If you identify as right-leaning, at least in the American sense, then there’s a good chance you already suspect climate change is bullshit.
In that case, I’m not telling you anything new.
On the other hand, if you identify as left-leaning, at least in the American sense, then you should know that “climate change” is in fact bullshit.
The term was a kind of red herring proposed back in 2002 by a Republican pollster, Frank Luntz, in a memo to the administration of President George W. Bush. Luntz wrote:
“‘Climate change’ is less frightening than ‘global warming.’ As one focus group participant noted, climate change ‘sounds like you’re going from Pittsburgh to Fort Lauderdale.’ While global warming has catastrophic connotations attached to it, climate change suggests a more controllable and less emotional challenge.”
Luntz later distanced himself from this memo and the effects it may have had. But it was too little, too late.
The Bush administration had already taken up the fight for “climate change” at the expense of “global warming.”
Over the course of 2023, they started seeing results.
Climate change gradually became the standard way to talk about the environment — not just in Bush administration press releases, but among news media, left-leaning politicians, and ultimately the general population.
It’s now 20+ years later.
Yesterday was Earth Day.
Mainstream media like the BBC and CNN wrote about the occasion.
So did left-leaning media like NPR and the New York Times.
They all bewailed the fact that not enough is being done. And they all used the term “climate change.”
I have no interest in trying to change your mind one way or another about the environment. I identify as neither right- nor left-leaning, but upright, like a refrigerator.
My point is simply to talk about the persuasion aspect of all this, and to highlight what it means for you.
Because you might think the lesson here is to simply come up with a sneaky new phrase like “climate change” and snap your finger to make your customers, constituents, or even competitors play the game you want them to play.
Not at all. Here’s a story from George Lakoff, a UC Berkeley professor of linguistics and a kind of Democrat version of Frank Luntz. Lakoff wrote:
“I was once asked if I could reframe — that is, provide a winning slogan for — a global warming bill “by next Tuesday.” I laughed. Effective reframing is the changing of millions of brains to be prepared to recognize a reality. That preparation hadn’t been done.”
It’s possible to reframe the minds of thousands of your customers and even your competitors so they play your game… use your preferred language… and fume against you in a way that only serves you and reinforces what you want.
But it takes some preparation to do that.
There are lots of ways to do that preparation. I’m sure many of them are fine. But my preferred one is simple daily emails like the one you’re reading now.
If you haven’t tried writing daily emails yet, I can recommend it.
If you have tried writing daily emails, I can recommend keeping it up.
And if you want some guidance on how to keep it up, and what to put in your emails so you prepare all those minds to recognize a new reality, here’s my “intro to daily emailing” course: