I wouldn’t have believed this if I hadn’t read it for myself. This is an actual study and press release from the University of York. I’m surprised they didn’t issue this press release IN ALL UPPER CASE. Those darn whippersnappers.
New rules of engagement for older people and climate change
A new study by researchers in the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) at the University of York calls for better engagement of older people on climate change issues.
The report, prepared in partnership with the Community Service Volunteers’ Retired and Senior Volunteer Programme (RSVP), urges the scrapping of stereotypes which suggest that older people are incapable of engagement, passive or disinterested in climate change.
Instead, the research team recommends new approaches to engage older people, which promote direct interaction and the use of trusted agents that are sensitive to the personal circumstances older people face. The report sets out a ten-point plan to engage older people more effectively on climate change issues and greener living.
Recent evidence from the older age sector highlight the inadequacies of current methods of information provision and community engagement on climate change
The report claims that a combination of climate change and an ageing population will have wide ranging socio-economic and environmental impacts. It acknowledges that older people may be physically, financially and emotionally less able to cope with the effects of climate-related weather events.
Lead author Dr Gary Haq, a human ecologist at SEI, said: “The engagement and participation of older people in climate change issues are important as older people can be seen as potential contributors to, and casualties of, climate change as well as potential campaigners to tackle the problem.”
‘Baby boomers’ (aged 50-64) currently have the highest carbon footprint in the UK compared with other age groups. They represent the first generation of the consumer society entering old age. As they will move to older groups they will replace low carbon footprint habits and values with relatively high consumption.
Dr Haq said: “Recent evidence from the older age sector highlight the inadequacies of current methods of information provision and community engagement on climate change. It is critical to implementing policies to tackle climate change and to address the needs of an ageing population.”
Dave Brown, co-author and member of RSVP, said: “While older people are concerned about climate change, they do not feel they will be directly affected. Nor do they feel they can personally take action to stop it. The older generation represent a missing voice and a missed opportunity.”
Notes to editors:
- The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) is a global science policy research institute headquartered in Stockholm and with its UK office based in the Environment Department at the University of York. Its mission is to bridge the gap between science and policy to achieve change for a sustainable future.
- More about the University of York’s Environment Department can be found on www.york.ac.uk/environment/
- According to the Government’s Actuary Department, by 2050 people aged over 50 will represent 30 per cent of the UK population compared to 2006.
- SEI’s updated calculations show that baby boomers (aged 50-64) have one of the highest carbon footprints (13.5 tonnes/CO2) in the UK compared other age groups Seniors (aged 65-70) have a carbon footprint of 12. 5 tonnes/CO2 while Elders (aged 70+) have a footprint of equal to the UK average of 12 tonnes.
- As the ‘baby boomers’ move into the older groups they will replace low carbon footprint habits and values with relatively high consumption habits. This “replacement effect” is crucially important and identifies the need for a much clearer targeted effort on climate change and consumption aimed at this demographic group.
- The ten-point plan for engagement of older people in climate change issues:
-
- Abandon old stereotypes
- Get to know your target audience
- Use trusted brands
- Use peer to peer communication
- Use positive messages
- Use the right “frames”
- Show real life examples
- Develop an inclusive dialogue
- Maximise participation
- Ensure the setting is right for change
- The full report can be found on the SEI web site: www.sei-international.org
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Many of the Baby Boomers I know will be quite happy to engage with these people in a forceful, direct and unmistakable way.
Short traditional Anglo-Saxon phrases ending in ‘off’ will likely be used to bring auditory confirmation of their physical expressions.
“Old folks” like myself have been around long enough to remember that summers were always hot, droughts, floods hurricanes and tornadoes always occurred. Younger people who were raised on The Simpsons and Marijuana are much more susceptible to suggestion.
The frequency of stupidity events does seem to have increased with CO2.
I sent the following to Dr Haq:
Dear Sir,
If you really did write this:
Recent evidence from the older age sector highlight the inadequacies of current methods of information provision and community engagement on climate change
I propose a minor change:
Recent evidence from the older age sector highlight the inadequacies of current methods to manipulate them with respect to climate change
Regards
Jean Bosseler
There was a time, long, long ago, where young people used to respect their elders…..so history tells when dealing with the sudden and terrible disapperance of the then so proud Occidental Civilization.
Old codgers around here have choice words for “Global Warming” and red-flashing eyes to match.
Picture the recent commercial with the “Drill Sargeant” asking if they’d like to take a trip to Namby-Pamby Land to retrieve thier self-confidence. That would be the old codger as the Drill Sargeant.
When I was a boy, i wanted to be a human ecologist when I grew up but didn’t get the grades so had to settle for b*llsh*t sniffer. Came in handy though!
Sorry, capital I. The steam from my ears obscured the shift key.
Would that be Dr. Hack??
At first (since I’m still thinking about the the birth to death ratios) I thought this report was about the old people getting with the program and doing the “Soylent Green” thing where the old people went to these clinics to be put to sleep forever.
I’m a six years behind the baby-boomer generation, but I know a bunch of people that fall into that age bracket and I know these people are a lot smarter than the fools who did this study. If I were in Sweden I’d be asking for a refund of the taxes that where spent on this study.
