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Americans and Climate Change: Leveraging the social sciences III

"Americans and Climate Change: Closing the Gap Between Science and Action" (PDF) is a report synthesizing the insights of 110 leading thinkers on how to educate and motivate the American public on the subject of global warming. Background on the report here. I'll be posting a series of excerpts (citations have been removed; see original report). If you'd like to be involved in implementing the report's recommendations, or learn more, visit the Yale Project on Climate Change website.

Today, two more social-science analyses: dynamic responses (the conflicts between multiple media messages) and issue cycles (the waxing and waning of public attention to an issue). Good stuff.

And with this, we conclude Part I!

Umbra on smelly CFLs (and mercury too)

Dear Umbra, We have been replacing our incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, but we notice that the compact fluorescents have an odd smell. Are they emitting something we should know about? Compact fluorescent bulbs contain mercury; can the bulbs discharge the mercury into the air? Tom MurphyWellsboro, Pa. Dearest Tom, I don’t know […]

A piece of truthiness is born

The story of how a quote from my interview with Gore became a right-wing zombie meme, on Blogcritics.org.

Americans and Climate Change: Leveraging the social sciences II

"Americans and Climate Change: Closing the Gap Between Science and Action" (PDF) is a report synthesizing the insights of 110 leading thinkers on how to educate and motivate the American public on the subject of global warming. Background on the report here. I'll be posting a series of excerpts (citations have been removed; see original report). If you'd like to be involved in implementing the report's recommendations, or learn more, visit the Yale Project on Climate Change website.

Today we take a look at two social-science questions: first, the efficacy of threat-based vs. solution-based appeals (something we've discussed at length here), and second, the "loss-aversion effect." The latter in particular was fascinating to me -- it changed the way I look at a number of environmental messages.

Will ADM surrender gracefully to cellulosic ethanol?

Don't miss a great piece by Sasha Lilley about Archer Daniels Midland and ethanol: "The dirty truth about green fuel."

The latter part covers the environmental sins of corn-based ethanol -- familiar to Gristmillians -- but the first part provides some crucial context. It's about ADM.

Here's a taste:

Notes from the Appalachian frontier

Working as an office bureaucrat can certainly have its days, but as the leader of an amazingly talented, motivated, and productive team of 28 OSM/VISTA volunteers working in poverty stricken and environmentally devastated Appalachian coal country, I am continually awed by the attitudes and achievements of those I am fortunate to work with.

The following letter is an example of one volunteer's satirical perspective of her work in the anthracite region of north eastern Pennsylvania. It was recently submitted to my office as the cover letter for her quarterly progress report and is reproduced here, with permission, for your entertainment and enlightenment. Enjoy!

Dear Jenny:

Our water is orange, or forebodingly clear; our valley is succumbing to sprawl-induced hypertension; new storm water systems are allowed to infiltrate mine pools. Before long, the Anthracite region will be a scene from my favorite childhood Halloween story where the neighborhood children sneak over the witch's home on snow days, because her snow is always black.

There is hope! In my exploration of the Wyoming Valley, I discovered watershed heroes battling each foot of concrete channelized streams. Grizzly Adams' fourth cousins are in the tributaries willing the return of trout and American shad. Clusters of justice-seeking youth are cleaning and banning illegal dump sites in their neighborhoods. Murmurs are growing louder; defense of the environment for its sake and for the sake of human health is strengthing.

Enclosed you will find several war-zone documents - victories of one battalion on one battle front.

May we send only water we would drink downstream!

In solidarity,

Valerie L. Taylor
OSM/VISTA Watershed Development Coordinator
Eastern PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation

CEI at it again

Oh brother. CEI is at it again with a "special web-only bonus" titled Al Gore: An Inconvenient Story.

Electric_Penguin over at Hugg.com sums it up nicely:

CEI has created quite the moral dilemma for themselves. They are condemning Al Gore for generating dramatically more Carbon Dioxide emissions than an average person while traveling around the world giving speeches on global warming. You can't condemn Al Gore for traveling and contributing to Global Warming when you are denying Global Warming exists. Either "CO2 is life" or Global Warming exists and the balancing act between to little and too much begins.

Americans and Climate Change: Leveraging the social sciences I

"Americans and Climate Change: Closing the Gap Between Science and Action" (PDF) is a report synthesizing the insights of 110 leading thinkers on how to educate and motivate the American public on the subject of global warming. Background on the report here. I'll be posting a series of excerpts (citations have been removed; see original report). If you'd like to be involved in implementing the report's recommendations, or learn more, visit the Yale Project on Climate Change website.

The final chapter of Part I makes a simple but vital point: If communicating climate change effectively is the goal, it makes sense to call on the expertise of social scientists, whose work is devoted to studying the social dynamics in which communication takes place. Today, the intro.

Duh, China’s big

Jared Diamond's book Guns, Germs and Steel is an excellent read, and a great resource for environmentalists. Even better is his second book, Collapse. In it, he looks at how the collapse of civilizations has often been precipitated or exacerbated by environmental stress. One of his most stunning chapters is on China, and the vast ecological problems it faces thanks to its breakneck development.

How vast? Howzabout 10% of GDP?

China's pollution problems are costing the country more than US$200 billion a year, a top official said yesterday as he called for stronger action to balance environmental protection against economic development.

Environmental damage is costing the government roughly 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product, estimated Zhu Guangyao, deputy chief of the State Environmental Protection Agency. China's GDP for 2005 was US$2.26 trillion.

This probably explains why China abandoned it's attempt to develop a "green GDP" measurement earlier this year -- if the Chinese submitted their economy to a full accounting, it would have almost certainly shown negative growth for the last several years.

Gore/Lohan feud

Caught Gore on Leno last night. Jay compared the efforts to stabilize the ozone layer to global warming. It's a pretty good analogy: International cooperation combined with some new technology has gotten that particular environmental disaster under control. Maybe there is hope after all. I think Gore has realized that the American entertainment industry may be more powerful than the military industrial complex.

Gore mentioned his feud with Lindsay Lohan and that he might consider a nude scene in his next movie if "the script had integrity and it advanced the story."