{"id":252,"date":"2013-06-26T22:11:44","date_gmt":"2013-06-26T22:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/threeworlds.campaignstrategy.org\/?p=252"},"modified":"2013-06-26T22:11:44","modified_gmt":"2013-06-26T22:11:44","slug":"obama-its-hot-in-here-so-lets-cut-pollution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/threeworlds.campaignstrategy.org\/?p=252","title":{"rendered":"Obama: It\u2019s Hot in Here \u2013 So Let\u2019s Cut Pollution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Obama\u2019s recent climate speech<\/a> is important. \u00a0Not just because the juggernaut of US Government may at last be seriously rolling forward on climate but because he has a new \u2018narrative\u2019, \u00a0to use a much over-worked term.<\/p>\n

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When he was a Presidential Candidate, G W Bush pledged to cut carbon dioxide pollution.\u00a0 Numerous qualitative research studies have shown that Americans (especially Republicans) are more likely to support \u2018cutting pollution\u2019 than \u2018action on climate change\u2019 .\u00a0 It\u2019s because of framing, past polarisation, \u00a0identity, beliefs and the consistency effect.<\/p>\n

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Some good analyses have been written of Obama\u2019s speech (for example<\/a> Gareth Kane) and Americans have naturally tended to focus<\/a> on what happens to the Keystone Pipeline but for me what is more important is that Obama has (or his team have) framed the problem as about \u2018Carbon Pollution\u2019. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s no accident: he used the term 30 times in that speech.\u00a0 And the more anyone denounces it, the more they use a framing that once hooked G W Bush into pledging climate action, before someone, or something, got to him and \u00a0as President, he reneged<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If Obama\u2019s speech works and he gets some practical measures through the US political system, expect to hear a lot more people, especially politicians, following his lead. \u00a0He stands a reasonable chance because he put forward a set of measures which are largely inside the envelope of his powers, rather than requiring a major change of heart in Congress.<\/p>\n

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And taking off that jacket \u2013 no accident surely.\u00a0 When Jim Hansen\u2019s testified to Congress on 23 June 1988 and announced human made climate change had pretty much arrived, the temperature outside hit 37.C.\u00a0 His message literally felt credible.\u00a0 In 2013 Obama gave his speech, again in Washington DC, on a day the temperature hit an almost-as-sweltering 34.C.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0The pictures tell the story.\u00a0 The jacket comes off, the President mops his brow.\u00a0 Time to cool it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Obama\u2019s recent climate speech is important. \u00a0Not just because the juggernaut of US Government may at last be seriously rolling forward on climate but because he has a new \u2018narrative\u2019, \u00a0to use a much over-worked term.   When he was … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/threeworlds.campaignstrategy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/threeworlds.campaignstrategy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/threeworlds.campaignstrategy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threeworlds.campaignstrategy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threeworlds.campaignstrategy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=252"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/threeworlds.campaignstrategy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254,"href":"https:\/\/threeworlds.campaignstrategy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions\/254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/threeworlds.campaignstrategy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threeworlds.campaignstrategy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threeworlds.campaignstrategy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}