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Related: About this forum99 One-Liners Rebutting Denier Talking Points — With Links To The Full Climate Science
99 One-Liners Rebutting Denier Talking Points With Links To The Full Climate Science
By Joe Romm and Climate Guest Blogger on May 7, 2013 at 12:37 pm
Progressives should know the disinformers most commonly used arguments and how to answer them crisply. Those arguments have been repeated so many times by the fossil-fuel-funded disinformation campaign that almost everyone has heard them and that means youll have to deal with them in almost any setting, from a public talk to a dinner party.
You should also know as much of the science behind those rebuttals as possible, and a great place to start is SkepticalScience.com.
BUT most of the time your best response is to give the pithiest response possible, and then refer people to a specific website that has a more detailed scientific explanation with links to the original science. Thats because usually those you are talking to are rarely in a position to adjudicate scientific arguments. Indeed, they would probably tune out. Also, unless you know the science cold, you are as likely as not to make a misstatement.
Physicist John Cook has done us a great service by posting good one-line responses and then updating them as the science evolves and as people offer better ways of phrasing. Below I have reposted the top 99 with links to the science. You can find even more here. Everybody should know the first 20 or so.
For instance, if somebody raises the standard talking point (#1 on the list) that the climates changed before, you can say, Climate reacts to whatever forces it to change at the time; humans are now the dominant forcing. ...
By Joe Romm and Climate Guest Blogger on May 7, 2013 at 12:37 pm
Progressives should know the disinformers most commonly used arguments and how to answer them crisply. Those arguments have been repeated so many times by the fossil-fuel-funded disinformation campaign that almost everyone has heard them and that means youll have to deal with them in almost any setting, from a public talk to a dinner party.
You should also know as much of the science behind those rebuttals as possible, and a great place to start is SkepticalScience.com.
BUT most of the time your best response is to give the pithiest response possible, and then refer people to a specific website that has a more detailed scientific explanation with links to the original science. Thats because usually those you are talking to are rarely in a position to adjudicate scientific arguments. Indeed, they would probably tune out. Also, unless you know the science cold, you are as likely as not to make a misstatement.
Physicist John Cook has done us a great service by posting good one-line responses and then updating them as the science evolves and as people offer better ways of phrasing. Below I have reposted the top 99 with links to the science. You can find even more here. Everybody should know the first 20 or so.
For instance, if somebody raises the standard talking point (#1 on the list) that the climates changed before, you can say, Climate reacts to whatever forces it to change at the time; humans are now the dominant forcing. ...
See the full table with the 99 responses at: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/05/07/1972581/99-one-liners-rebutting-denier-talking-points-with-links-to-the-full-climate-science/
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99 One-Liners Rebutting Denier Talking Points — With Links To The Full Climate Science (Original Post)
kristopher
May 2013
OP
phantom power
(25,966 posts)1. nice
limpyhobbler
(8,244 posts)2. Good resource.
Also liked the cartoon
caraher
(6,279 posts)3. This is more important than it may initially seem
The effectiveness of RW "messaging" lies, in part, in the relentless repetition of specific (usually dumbed-down) phrases. Countering it works better if one can respond in kind (even if it's far less intellectually satisfying than giving a detailed beat-down with footnotes).
I'm not big on memorization, but I think I do need to memorize these one-liners...
joshcryer
(62,287 posts)4. Should x-post this to the E/E pocket reference guide