity for profit.”

  7. DirkH

    Good news, in a way. Berlin elects a new mayor; the Greens were destined to win, as large parts of the Berlin population are unemployed artists and bohemians, always willing to vote for a tax-hike party as they pay none of it.

    Now, even the Berliners noticed that the candidate of the Greens, Frau Künast, is too lunatic even for Berlin – she wants to make 30 km/h the speed limit and stop the construction of the new airport.

    Hmmm, you don’t wanna be an unemployed artist in Berlin with no easy aerial access to a cheap weekend in Mallorca…. and so, click, click, their brains re-adjust…

    http://www.ftd.de/politik/deutschland/:schlechte-umfrageergebnisse-kuenasts-stockender-angriff-aufs-rote-rathaus/50203593.html

    (Not that they wouldn’t have deserved her.)

  8. R. de Haan

    Here is the real nightmare.
    According to Joe Bastardi Europe will be hit by a top 10 December in terms of extreme cold.

    http://www.accuweather.com/video/704630559001/bastardi-europe-gets-hit-by-extreme-cold.asp?channel=vbbastaj

    1. TinyCO2

      The AO is heading deep into negative territory, which seems an excellent indicator of European cold. We’ve had these conditions far more often since last winter started, it makes me wonder if something has changed globally.

      1. Ed Caryl

        You think?
        Take a look at the sunspot activity.
        http://www.nwra.com/spawx/ssne-cycle23.html

        1. TinyCO2

          Well yeah, but that’s just the start of the chain. What order do things happen?

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