How to Get People to Care About Climate Change

Remember climate change? For the first time since 1984, the issue didn’t even come up in a presidential debate. But bringing climate change back into our national conversation is as much a communications challenge as it is a scientific one. Scientist Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, joins Bill to describe his efforts to do what even Hurricane Sandy couldn’t — galvanize communities over what’s arguably the greatest single threat facing humanity. Leiserowitz, who specializes in the psychology of risk perception, knows better than anyone if people are willing to change their behavior to make a difference

Anthony Leiserowitz on Making People Care About Climate Change from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.

via Yale360

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    • VennData commented on Aug 23

      “…I’m not denying that California’s air is dry, or that there is a drought, but there is no denying that politicians have made this problem immeasurably worse…”

      Hey Carly, it it’s immeasurable, then how do you know?

      She’s a tool.

  1. Melvis commented on Aug 23

    Humans are responsible for only 3% of C02 emissions. Satellites show temps decreasing for past 18 years. More Artic ice than ever. Hope it warms as it will spur plant growth. C02 is plant food not a posion. Even if you believe the bogus science would it not make sense to spend the trillions on mitigation rather than crony capitalism? Millions die each year from easily treated diseases. Not one person has been harmed by Climate Change. You don’t have the balls to post this because apparently I am an asshat to you.

    • DeDude commented on Aug 23

      No you are much more, you are a car full of clowns all by your own little self. Most important you are a case study of why this is not just a communications problem. All the facts in this world could not make you understand reality because you don’t reach your perceptions based in scientific facts.

    • ComradeAnon commented on Aug 24

      And yet, why do we think you’re against Obamacare? The one thing that will save many, many lives from easily treated diseases each year.

  2. lucas commented on Aug 23

    The question is not what percentage of CO2 emissions are attributable to human activity. In a balanced ecosystem, the naturally emitted CO2 is absorbed by plants. Then plants use the CO2 in their respiratory process and emit oxygen. You allude to this fact when you cal CO2 “food” for plants. The question is what are the effects of the imbalance in the CO2-Oxygen cycle produced by the excess emissions attributable to human activity.

    Pictures of arctic ice show it is decreasing every year, not increasing. Increases in sea level are also well-documented. Satellites do not measure temperature; they measure thermal radiation. Temperature changes are then inferred. Since 1979, these inferences have supported warming, not cooling.

    The question is not whether anyone has been harmed recently (last 40 years?) by global warming, but the potential of future harm to the sustainability and what to do about it? This is only one of the problems being kicked down the road, as well as the problems of crony capitalism and disease.

  3. Lyle commented on Aug 23

    A significant part of the evangelical movement expects the end of the world in their lifetime, as a result that group won’t care about climate change as the second coming will take the problem away. Anyway if you expect the end of the world in ones lifetime what may happen in 2100 is a non problem.

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