From George Mason University, shifting the message. Note that this is the same university that was shocked at the outcome of their poll on TV weathercasters. Look for this message in the media soon. Confusing weather and climate maybe? People don’t suffer from climate change in a single day, but local weather changes. Cold and flu “season” for example.
When Climate Change Becomes a Health Issue, Are People More Likely To Listen?
New study suggests re-framing the issue helps people better understand and relate to climate problem
FAIRFAX, Va.—Framing climate change as a public health problem seems to make the issue more relevant, significant and understandable to members of the public—even some who don’t generally believe climate change is happening, according to preliminary research by George Mason University’s Center for Climate Change Communication (4C).
The center recently conducted an exploratory study in the United States of 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 to the information.
Previous research conducted by Mason investigators and others, using people’s beliefs, behaviors and policy preferences about global warming as assessed in a national survey, identified six distinct segments of Americans, termed Global Warming’s Six Americas.
In the current research, 4C director Edward Maibach interviewed approximately one dozen people in each of the Six Americas after they read the brief essay on the human health implications of global warming. As expected, he found that members of the audience segments who already believe strongly that climate change is happening had a strong positive response to the new information, while people who are less sure if climate change is happening also found value in the information. Nearly half of the comments made by members of the “Disengaged” segment, for example, indicated that the essay reflected their personal point of view, was informative or thought-provoking or offered valuable prescriptive information on how to take action relative to climate 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 help people make connection to already familiar problems such as asthma, allergies and infectious diseases, while shifting the visualization of the issue away from remote Arctic regions and distant peoples and animals,” says Maibach. “The public health perspective offers a vision of a better, healthier future—not just a vision of an environmental disaster averted.”
The research, which was published in the latest issue of the BioMed Central Public Health journal, also provides clues about specific public health messages that might not be helpful (such as eating less meat) and points to examples or associations that might trigger counter-arguments and negative reactions.
“Many leading experts have suggested that a positive vision for the future, rather than a dire one, is precisely what has been missing from the public dialogue on climate change thus far,” says Maibach. “We believe this survey is one step in shaping a way to talk about climate change that will reach all segments of the public—not just those who already are making behavioral changes.”
A copy of the full study can be found online at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/qc/1471-2458/10/299.
The gun control groups tried to do the same thing. Although there’s still a few doctors that try to push the idea of guns and associated violence as a public health issue, most have given it up. They failed at that attempt, and will fail on this one too. The public was smart enough to not buy the tactic on guns, and and they won’t buy it with respect to AGW either.
I think the only ‘health’ effects we will see from ‘Climate change’ are negative ones ultimately derived from poorly thought through energy policies based on wind and solar. To be brief; during Winter, more people will freeze to death because of said policies.
Didn’t we just read here yesterday how the Chicago Field Museum is doing this, with more potent Poison Ivy and the dangers of the spread of malaria.
Tsk, tsk … AGW proponents really have it bad:
… the glass is half empty
… every sunny, blue sky has a rain cloud just waiting to form and rain on your picnic
… things are going to get bad before they get worse
… anything bad can happen (not if), and it will
Or, to use Ayn Rand’s words, the malevolent universe premise.
This is introducing Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and, in this case, is brainwashing with bent propaganda to condition people to believe what they are told. This is getting dangerous. All the more important to talk to people and get them to understand what the global warming movement is trying to do – scare everybody into believing that we are somehow responsible for some predicted catastrophe which has yet to be proved will happen. It is all about power and control.
“It is reasonable to foresee the threat that the breaking of a crucial warm
stream as the Loop Current may generate a chain reaction of unpredictable
critical phenomena and instabilities due to strong non linearities which may
have serious consequences on the dynamics of the Gulf Stream thermo-
regulation activity of the Global Climate”
http://femalefaust.blogspot.com/2010/07/gulf-oil-disaster-is-loop-current.html
Energy Secretary Chu said BP would save the planet. Now it looks like BP is accused of climate change.
Donna Laframboise says:
July 19, 2010 at 8:53 am
Thanks for the link to the George Mason Center for Climate Change Communication.
I note with interest that one of their partners is none other than…the Weather Channel!
Birds of a feather…
MrsB says:
July 19, 2010 at 9:16 am
“The BBC are running an article about shrinking glaciers in the Himalayas, complete with ‘before and after’ pictures. Any comments?”
Yes, before and after pictures are absolutely meaningless unless each of the 15,000 or so glaciers are chronicled. Glaciers are dynamic and not fixed to a size or location. They are constantly expanding and shrinking. It is simply more hysteria. The BBC should read this story and re-frame the arguments for totalitarian abuses of the individual. They’ve been slaughtered in the glacial area of the argument.
Even worst case climate change is equivalent to most of us to moving about 200 miles nearer the equator. No biggie. I use this estimate (from Lomberg, ISTR) to scale the claims of warmists. Like when they say we’ll get more snow and storms because of ACC. I live in Oxfordshire. If I moved to mid-France, about 200 miles south, would I see worse storms and snow? Nope.
Of course, if I wanted to negate the effects of ACC, I could move three miles to the top of that 600 foot hill over there, and the WHOLE EFFECT would be wiped out.
I understand people actually live in the tropics, even as far as the equator itself. Scary.
CodeTech says:
July 19, 2010 at 9:25 am
Every time I read something like this I’m more convinced that I’m right. This has little to do with Science and a LOT to do with agendas and politics. I agree with Shub – let them talk, they’re doing a better job of discrediting themselves than “we” ever could.