The ‘SEI’ is managed by mr. Johan Rockström and who’s that? Well, the closest is to compare J.R. with mr. J. Romm and they are identical in all but looks, although not far from there either…
//TJ
New rules of engagement for older people and climate change
Oh, good. That means they’re still seriously underestimating us…
Not very good at basic sums, these morons.
“by 2050 people aged over 50 will represent 30 per cent of the UK population compared to 2006”
a. there in only one statistic above, so what’s being compared?
b. the people “over 50 by 2050” are currently those “over 10” – so basically just educate everyone, forget the nonsense about the current aged peeps.
Perhaps the researchers don’t include themselves in the problem, in which case they are currently aged under 10. Which explains a lot.
“the inadequacies of current methods of information”
I can count on one hand the news and media sources that have not promoted global warming.
They have had complete control of the news and media for decades.
Their 10 point plan reads like some brain washing manifesto
“Dr Haq said: “Recent evidence from the older age sector highlight the inadequacies of current methods of information provision and community engagement on climate change. It is critical to implementing policies to tackle climate change and to address the needs of an ageing population.””
Huh? In other words, us older folks need special attention in the brainwashing process? Presumptious!
lol – do they really want to try social engineering on baby boomers? Man are they in for a major wake-up.
I am not in the least surprised by this research study from Sweden. A couple of years ago I was in Stockholm with my wife visiting the Nobel Museum when the young guide told our tour group that Al Gore had been fast tracked to receive the Nobel Peace Prize as normally it can take upto 20 years. He had also told us that some recipients of prizes had been later found to be unworthy; upon which I said ‘If anyone was unworthy of a prize, Peace or otherwise it would be Al Gore.’ I shall not forget in a hurry the look of sheer speechless amazement on the young man’s face, what I had said was tantamount to blasphemy in Canterbury cathedral or St Peter’s in Rome. My wife stepped in to inform the startled lecturer that I was an engineer and did not believe in (A) global warming. I was 70 this year.
I think most older people will just laugh at the message. My grandparents grew up in The Great Depression and are still kickin’ it, well mostly. They just laugh when ever someone brings up the topic.
It would have been soooooooo much funnier if the professor’s name had been spelled with a C-K rather than a Q.
Anyone watch Heidi Cullen pump her book on Colbert last night? I don’t think Colbert’s a believer… “re-frighten me!”
http://www.colbertnation.com/home
SJones: August 26, 2010 at 10:02 am
And just what is a ‘social ecologist’?
One that nurses a half a glass of chardonnay for the entire evening.
Youth is wasted on the young. And the young often do not do what they are told. Which is why spanking was invented.
Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as
is now evident from observations of increases in
global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread
melting of snow and ice and rising global average sea
level. The dominant factor in the warming of the climate
in the industrial era is the increasing concentration of
various greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere.
From: http://www.sei-international.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate-mitigation-adaptation/towards-zero-carbon-vision-uk-transport-2010.pdf
So, they are fully signed up there.
This is the world they envision:
‘By 2050 all urban and rural areas will have significantly
enhanced public transport and cycling facilities
bringing high quality and low-cost transport choices
within everyone’s reach. Those who opt not to use a
car will save thousands of pounds a year by avoiding
the fixed and variable costs of car ownership and use,
and will also avoid the uncertainties and potential
disruption of oil price shocks as the world adjusts
to shortages of supply and increased demand from
developing countries. Individuals and families will
have much improved air quality, reduced noise and
stress from traffic and much improved community life
stimulated by reduced levels of motorised traffic and
reduced traffic on streets and through villages.’
One problem, 70,000,000 people ( speaking of the UK here) have to be fed, warmed and be offered more than just cycling around on a warm spring day.
This is pure ‘rural’ romanticism. Pastoralism for the jaded city middle class.
But ‘Human Ecology’ has no time for ‘reductionism’ and prefers to present itself as ‘aesthetic science’.
It all lacks rigour. It is ‘post modern’ science. ie nonscience.
Wow…guess the political re-education camps will need wheelchair access ramps.
Ever notice that with these green zealots, and others of their ilk, whenever their message isn’t being accepted, or facts interfere with it, they never reexamine their beliefs and think that they might be wrong? No, it’s “we need to refocus our message” and “communicate more effectively” and “stop people from confusing people with skeptical facts” and such. This truly qualifies as religious belief, not science, it doesn’t even rise to the level of pseudoscience, it’s a religion.
There are “old” people around who remember the dust bowl and high temps of the 30’s, and have seen enough weather weirdness to know the Chicken Little proclamations of the alarmists are bunk. Interesting isn’t it that the old Farmer’s Almanac folks do a better job of predicting the weather/climate and the severity of winters than the MET or such?
They might care to ponder this wisdom:
As you are
So once were we.
And as we are
So you will be.
Old folks are less inclined to fall for climo-nuts and enviro-wackos, they’ve heard it all before, been there done that, can’t believe the kid who’s talking is serious, and think the old ones were always nuts and never very balanced. Besides, when you’re pinching pennies and don’t think you’re going to be around much longer anyway, who wants to carry a picket sign or hurt your fingers any more making phone calls–that’s stupid.
By the time today’s thirty-forty something come to be sixties +, they will pay for their youthful transgressions by facing the coldest weather of their lifetime !