{"id":445406,"date":"2026-05-20T08:58:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T15:58:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=445406"},"modified":"2026-05-20T08:58:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T15:58:37","slug":"climate-hushing-pragmatism-demoting-exaggeration-mckibben-fools-himself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=445406","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Climate Hushing\u2019: Pragmatism Demoting Exaggeration (McKibben fools himself)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From Master Resource<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Robert Bradley Jr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a thing out there called a \u2018climate husher.\u2019 Anyone who cares about what fossil fuel pollution is doing to Earth\u2019s natural systems needs to ignore these so-called \u2018climate hushers\u2019 \u2013 people who think Dems should stop talking about climate.\u201d \u2013 Sheldon Whitehouse<\/a> (D-R.I.)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Climate messaging is a mess as the Progressive Left tries to square the energy circle with affordability. Traditional messages have flunked. Complained<\/a> one activist:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Maybe the problem isn\u2019t climate denial. Maybe it\u2019s climate messaging. We\u2019ve been attempting to scare or shame people into caring, and it\u2019s not effective. Is it time to completely rethink how we talk about climate and sustainability? We\u2019ve spent years trying to influence people through fear, data, and moral urgency. The results? Mixed.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The latest despair comes from Bill McKibben in his Earth Day post, Let\u2019s TALK Climate<\/em><\/a>. \u201cThe so-called \u2018climate hushing\u2019 among Democrats is a product of political consultants looking at polling data,\u201d he complained. McKibben then quotes from Claire Barber\u2019s essay<\/a>, which summarized a report by Searchlight Institute (a Democratic think tank), \u201cThe First Rule About Solving Climate Change: Don\u2019t Say Climate Change.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cWhile battleground voters overwhelmingly agree climate change is a problem, addressing it is not a priority for them,\u201d the report said. Similar to the American Mind Survey, Searchlight found that a majority of Americans believe that climate change is a problem, but rank it below other key issues, like affordability. Searchlight also found high partisan (Democratic) association with the terms \u201cclimate\u201d and \u201cclimate change\u201d and suggested jettisoning mentions of both altogether.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

McKibben then provides some context:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The phenomenon really dates, I think, from the 2024 presidential campaign, and Kamala Harris\u2019s abbreviated run for the White House. Climate campaigners were perfectly happy to shut up during that run for an obvious reason: Joe Biden had given them, in the Inflation Reduction Act [IRA], most of what DC could provide: a massive infusion of funds for the energy transition we require.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The job was to pull Harris across the finish line so that her administration could continue the work well underway with the IRA. We failed at that: her message, on the politics of joy and the dangers of Trump ran aground on frustrations with inflation. Climate played no discernible part in the election\u2026..<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Wimp-out. Climate and energy were<\/em> an issue to Republicans, independents, and libertarians, along with the overreach of the Democrat Party elsewhere. The IRA, notably, was an attempt to create too-big-to-fail, rent-seeking wind, solar, battery, and EV businesses. That horrendous bill threw deficit dollars at the worst energies, pure misdirection and waste that is now being undone by a new administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to McKibben:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

In the wake of their defeat, Democrats have seized on \u201cbread and butter issues,\u201d and left supposed culture war clashes behind. That\u2019s come at a real cost. Corporations, feeling only pressure from the right, have backslid dramatically on their climate commitments. (The big tech guys, who just a couple of years ago were noisily pledging they\u2019d go net zero, are currently planning gas-fired data centers that Wired reports<\/a> today will produce more emissions than mid-sized European countries). And journalists are, not surprisingly, wandering away from the whole area: the wonderful Amy Westervelt yesterday described<\/a> a dour meeting of environmental reporters where, among other things, she learned that not just the Washington Post<\/em> but also Reuters was laying off its climate desk.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Good news, right? The hyperbole and strongarming for bad over good, exaggeration over realism, encouraged at the federal level by a new Administration, was removed. Amway-eyed McKibben can see only red instead of green (as in less wind\/solar\/battery blight\/sprawl).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Meanwhile, funders of climate journalism are largely folding, too, opting to back comms projects instead or simply stay away from anything as \u201ccontroversial\u201d as climate and journalism altogether. The cowardice is breathtaking.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