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I agree, only I would ratchet it up a few notches, and encourage them to do more.
People are sick and tired of this, tired of bad news, and every poll is showing the numbers of people believing going down, while the numbers of people not falling for it going up.
We’re not 50 ft under water, billions of people have not died, New York is not frozen, and it’s still snowing.
It helps more than anything that we have a government that lies just about everything….
“Communication” is the Warmer’s new word for “Propaganda”. They can’t use “propaganda” directly as that conjurs up all sorts of bad memories from the Cold War, so they use a gentler, more obsequious word to describe it. However, their “communication” is indeed equivalent to “propaganda” and more and more people are catching on. Must be tough to be a Warmer these days–their faith is being exposed for the political Marxist cult that it truly is.
This is so FRUSTRATING!
“Heat Wave” hits the east coast for a week. “Record (bogus) temperatures..”
One elderly black lady in Philadelphia dies, attributed to the “Heat” (of course, note Heat does not equal temperature, I’m speaking colloquial ignorance here..)
Hum, same time, among the 100,000,000 people in this “Heat Wave”, 175 die on the highways, 1/3 to 1/2 due to “drunk driving”.
Wonder where the priorities should be.
Max
When the climate changes, and it never stands still for too long, it causes stress on populations. Vermin multiply and viruses thrive in cold & damp. Locusts come out in excessive dry spells. Heck, there’s a malady for just about every condition you can shake a stick at. What’s new here? Vermin of the two-legged variety have infested the place, bringing thier inverted resoning forth in an attempt to cash in. If we give them our money, they will give us thier paragorical blessing.
When the climate changes, and it never stands still for too long, it causes stress on populations. Vermin multiply and viruses thrive in cold & damp. Locusts come out in excessive dry spells. Heck, there’s a malady for just about every condition you can shake a stick at. What’s new here? Vermin of the two-legged variety have infested the place, bringing thier inverted reasoning forth in an attempt to cash in. If we give them our money, they will give us thier paragorical blessing.
Do you know something? You better” throw the towel”, accept Cap&Trade and everyone will forget about any climate change/global warming, for good or bad.
Please tell me, what are those “Six Americas”? I don’t know.
Where to begin. Have people been so brainwashed that they no longer know what the experience of “summer” or “winter” encompasses? As memory serves, there has always been seasonal flu in the winter and allergies in the summer. As well, summer at times can be hot, winter cold. Is everything other than perfectly average weather now considered anomalous or even extreme?
Richard Telford,
the article you referenced was known to google before it vanished.
Climate Skepticism Could Soon Be a Criminal Offence in UK | Watts …
19 Jul 2010 … People who are sceptical of climate change could soon be facing criminal charges in the European Court of Justice, British National Party …
wattsupwiththat.com/…/climate-skepticism-could-soon-be-a-criminal-offence-in-uk/ – 2 hours ago
But since it’s sourced from the BNP, it’s likely completely bonkers rubbish, so no loss…
They can try to redress socialism a million different ways, but if it smells like a dead rat it definitely is one.
Is frostbite a “health issue”?
This post is very imoportant. Why? Because it goes a long way to putting on full display the problem with science today. That science is a tool of a message carefully crafted for an outcome.
Kyoto/Global warming/man made global warming: represents one of the most outstanding marketing and sales acheivements in the history of the world. The fallacy of “facts” be damned. The transperancy of it all, makes its acheivement all the more impressive.
I recommend Chialdinis work: The Psychology of Persuassion, to see just how these marketers earn their living.
I found it!, these are the Six Americas LOL:
1)The Alarmed
2)The Concerned
3)The Cautious
4)The Unconcerned
5)The Doubtful
6)The Dismissive
(1) and (2) are Kool-Aid drinkers and Global Warming Church followers
(3) Have been invited to drink it, but still undecided.
If anyone really thought that ‘climate change’ was a scientific question, this nonsense should put that misconception to rest. The issue for these academics is not “Are we causing the Earth’s climate to change?” but “How can we convince the po’ ignorant masses that this ridiculous hobby horse called ‘climate change’ requires their sacrifice and tax dollars?”
Can you imagine a “Center for Quantum Physics Communication,” devoted to convincing the public that there is something to this field? Scientists don’t need to propagandize, but political ideologues do.
/Mr Lynn
Fix it now! For the children!
Amazing. This is the same thing “they” tried to do with gun control through the CDC. Thankfully, Congress withheld the funding for that little bit of junk science. Sadly, I have little hope that the SCOTUS will rule that there is no such thing as man-made climate change. Anyhow, this is what you get when your agenda drives your methods.
““Global warming can harm people both directly and indirectly. Directly, global warming causes more extreme weather patterns including more frequent heat waves, more violent storms, and rising sea-levels – all of which can lead to people being harmed or killed.”
Auugh the “violent storms” meme again. Dr. Roger Pielke Jr. keeps trying to kill it (it’s apparently a misrepresentation of his work), but “the cat came back…”
This is why the later IPCC reports are still so dangerous. The are treated by the majority of the non-climate community as rigoruous, accurate, and definative. What marketing. Sigh.
After the Copenhagen and AH1N1 fiascoes none believe them anymore.
What new story are they planning now?
Here’s hoping the George Mason “University”, who ever they are decide to crank the CAGW machine on health issues!
The reality is that warm=good and cold=bad. Just check below to see how winter kills:-
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/01/06/winter-kills-excess-deaths-in-the-winter-months/