Who’s to blame for a lack of knowledge and lack of support around climate change?
While 97% of scientists understand that global warming is happening, and is human-induced, only 47% of the American public believes in anthropogenic global warming, and only 42% are aware that scientific agreement exists. To whom do we point for this consensus gap?
1. The Media
I think the media is the biggest cause of the consensus gap, and lack of knowledge regarding climate change/global warming.
As a journalism major myself, this is very disappointing, but it’s true. The media holds too strongly to its journalistic norm of balanced reporting. With an issue like climate change, it is found that journalists attempt to represent both sides with equal or close-to-equal screen time and attention. However, climate change isn’t a 50-50 issue; it’s supported by 97% of scientists. But, as a result of treating it as a validly two-sided issue, the public believes it as a validly two-sided issue.
In a study by Maxwell and Jules Boykoff, they looked at this effect in newspaper reporting by four major newspapers from 1988 to 2002. They found that in every year from 1990 to 2002, the difference between journalistic and scientific discourse about climate change was statistically significant.
There are even some media outlets, such as Fox News, that go out of their way to oppose climate change. According to MediaMatters.org, Fox News only talks about climate change when it’s cold, using the temperature as a means of debunking climate change. During the cold spell between January 2 and January 8 of this year, they brought up climate change 9 times, each time denying it. Contrarily, they only brought up climate change once in July 2012 (the hottest recorded month on record for the U.S.), and in that one time, they denied it.
Outlets like Fox News often use cold weather in an attempt to disprove climate change. And while this most recent winter was certainly one of the coldest for some regions in the U.S., California actually experienced one of the hottest winters on record. The point is that this intense winter occurred in pockets of the U.S., which, by the way, is only one country. And since global warming affects more than just the U.S., media outlets should stop making such crass assumptions.
2. Politics
Politics is another huge influencer on the public’s mindset. Unfortunately, global warming has become a politically polarized issue, for an abundance of psychological and sociological reasons that would take far too long to explain.
I tend to think that global warming has actually become a highly stereotyped issue. If you believe it, and if you believe that action needs to be taken on it, you’re automatically linked to liberal viewpoints. This shouldn’t be the case. Global warming is not a political issue; it affects everyone and it affect’s everyone’s surroundings. It should not be on the political agenda of any party; it should simply be on everyone’s agenda.
As someone who tends to side with conservative or libertarian viewpoints on many other issues, this is especially frustrating. Why can’t I be an environmentalist and have conservative viewpoints?
If caring about the environment wasn’t such a politically polarized issue, and only associated with liberal points of view, maybe more people from the republican and libertarian parties would emerge in support of environmental action.
Frankly, it bothers me that the Republican Party doesn’t seem to care at all about the environment. I understand not supporting federal action for economic reasons, but even if our politicians would just voice concern regarding global warming, maybe the people would actually start to care.
Here’s a video of six Colorado senatorial candidates saying they don’t believe in global warming, without any hesitation. This is exactly the problem.
3. Companies
Okay, so some companies are actually very supportive of climate change and climate change action, even some you might not expect. Even Exxon Mobil, who makes their living in fossil fuels, now supports a carbon tax because they recognize their impact on the planet and are willing to pay for their damages.
However, there are some company leaders that will not budge.
While Nestle as a whole supports climate change and action, Nestle’s CEO Peter Brabek has voiced otherwise. According to a ThinkProgress article, he said that climate changes have always existed and they always will. He believes that, by trying to fix climate change, people are playing God. Another set of leaders, the Koch brothers of Koch Industries, have actually led action against climate change. They were found to be the source of a pledge that circulated around Congress, that representatives signed to prevent climate change legislation.
So there you have it, sources of the consensus gap on global warming, and how they have influenced the American public for the worse.
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