http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100719111957.htm
Framing climate change as a public health problemseems to make the issue more relevant, significant and understandable tomembers of the public -- even some who don't generally believe climate changeis happening, according to preliminary research by George Mason University'sCenter for Climate Change Communication (4C).
See Also:
- Climate
- Consensus of scientists regardingglobal warming
- Scientificopinion on climate change
- Instrumentaltemperature record
The center recently conducted an exploratory study in the United Statesof people's reactions to a public health-framed short essay on climate change.They found that on the whole, people who read the essay reacted positively tothe information.
Previous research conducted by Mason investigators and others, usingpeople's beliefs, behaviors and policy preferences about global warming asassessed in a national survey, identified six distinct segments of Americans,termed Global Warming's Six Americas.
In the current research, 4C director Edward Maibach interviewedapproximately one dozen people in each of the Six Americas after they read thebrief essay on the human health implications of global warming. As expected, hefound that members of the audience segments who already believe strongly thatclimate change is happening had a strong positive response to the newinformation, while people who are less sure if climate change is happening alsofound value in the information. Nearly half of the comments made by members ofthe "Disengaged" segment, for example, indicated that the essayreflected their personal point of view, was informative or thought-provoking oroffered valuable prescriptive information on how to take action relative toclimate change. Moreover, about 40 percent of those people in the"Doubtful" segment had similar positive reactions to the essay.
"Re-defining climate change in public health terms should helppeople make connection to already familiar problems such as asthma, allergiesand infectious diseases, while shifting the visualization of the issue awayfrom remote Arctic regions and distant peoples and animals," says Maibach."The public health perspective offers a vision of a better, healthierfuture -- not just a vision of an environmental disaster averted."
The research, which was published in the latest issue of the BioMedCentral Public Health journal, also provides clues about specific public healthmessages that might not be helpful (such as eating less meat) and points toexamples or associations that might trigger counter-arguments and negativereactions.
"Many leading experts have suggested that apositive vision for the future, rather than a dire one, is precisely what hasbeen missing from the public dialogue on climate change thus far," saysMaibach. "We believe this survey is one step in shaping a way to talkabout climate change that will reach all segments of the public -- not justthose who already are making behavioral changes."
