{"id":5380,"date":"2011-03-31T07:36:08","date_gmt":"2011-03-31T11:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/collideascape\/?p=5380"},"modified":"2011-03-31T07:36:08","modified_gmt":"2011-03-31T11:36:08","slug":"understanding-the-climate-state-of-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.keithkloor.com\/?p=5380","title":{"rendered":"Understanding the Climate State of Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2009, a cover story<\/a> in The New York Time<\/em>s magazine titled, “Why Isn’t the Brain Green?” opened this way:<\/p>\n

Two days after\u00a0Barack Obama<\/a> was sworn in as president of the United States, the\u00a0Pew Research Center<\/a> released a poll ranking the issues that Americans said were the most important priorities for this year. At the top of the list were several concerns “\u201d jobs and the economy “\u201d related to the current recession. Farther down, well after terrorism, deficit reduction and en ergy (and even something the pollsters characterized as “moral decline”\u009d) was\u00a0climate change<\/a>. It was priority No. 20. That was last place.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Tramadol For Sale Online Several days ago, Gallup released poll results<\/a> ranking U.S public concern for nine environmental issues. Global warming came in last. I discussed the poll yesterday in this post<\/a>, and a lively comment thread ensued.<\/p>\n

So what’s going on here? Why isn’t global warming more worrisome to people? Jon Gertner, in his Times<\/em> magazine piece two years ago, summarized the conventional explanations t<\/em>hought<\/em> to be responsible:<\/p>\n

https://alpineinterface.com/hiking-mountain-guides/ Debates over why climate change isn’t higher on Americans’ list of priorities tend to center on the same culprits: the doubt-sowing remarks of climate-change skeptics, the poor communications skills of good scientists, the political system’s inability to address long-term challenges without a thunderous precipitating event, the tendency of science journalism to focus more on what is unknown (will oceans rise by two feet or by five?) than what is known and is durably frightening (the oceans\u00a0are\u00a0rising).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Buy Ultram Online He could have written that paragraph today. But as his story lays out, there is a growing body of social science research that suggests the above reasons are not entirely sufficient (though they are surely contributing factors).<\/p>\n

Order Ambien Online Earlier this month, I attended a conference<\/a> on the state of this research and how it can be used to better communicate the climate change issue. The three-day symposium was called “Climate, Mind, and Behavior.” On the first day, one of the presenters,\u00a0Jonathan Rowson<\/a>, a UK scholar, set the stage with this:<\/p>\n

Tramadol 50 Mg Price Quite a few of us realize that [more] information isn’t working, that facts don’t do it. The question is, why exactly?”\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One reason, Columbia University’s Elke Weber<\/a> explained during her presentation (her work was also featured in that NYT magazine article), is that our brains are able to process only so many concerns at a given time:<\/p>\n

http://www.amandasatoz.com/?page_id=1479 If we have attentional limitations, if we have to be selective”\u00a6it’s because we don’t have sufficient attention for everything.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Weber characterizes this as our “finite pool of worry.”\u009d<\/p>\n

http://masterfacilitator.com/doodles4leaders/ Thus, fluctuating public opinion on climate change, as measured in year-to-year polling surveys, should be understood in this context, Weber advised:<\/p>\n

Buy Zanaflex Online Without Prescription Sometimes we see these precipitous dips [in concern about climate change]. A lot of it has to do with “\u02dccompared to what’ are we concerned about climate change.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For example, Weber attributed a big dip in 2001 to the September 11 attacks on New York’s World Trade Center:<\/p>\n

We only have so much attention and worry to go around and compared to terrorism, climate change was low on the agenda.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

https://disneycruisinggroup.com/admins/ Similarly, she added, a more recent dip in public concern occurred in 2008, amidst the global economic collapse.<\/p>\n

Another reason why climate change doesn’t gain more traction, Weber said, is because of a lack of salience:<\/p>\n

Buy Valium Online Without Prescription It doesn’t have the characteristics of making our hair stand up on end. For most of us, it’s distant in time and space.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Drew Westen<\/a>, an Atlanta-based psychologist and political analyst who was beamed in via skype, reiterated during his talk that bombarding the public with more facts and data on climate change was a losing strategy. Instead, Westen argued that, “people don’t have strong emotions about climate change,”\u009d and that the best way to make the issue more deeply felt was through storytelling. Stories activate emotions, he said, noting:<\/p>\n

Order Ativan Online We’re a storytelling species.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hydrocodone Purchase Online What’s needed, Westen said, are climate change narratives that<\/p>\n

Buy Amoxicillin Online Without Prescription speak to ordinary citizens, particularly those that are on the fence.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Buy Ultram Online Westen also emphasized the need for “multiple messages”\u009d that spoke to different demographics. Messages that succeed, he said, link climate change to values and concerns that people already have. So one message crafted around energy solutions might appeal to one group, while another message on pollution and health concerns might appeal to another.<\/p>\n

https://dentalprovidence.com/crowding/ This is similar to the framing strategy<\/a> advocated by Matthew Nisbet<\/a> and others.<\/p>\n

Tramadol Online Purchase I’ll be posting more dispatches from this symposium in the coming week. Meanwhile, those that are interested can head over to the Garrison Institute’s website<\/a>, where a number of the talks are posted. Weber’s is just below.<\/p>\n

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