In the courts of Public Opinion, it appears some people think that the means justifies the end.

Depending on what you believe, you’ll think that man-made climate change is either “the greatest moral challenge of our time” (aka, Kevin Rudd) or the biggest con of our time, just follow the money trail, it leads straight to Al Gore and those scientists on the receiving end of multi-million dollar grants.

Thankfully, some blokes at Futerra were up to the challenge to develop its Rules of The Game blueprint which outlines the communication strategy for the scare-the-bejeezus-out-of-you man-made climate change movement.

It begins by “blowing away some myths” such as the ones it identified below.

If you want to know how the doomsdayers convince YOU that the planet is about to end, polar bears are becoming extinct and all seaside homes will be under water in the next few years, read on.

Read on and be really, really offended that they insult your intelligence this way.

Here is a snapshot of its contents.

1. Challenging Habits of Climate Change Communication.

• Don’t rely on concerns about children’s future or human survival instincts.
• Recent surveys show that people without children may care more about climate change than those with children.
• “Fight or flight” human survival instincts have a time limit measured in minutes – they are of little use for a change in climate measured in years.
• Don’t create fear without agency. Fear can create apathy if individuals have no “agency” to act upon the threat. Use fear with great caution.
• Don’t attack or criticize home or family. It is unproductive to attack that which people hold fear.

2. Forget the climate change detractors.

• Those who deny climate change science are irritating, but unimportant. The argument is not about if we should deal with climate change, but how we should deal with climate change.

3. There is no “rational man”.

The evidence discredits the rational man theory – we rarely weigh objectively the value of different decisions and then take the clear self-interested choice.

4. Information can’t work alone.

• Providing information is not wrong, relying on information alone to change attitudes is wrong. Remember also that messages about saving money are important, but not that important.

Ah, so it goes on. Read the Rules of The Game. Then you can make up your own mind.

Are the rules of the game good communication strategy or propaganda befitting a Machiavellian era?

Is it right to seriously communicate in this way – when ordinary people and their children are caught between the skeptics and the doomsdayers?

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