Since much time has passed in which more clarity on the climate crisis is available and now mainstream, I sincerely wonder if your two posts would now be read differently by those who took such umbrage that the topic was even raised. I admired your patience and humanity in dealing with some very strident and very personalized reactions. But I also hope you feel that recent years have only underscored your original points about the need for CC skills in political analysis and decision making.

One person wrote, “Alarmist statements such as ‘Island and low-lying countries—places like Bangladesh and Vietnam—will lose large portions of their land mass, producing tens of millions of climate refugees, ” cause people to shut off, and disregard the conversation.”

But why? Low-lying areas are ALREADY underwater. This is not alarmist prediction, it is “now.” But even when we humans know something exists, many of us “shut off.” We simply don’t want to identify. And, if someone or something is implying that we change our lifestyles? Get out! That’s just rude!

Why is the question whether humans caused climate change or not? People are, in effect, shouting like children, “I didn’t DO it!” Regardless of the cause, there are consequences. We can roll up our sleeves like adults, and pitch in to solve it.

Personally, I loved your article. Sure, substitute “conclusions” where you wrote “facts.” I agree with this not so much because I think you should try to avoid offending people, but simply because it is a more precise term. All science is a process, never a final destination, and all along the way its core is made up of “assumptions” and “conclusions,” all of which are displaced over time by greater understanding and more encompassing models.

“Crucial Conversations is supposed to be about talking about “stuff that matters.” I’d love to see a dialog about the human tendency to go into silence or violence on any topic with economic implications. Many of those letters were examples of one or the other, I think.

Difficult topics involve difficult conversations with all sorts of pitfalls. Thank you for your humility. Please continue to use political and sensitive topics to train us!

I appreciate your willingness to continue tackling political and social issues in this forum. It’s unfortunate that the most important issues of our time tend to be the ones we don’t discuss because we’re too worried about offending people.

I see Crucial Conversations as a tool that you can use to talk to anyone about anything, even if you disagree. It is through opening our minds to what others believe and why they believe it, and them doing it in return to us, that we come to greater understanding of each other and find a common ground to work from.

Personally, I was not offended in the least by the global warming talk. But I can understand how certain people with certain views would have been. My hope, though, is that we can turn that into a productive, reasonable conversation, rather than saying a topic is off-limits for this forum.

There is a moral code written on our hearts. How brave are you?

Your follow up letter was moving and humble, you have a great heart.

Thanks for sharing courage with us. God love you, Cheryl

Bob

Keep up the good work.
Ed