An, ahem, provincial view of global warming

[Reterr]

http://blogs.chron.com/sciguy/archives/2007/01/an_ahem_provinc.html

January 27, 2007
An, ahem, provincial view of global warming
Chances are you have never heard of Shannon Scasta. If you google his name, amazingly, zero documents return.

You might know of Scasta, however, if you read The Franklin Advocate. The print-only paper is published in Hearne, Texas, which is basically located in the center of a triangle between Houston, Dallas and San Antonio.

My able colleague Mark Babineck picked up a copy of the Jan. 24 paper on a recent trip to the town for a story. Inside he found the following article on the op-ed page by Scasta, who Mark thinks may be the paper's sports editor. Anyway, Scasta decided to write about one of the leading scientific and political issues of the day.



For the entire article, click here to view a scan in a pop-up window. It's worth reading the entire thing, but here's my favorite part:

Listen all you tree-hugging, Science class loving, eco-friendly people out there.

I don't want to hear about how the earth's temperature is heating up year after year, or how someday there won't be any more icebergs or glaciers in the oceans.

I don't care if the effect is more tornadoes and hurricanes, or if the cute little penguins lose their habitat. What about my habitat, huh? It's been in the thirties and forties for two solid weeks in Texas. In Texas.


Tex, is that you? No, I'm kidding. Perhaps this is satire, I don't know.

What's really sad is that this is a viewpoint probably held by at least half of all Texans. Consider this recent Pew Research Center survey on global warming. While more than three-quarters of Americans believe the planet is warming, slightly less than half attribute the warming to human activity. Scasta is in the majority!

Ok, so you want to be a little skeptical about global warming. That's fine if you're willing to consider the scientific evidence. But I fear that a combination of willful ignorance (i.e., "It's cold out now, so global warming is a farce") and blind devotion to politics (i.e., "Al Gore's an idiot, and so's anyone who believes in global warming.") will lead a lot of Americans to simply bypass global warming entirely.

To wit, in the survey, about 18 percent of conservatives view global warming as a serious problem, and 73 percent of liberals do.

The message for Europeans looking to Americans for policy intervention isn't heartening, either. Among 21 policy issues listed in the survey, Republicans rank "global warming" dead last, behind even "minimum wage." Democrats, surprisingly, don't have it much higher, having the issue 17th on their platform.

So maybe Scasta is preaching to the choir.

[nam78_two]

1. K&R.nt

[Meldread]

2. She is just expressing the natural reaction that most people have.

"I don't care if the effect is more tornadoes and hurricanes, or if the cute little penguins lose their habitat. What about my habitat, huh? It's been in the thirties and forties for two solid weeks in Texas. In Texas."

That is a perfect quote. I think people should read it and gain some insight. No, the majority of people don't care about cute little penguins. The majority of people care about themselves and their families. When talking about global warming, don't talk about the polar bears, talk about how it effects people in the here and now, and how it will effect their families in the future.

People don't care about drowning polar bears or cute little penguins. It doesn't effect them directly. That is a mistake that is constantly being made.

[pitohui]

3. similar to a man i met in chicago

he was a satanist and had for years been doing rituals to encourage the greenhouse effect, as we used to call it

who cares if the world ends, as long as chicago never again has a wind chill factor of minus 200 degrees F as it did in the winter of 1980?

most people don't care about wildlife, don't care about the outdoors, don't care about anything except themselves

it makes you despair of democracy, frankly

[Meldread]

4. Yes, it is sad.

Yet that is how the vast, VAST majority of people think and unless we can address things to them in terms they care about, we might as well just talk to a brick wall. The wall will be more moved by our words than our intended audience.

At the root of things, this is why capitalism always succeeds and communism always fails. Capitalism is based off a system in which you are self-centered and do what gains you the most benefit. Communism assumes a certain level of altruism that just doesn't exist in human beings.

[crispini]

5. Yeah, this is why I hope Al Gore runs in 08.

I know he doesn't really WANT to run in that he doesn't want global climate chainge to be a partisan issue; he wants to work outside the political system and be a leader. I understand that, I really do, and I sympathise with his idealism, but the fact remains that it IS a partisan issue, and that those stupid fucks on the right wing are going to bury their collective heads up their asses right until the planet dies.

Bookmarked, and recommended, and we should send it to Al and tell him that THIS is why he needs to run. It ain't mainstream yet by a long shot.