Climate preaching, the proposal that consumers should voluntarily and individually protect the climate, induces a feeling of guilt that elicits climate denial and the observed reluctance to communicate the problem —climate silence. It is argued that climate preaching is therefore overall detrimental. The implicit induction of guilt and its rejection is a major reason for difficulties to communicate on climate change. The argument is exemplified by the story of Ignaz Semmelweis, the pioneer of evidence-based medicine who was born exactly two hundred years ago.
