<html><head></head><body><div><span data-mailaddress="foozler83@gmail.com" data-contactname="William Flynn Wallace" class="clickable"><span title="foozler83@gmail.com">William Flynn Wallace</span><span class="detail"> <foozler83@gmail.com></span></span> , 30/5/2014 7:13 PM:<br><blockquote class="mori" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:2px blue solid;padding-left:1ex;"><div class="mcntgmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(11,83,148);"><p>
NEW HAVEN (<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/" target="_blank" title="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/">The Borowitz Report</a>)—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.”</p></div></blockquote></div><div><br></div>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<div><br></div><div>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. </div><div><div><blockquote class="mori" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:2px blue solid;padding-left:1ex;"><div class="mcntgmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(11,83,148);"><p></p></div></blockquote></div><br>Anders Sandberg, Future of Humanity Institute Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University</div></body></html>