We're beyond 'argument' and 'debate', now it is 'conversation' and 'discussion'

The time for climate change action advocates to be using such words as “argument” or “debate” is over and from here it is more important to say “conversation” or “discussion”.

Understanding the mind
will help us understand
climate change.

Psychological research clearly illustrates that the use of “argument” or “debate” serves only the purposes of the skeptics who cherry-pick facts to convince the uninformed that climate change is not really happening.

In fact the last six words in that sentence “climate change is not really happening” is of itself dangerous and immediately becomes a “truth” for those among the undecided masses with those same people almost automatically and unconsciously attributing that “fact” to whoever made that statement, even if it is an august organization such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

No longer can we discuss myths as basic research shows that within just days most people quickly forget what is and isn’t a myth and, equally become confused about the realities, the facts that were unambiguously explained to them.

People tend to hear what they want to hear and if what they are hearing does not within personal frames of reality, then they seem to mysteriously change what they heard.

Further confusing all that, the complexities and realities of climate change are so vast that it is unlikely they fit within the imagined realities of anyone and so while it is challenging and difficult to keep personal understandings in synch with what is really happening, it is doubly difficult to have another understand and accept what is unfolding.

So, be careful with your language, choose your words carefully and remember that even the most precise and accurately engineering statement can be manipulated by dedicated skeptics.