I suppose that a person who runs from a burning building screaming for help could be accused of using scare tactics. Sometimes the truth is scary. Sometimes facts are frightening.
The environmental movement can be overly sensitive to accusations of alarmist extremism and sometimes responds by toning down its message. Yet, there's no longer any doubt that what scientists are telling us about the impacts of global climate destabilization calls for sounding the alarm. The timid language used by environmentalists isn't nearly as scary as the warnings from the scientific community.
For example, I get mailings on a monthly basis about saving the polar bear from climate change. The cute and cuddly polar bear has become a sort of mascot for the movement.
I've never gotten a mailing about the disruption of our food supply and damage to Midwestern crops. I don't read daily newspaper columnists linking climate change to pandemic disease, more wildfires, or millions of people being displaced by catastrophic natural disasters. In contrast, editorial pages with no standards for accuracy repeat the latest talking points from syndicated flat-earthers.
The fossil fuel industry would have us continue our suicidal energy policies while we ignore the frightening facts about rising temperatures. I don't think sounding the alarm a little louder is such a bad idea.