[ExI] new names

[Anders Sandberg]

William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com> , 30/5/2014 7:13 PM:


 NEW HAVEN (The Borowitz Report)—After  a report from the Yale Center on Climate Change Communication showed  that the term “climate change” elicits relatively little concern from  the American public, leading scientists are recommending replacing it  with a new term: “You will be burnt to a crisp and die.”
This would have been amusing, except I actually encounter people who get terribly upset when I mention climate change is unlikely to be an existential risk. Just check out some of the reactions in the comments: https://theconversation.com/the-five-biggest-threats-to-human-existence-27053
The problem is that they have invested so much in getting their sluggish neighbors to take the problem seriously that they get very touchy about anybody even mentioning there is a bit of hyperbole there. A bit like how the nuclear disarmament movement argued that nuclear wars were guaranteed to kill all of mankind - they believed they had a powerful rhetorical weapon, but the claim merely triggered fatalism. 


Anders Sandberg, Future of Humanity Institute Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University
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