Matter of Perception

Review of "The Weather Makers: How Man is Changing the Climate and What it Means for Life on Earth" by Tim Flannery, Atlantic Monthly Press.

Climate change | Cold comfort | Economist.com:

"Mr Flannery's most intriguing thought, though, is almost a throwaway point. But it is one that only an evolutionary biologist would have come up with. He suggests that if humanity were facing the threat of cold, rather than heat, the talking would have been over long ago and a strong plan of action would be in place. His point is that Homo sapiens is a tropical species which, having only recently spread to temperate and frigid climes, still thinks like a tropical species. It really fears the cold, but rather likes the heat. The word “warming”, therefore, has positive overtones. So perhaps the underlying problem is not so much, as in the case of staying slim, that you have to trade a real sacrifice now for a potential benefit in the future, but that a lot of people who are perfectly willing to believe that global warming is happening don't really see it is a problem at all."

The piece also talks about how his analysis takes apart H2 ideas as "probably technically unfeasible."
He suggests abandoning coal, the "most carbon-intensive fuel around" for solar, geothermal, wind and ... nukes.

He does think hybrids can work (not do, but can).


And the whole thing on "warming" being well, all "warm and fuzzy" ...
Maybe it fit with:

George Lakoff tells how conservatives use language to dominate politics:

"Conservatives have spent decades defining their ideas, carefully choosing the language with which to present them, and building an infrastructure to communicate them, says Lakoff.

The work has paid off: by dictating the terms of national debate, conservatives have put progressives firmly on the defensive."

Thanks to Doc for prior comments on George's work.