People with alligator shoes, as James Hansen calls them – those are the well-paid lobbyists in Washington D.C. that do their best to persuade politicians that fossil fuels are needed to ensure energy and economic stability. You can guess who pays those people. And of course they are not only paid to influence people in the states, but all over the world.

As those lobbyists are extremely well trained in rhetorics – a tool which many people, especially scientists, scuff at because of its persuasive nature – those lobbyists and skeptics are a lot more successful than we are. Most people are better persuaded by well formulated, persuasive arguments, than by facts.

It is time that we learn better rhetorics to have a chance of convincing the public to accept and demand immediate actions inspite of the people in alligator shoes.

Maiken Winter