Uh boy, here we go again

Ellen Goodman seems to have hit a bit of a raw nerve with this statement:

I would like to say we're at a point where global warming is impossible to deny. Let's just say that global warming deniers are now on a par with Holocaust deniers, though one denies the past and the other denies the present and future.

To which right-wing commenters Jonah Goldberg responded:

I believe global warming is real, by the way. But people who "deny" — a bad word to begin with — that global warming is real are unpersuaded by media hype and the constantly moving goal posts of a funding-hungry scientific community. People who deny the Holocaust happened tend to be the kinds of people who are actually sympathetic with the perpetrators of the Holocaust. They tend to enjoy poking Jews in the eye with taunts and smirks. I know people who don't believe global warming is happening and let me just say they aren't the same people and to equate them with Holocaust deniers is a reprehensible attempt to dehumanize opponents in an argument.

Of course Jonah would never, ever make analogies to things like the Holocaust or Fascism or the like.



Snark aside, there is a point to be made about the rhetorical use of the Holocaust, Nazism, fascism, Hitler, etc. The comparisons are usually inaccurate, and it makes me personally slightly ill when it occurs. But more importantly is that it buries the really important points as the other side can turn up the volume on the "Holocaust" outrage and thereby discredit every other point. Goodman's article makes the very important point that too much global warming alarmism might be counterproductive:

But there are psychological as well as political reasons why global warming remains in the cool basement of priorities. It may be, paradoxically, that framing this issue in catastrophic terms ends up paralyzing instead of motivating us. Remember the Time magazine cover story: "Be Worried. Be Very Worried." The essential environmental narrative is a hair-raising consciousness-raising: This is your Earth. This is your Earth on carbon emissions.

This works for some. But a lot of social science research tells us something else. As Ross Gelbspan, author of "The Heat is On," says, "when people are confronted with an overwhelming threat and don't see a solution, it makes them feel impotent. So they shrug it off or go into deliberate denial."

Michael Shellenberger, co author of "The Death of Environmentalism," adds, "The dominant narrative of global warming has been that we're responsible and have to make changes or we're all going to die. It's tailor-made to ensure inaction."

That's really an important point to consider. Unfortunately the spin is now that she herself is a global warming alarmist, which is entirely untrue. Matthew Nesbit summarizes the article well.