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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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 Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 4:39 am Post subject: Eco-Speak and �Green� Propaganda |
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http://www.independent.org/blog/?p=2060
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The New York Times reports that it recently received accidentally by email a copy of the latest findings and recommendations by the environmental marketing/messaging (i.e., propaganda) firm ecoAmerica.
The firm �and allies in the environmental movement have been briefing officials in Congress and the administration� to re-cast global warming terminology because the public is not buying the scare-mongering of a climate crisis. Of course, political propaganda campaigns are nothing new, but the various interest groups pushing fervently for climate corporatism don�t want to lose what they consider their great opportunity now under an Obama White House.
Indeed, another New York Times article has reported that, �A Pew Research Center poll released in January found global warming last among 20 voter concerns; it trailed issues like addressing moral decline and decreasing the influence of lobbyists.�
Instead, according to ecoAmerica those seeking to build public support for environmental central-government planning should simply alter their communications to the following more soothing terminology:
* Old: �global warming�
New: �our deteriorating atmosphere�
* Old: �carbon dioxide�
New: �moving away from the dirty fuels of the past�
* Old: �energy efficiency�
New: �saving money for a more prosperous future�
* Old: �the environment�
New: �the air we breathe, the water our children drink�
* Old: �cap and trade�
New: �cap and cash back� or �pollution reduction refund�
As further reported by the Times, ecoAmerica counsels that environmental communications should be kept vague with as little pertinent information as possible:
Another key finding: remember to speak in TALKING POINTS aspirational language about shared American ideals, like freedom, prosperity, independence and self-sufficiency while avoiding jargon and details about policy, science, economics or technology. |
http://www.independent.org/blog/?p=2060
�our deteriorating atmosphere� sounds much like "our crumbling infrastructure", a staple of the leftwing in Canada. And these expressions of platitudinous doom are quite effective. Before long, Canadians actually seemed to think that their infrastructure was crumbling.
What is most troubling, is that these eco doom pushers are briefing congress on how to scare the public sufficiently so they will, I assume, accept zero-growth policies as exist in California. |
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Julius
Joined: 27 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 5:28 am Post subject: Re: Eco-Speak and �Green� Propaganda |
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| mises wrote: |
| these expressions of platitudinous doom are quite effective....these eco doom pushers are briefing congress on how to scare the public sufficiently |
Fact: the environment is deteriorating.
It may not be so bad locally in the US (which has well-developed policies), but globally speaking, the environment is taking a severe hammering. if you don't think so, do a google search on fish stocks, wildlife populations, loss of natural habitats, climate change, greenhouse emmissions, dissapearing glaciers, melting ice shelfs, illegal logging, illegal hunting, trapping, poaching, the drying out of China and its increasing aridification, etc etc etc. All the hard data from thousands of scientists is not a conspiracy to scare folks, its entirely real. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 6:03 am Post subject: |
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Less the "climate change" stuff, I'm sure you're right. But these talking points are aimed at a domestic American population, not China et al.
As The Economist recently noted, California has become a playground for the wealthy and a trap for the poor. The wealthy (and this is all over the west) push their pet agendas on the state which retard development and make solid the separation between rich/poor.
Now, a primary problem is that the US and others have offshored their manufacturing to states that do not impose any cost on pollution. So we consume at less cost to us and more cost to the natural world. I fully support protectionism rooted in an attempt to equalize the cost of environmental regulations between the US - China and others.
But the OP is not about this. It is about the slick PR special interest groups will use to scare the population into accepting policies that -domestically- are against their interests.
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." H.L. Mencken |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 6:27 am Post subject: |
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| It is about the slick PR special interest groups |
Please define 'special interest group'. (I tried to get Kuros to do that the other day, but he never came back to that discussion.) I'd really like to know how 'special interest group' does NOT equal 'an interest group I don't happen to agree with'.
Really. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 6:31 am Post subject: |
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| Sure, it can mean that. BFD. |
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Julius
Joined: 27 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 6:41 am Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| Quote: |
| It is about the slick PR special interest groups |
Please define 'special interest group'. (I tried to get Kuros to do that the other day, but he never came back to that discussion.) I'd really like to know how 'special interest group' does NOT equal 'an interest group I don't happen to agree with'.
Really. |
In Korea, the few environmentalists that exist are usually branded "A minority interest group" by the govt. I didn't realise that a healthy environment was such a "special interest" that it warrants being ignored at every turn.
The new falsely-named "Green deal" is basically "Lets push ahead with concreting over every last site of special scientific interest for more appartment blocks and industrial zones".
By contrast, the US is lucky. It actually has such things as nature reserves, planning permission, laws, and credible environmental impact assessments that have not been corrupted by businessmen with fat envelopes. |
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 6:56 pm Post subject: |
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| mises wrote: |
| But the OP is not about this. It is about the slick PR special interest groups will use to scare the population into accepting policies that -domestically- are against their interests. |
Depends on the policies in question and what you define as their interests. These talking points could easily be used -- for example -- to promote a massive shift towards a heavily solar/nuclear energy economy and an electric (as opposed to petrolium) based transport infrastructure, which I would say is very much in our interest in terms of energy security, quality of life, and assured sustainability. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 7:38 pm Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| Quote: |
| It is about the slick PR special interest groups |
Please define 'special interest group'. (I tried to get Kuros to do that the other day, but he never came back to that discussion.) I'd really like to know how 'special interest group' does NOT equal 'an interest group I don't happen to agree with'.
Really. |
Its a group at the center of a specific issue. Like recent citizens with immigration policy or Enron with energy trading regulations or banks with federal bailout. |
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