David RobertsVerified account

2. Okay, "disgust" is too strong. (Off to a great start here.) It has sparked lots of great conversations, etc. But still. A little disgust.

3. Most people are barely aware of climate change & have no idea how scary & proximate it is. That's the baseline fact, the core problem.

4. Along comes a scrupulously researched, factually rich, and utterly terrifying cover story on climate change in a major publication.

5. Piece is wildly successful, gets enormous traffic, reaches well outside the climate "bubble," gets people talking. Glorious opportunity!

6. What do leading climate voices do? Immediately set in w/ onanistic tut-tutting about "doomism" & off-base scientific niggling.

7. They could not have coordinated better to blunt the piece's impact, slow some of its momentum, give its critics ammunition.

8. "Nobody responds to doomism," they smugly assure one another, as hundreds of thousands of readers stampede past them to get to the piece.

9. "People want hope & solutions," they smugly assure one another, as the piece outperforms the 100s of "rah rah solutions" produced daily.

10. Eager to signal (to one another -- no one else cares) that they are the Most Sober, the Most Responsible, and above all, The Smartest...

11. ... they race to the internet to expose "errors." DWW later reduces the majority of those objections to rubble:https://twitter.com/dwallacewells/status/884934238226788352 …

12. Corrections never get the same exposure, tho, so anyone who wants to ignore the piece can now say it's been "debunked" by its own side.

13. Public almost had to confront the true terror of climate change, but they were saved from that uncomfortable fate ... by climate hawks.

14. It's galling enough that it is so profoundly un-strategic, so short-sighted, so contrary to the stated goal of raising climate concern.

15. What's worse is that it's justified with this cut-rate pop social psych -- shallow misuse of sketchy, unreliable, un-replicated studies.

16. Physical scientists (& science) are the heroes of the climate story -- they discovered & exposed it. Praise & respect, always.

17. But they are also, often, its villains. Because climate entered politics via science, climate politics & communication ...

18. ... have always been dominated by scientists and, well, scientism. The hedged, cautious, jargon-laden language of science ...

19. ... has been deemed the only legitimate language of climate. Very Serious climate types compete to see who can be more sciencey.

20. What's more, physical scientists (& the wonks/analysts who fashion themselves mini-scientists) aren't exactly known for their humility.

21. So when it comes to politics, policy, & communications, they make grand pronouncements delivered in tones of arrogant certainty ...