A quick statistic from the article:
"87% of the scientists believe in evolution and 84% believe that the earth is warming because of human activity while 32% of the public respondents believe in evolution and 49% believe in anthropogenic global warming."
Statistics like this remind those of us in the scientific community (or at least those of us living in the internet age that are brave enough to venture outside the friendly confines of youtube and facebook) that while there are many things we find to be inarguable truths, society may find to be fallacy.
The first question which comes to mind is "Why exactly is there such a wide gap between the beliefs of the scientific community versus that of the general public?" With little deliberation I think the obvious conclusion is that much of the general public simply hasn't done their homework, which leads us full circle back to "Why?" Especially considering that we now live in the age of information. Simply typing the word "Sustainability" into google provides you with over 28 million pages. Almost limitless information at your fingertips. There are a couple of ways to answer this question, and while I doubt either answer is entirely correct, I believe that it is in fact some mixture of the two.
First, I believe the general public has a pass the buck attitude when it comes to embracing real change in the environment. While enough information has been provided to the general public that roughly half of the population confirms that they believe climate change is caused by human behaviors, very few truly wish to make any sort of effort in order to slow or reverse this progression. To take it a step further, the Waxman-Markey bill has shown that much of the US population is outraged when told that righting the climate ship will hit their wallets. The general argument is that with the economy being down it is a bad time to ask for more money from US citizens. My response would be that there will always be a reason to wait until tomorrow to correct our habits and repair the damage we've done. Furthermore, what better time to change the mindset and habits of the American people than during a recession? As has been stated by many economists, the time of excess is over. There is no better time than now to embrace living within your means, appreciating what you have instead of longing for what you don't, and making sure your money goes a long way when you spend. Is that not in many ways the definition of sustainability? If we take a wait and see approach to the climate epidemic, our children and their children will be handed a world that may very well be beyond repair.
The other cause of complacency in the general public regarding climate change is the circulation of misinformation. The most common argument I've heard is that climate change is cyclical and that we are simply peaking right now. Within a few years global temperature will return to normal levels and pollution has little (if any) effect on climate. I recently came across a graph that effectively sums up this argument:
There are two obvious conclusions to draw from this graph:
1. Temperatures do in fact fluctuate over time.
2. Net temperature has been clearly increasing since around the 1970s.
(For the record that graph was taken from nasa.gov which I consider to be fairly legit.)
For the sake of time and space I won't delve too far into the misinformation circulating, but I think the above example pretty well sums it up.
The next part of the article discussed what is potentially the biggest way the scientific community can reach out and influence the public, and that is becoming more involved in the world of politics.
The trouble with politics is that in spite of all of it's potential, it often devolves into a mudslinging contest filled with half truths and personal attacks. There were a few interesting methods outlined in order to get the word out and improve public perception regarding climate issues.
1. Normalize peer reviewing of environmental reports. While most scientific evidence is well founded and heavily researched, facts can be accused of being fiction when there aren't concrete standards for peer review.
2. Spend more time connecting climate science to public concerns. While there is an almost absurd amount of information out there, we still haven't done enough to outline how climate change really hits them at home.
3. This one is probably the biggest issue but also the most difficult to overcome. The general public needs to become better educated. Not just in regards climate related issues, but the general principles and processes of science itself. This all begins in the public school system, where science has notoriously been overlooked or outright ignored.
It's a long and arduous road ahead, but in spite of all of this, I'm incredibly proud of the steps this country has taken. I'm optimistic that ultimately reason will win out over fear and greed and the world will be a much greener place when we pass it on to the next generation.
The story can be found here: http://legalplanet.wordpress.com/2009/07/09/science-the-public-and-policy/