McKibben quotes from the \u201cmedia watchdogs\u201d FAIR<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Our research has found that online news coverage of climate change has been trending down. A search of the term \u201cclimate change\u201d in Media Cloud\u2019s US\u2013National dataset<\/a>, which indexes 248 online outlets, found that there was almost 32% less climate coverage in 2025 than 2024. This trend is similar in TV news. A recent Media Matters (3\/4\/26<\/a>) study found that climate coverage on major US commercial broadcast TV networks was down 35% in 2025\u2026.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

McKibben fools himself, something that Richard Feynman warned against<\/a> decades ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

What\u2019s interesting about all this is that it\u2019s not being driven by some change in the basic underlying politics of climate [wrong<\/strong>]. New polling data makes clear that Americans are as concerned about climate change as they ever have been [wrong<\/strong>].<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Polls? Ask the question in terms of priorities or in terms of monetary sacrifice. Sure, it is easy to want a freebie to make X or Y better. But consider the reality that climate change and the environment are way back of, yes, bread-and-butter issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAmericans\u2019 assessments of the environment are particularly bleak ahead of Earth Day,\u201d McKibben continues, \u201cas a record-low 35% offer a positive rating of the environment\u2019s quality and two-thirds say it is worsening.\u201d But that is largely from exaggeration from a political takeover of natural\/social science around the issue. The neo-Malthusian consensus has been wrong since at least the 1960s on a variety of related issues. Bottom line: people are not the problem, they are the solution.<\/em> Julian Simon lives in death. Paul Ehrlich is intellectually dead in death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McKibben advises what the Republicans would like to see happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The key data point here, for political thinkers, is that the increase in worry about the environment is being driven by independent voters, precisely the people who will determine how the midterms go.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I doubt it. The Green New Deal Scam is exposed. \u201cClimate\u201d is code for energy inferiority, don\u2019t eat meat, and don\u2019t be temperature-comfortable indoors. Self-sacrifice, in other words, is a nonstarter from the U.S. <\/a>to France<\/a>. McKibben\u2019s alarmism is just too tired and old. [1]<\/strong> Time\u2019s up: Get real or get out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/strong> McKibben ends on his regular alarmist note:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

So, especially as the climate disasters of this hot summer start to mount, and as the El Ni\u00f1o [a natural phenomenon?] starts to scare people anew, I\u2019d spend some time if I were campaigning making fun of the president on this score\u2026.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u2026 with a killer fallacy and magical thinking on stilts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

I\u2019d couple [the pitch] with a full-on assault about affordability\u2026. a quick move to clean energy drives down prices. If I were preparing ads for congresspeople, I\u2019d definitely have one about how a solarized Australia will, in June, start providing electricity free for three hours every afternoon to all its citizens. Talk about affordability!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Climate messaging is a mess as the Progressive Left tries to square the energy circle with affordability. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":445408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691821050,691818465,691818056,691818128,691841543,691827854],"class_list":["post-445406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bill-mckibben","tag-climate","tag-climate-change","tag-energy","tag-green-new-deal-scam","tag-progressive-left","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0-ChatGPT-%E2%80%98Climate-Hushing-Pragmatism-Demoting-Exaggeration-McKibben-fools-himself.png?fit=1536%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1RRY","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":267218,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=267218","url_meta":{"origin":445406,"position":0},"title":"Bill McKibben: Is It Hot Enough Yet for Politicians to Take Real Action?","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/13\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The test of McKibben\u2019s claim that green energy is economically viable will be whether green energy installations survive the coming withdrawal of government support.","rel":"","context":"In \"Bill McKibben\"","block_context":{"text":"Bill McKibben","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=bill-mckibben"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-390.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-390.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-390.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-390.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-390.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":400506,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=400506","url_meta":{"origin":445406,"position":1},"title":"Weepy Bill McKibben Strives for Relevance","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"09\/06\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Bill McKibben has always been the climate movement\u2019s most reliable prophet of doom, though never a particularly cheerful one. 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