“Scientists sound the alarm on global warming, but Americans sleep in.”
The article presents the struggle of the scientific community, specifically the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), to convince the general American public of the dangers of global climate change. As the article mentions, about two-thirds of Americans believe that global warming is happening now, or will happen in the near future, during their lifetime. But only 36% of Americans believe that climate change will actually pose a great threat to their way of life. Another number I found interesting was that 42% of Americans think that the “seriousness of global warming is generally exaggerated in the news.” To that, I have a few things to question. First, is it exaggerated by the news, or is it an accurate portrayal of an exaggerated reality? After all, climate change has become drastic in the last few years. Second, what type of messaging would be most appropriate/efficient to reach a broader and more receptive audience? I went to an environmental summit held at UofT in late October, and one of the lecturers, Tom Rand, brought up a very interesting point regarding climate change messaging. He said something along these lines: ‘we need to take an emotional approach to informing people about climate change, something they can relate to, because time after time, scientists show us numbers and statistics supporting their claims, but that hasn’t really changed anything, has it?’. He mentioned how he did a very informal survey, asking taxi drivers: “If a person told you climate change was really happening, who would you believe? (scientists, media, government, who?)” Most of the taxi drivers answered they would believe that piece of information if told by a family member, or a person close to their heart. What Rand was trying to get at was that humans are emotional beings before anything else. Our first reaction is always a gut reaction, and reasoning comes after. So are people just denying the fact that climate change is real because they fear it and believe they can’t do anything about it? Or is it just a way of ‘revolting’ against dominant ideologies?
News source: http://time.com/28721/global-warming-climate-change-gallup/