May 15, 2007

It's all in the presentation.

A UK Professor makes a claim that global warming enthusiasts can be setting the wrong message to people. It's not about the content, which some claim is still arguable amazingly enough, but about style. Mike Hulme believes that if you alarm people with tales of doom that the public will become more apathetic about the issue.

Sadly he may have a point. When the public sees images of possible sensationalized events they may be quick to react for a short while, but when presented over and over again westerners soon become distraught and will surrender to whatever catastrophe may or may not head their way.

Take terrorism for example. People still complain about taking off their shoes at airports even though some waste of sperm attempted to blow one up disguising a bomb as footwear. It takes a whole two minutes out of our lives, but yet we spoiled Americans feel we can't be bothered with a task a child can perform.

The prophets of the apocalypse have a difficult message to bring even when they're right. When Y2K was seen by a few as a coming catastrophe of biblical proportions yet many just shook their heads and took comfort in the fact that their government will take care of it. Not wanting to seem like an idiot they made no preparations in case of a massive worldwide infrastructure outage and thankfully they were right.

Americans hate to be inconvenienced in any manner no matter the cause. We choose foods that will kill you quicker than smoking simply because it's served in a timely manner. We justify our SUV buying by claiming that having two children is reason enough to drive something that's harmful to the environment and will never see off road use. We buy cheap diamonds even though the blood of many has tainted them. We are a simple people really, but when Al Gore comes knocking on our door we may find his information compelling, but as time goes on we make no effort to contribute to going green on an individual level. We leave that to the corporations and the government, cause for whatever reason we still think they're very effective at every issue they touch.

What kind of presentation is helpful to bring the message that individuals are assisting in the rampant destruction of our ecosystem and can hopefully make behavioral changes that will stop it? Probably none really, cause sadly no one wants to accept responsibility for the things they help destroy.

At times I can be no different.

"The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don't say, 'Well, I read a science fiction novel that told me it's not a problem.' If the crib's on fire, you don't speculate that the baby is flame retardant. You take action." - Al Gore

Climate messages are 'off target'

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Environmentals today have put the 'mental' in environmental. I just wish they would shut up and let capitalism find the solution. When we run out of fossil fuels, capitalists will find something else. When we run out of oxygen, capitalists will find something else. When we run our of water, capitalists will find something else. Necessity if the mother of invention, not fear.