Brendan Smith: Should We Remain Silent About Climate Change?

For the last several years many of the biggest players in the climate movement have argued that to save the planet we need to purge the words "global warming" and "climate change" from our talking points and educational materials. Poll-oriented groups like the Breakthrough Institute and the Environmental Defense Fund argue that public opinion surveys prove Americans care most about jobs and lack the capacity to act on some distant threat.
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Eerily, the "good news" strategy is heavily influenced by the Republican pollster and messaging maven Frank Luntz -- infamous for coining phrases like "death tax." In 2009 the Environmental Defense Fund teamed up with Luntz 's firm The Word Doctors to figure out how to help marshal public support for a climate bill. Luntz's advice? "The least important component of climate change is climate change... You're fighting the wrong battle. What they want is an end to dependence on foreign oil."
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So what was the effect of climate activists' decision to stop talking about climate change? The enemies of the planet won. Climate legislation is dead.
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* The right wing, backed by the fossil fuel industry, have spent millions of dollars promoting this story: The climate crisis is an imaginary threat invented by liberals to justify government power over individuals and companies, destroying both liberty and jobs in the process. To remain silent about the reality of the climate change threat is to maximize the credibility and effectiveness of this argument. Conversely, spelling out the facts of climate change is the way to expose the climate denialist argument for the hoax it is.