Transcript W10-1: Responses to the IPCC assignment

Identified Themes
In the IPCC Reports and the
Perception of Actual Risk
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Health impacts
Food supply impacts
Impact on Poor
Sea Level Rise
Threats to Biodiversity
• Third is what I call the "documentary
effect." When a person is shown a
documentary film on some topic, whether
about climate change or fast food or
slavery, they ponder that issue for a
couple days. Yet then they slowly forget
about the issue as their exposure to it
decreases.
• Unfortunately, a sentence like “projected climate
changes during the 21st century have the
potential to lead to future large-scale and
possibly irreversible changes in Earth systems
resulting in impacts at continental and global
scales,” means nothing to most readers. It is
only a “projected” theory, with the “potential” of
“possibly” irreversible harm, resulting in
nebulous “impacts” during the entire “21st
century.”
• These reports will be ignored because of
the apathy and selfishness of our culture
of capitalism. We are more satisfied by the
immediate gratification of a new iPhone, or
ridiculing celebrities, than preserving
mankind.
• because these listed effects are not
physically experienced by all people in
developed nations today, climate change
does not register in people’s minds as
being a crucial area of concern to be dealt
with immediately
• Rising sea levels are a gradual problem that
doesn’t pose apparent immediate threats,
especially when the regions that will be most
affected have experienced regular flooding for
centuries. Food shortages and human health
problems are issues that will affect the poor for
years before wealthy and developed nations feel
the full impact. The decision making elite of the
world, based in these developed regions, feel no
real pressure to make difficult decisions that may
affect them negatively politically and
economically in the short term.
• Perhaps a way to get individuals to stop
ignoring these warnings is through
exposing people to photos and individual
testaments of how climate change is
currently having serious negative
influences on people and communities.
• These reports look too far into the future to
be relevant to most humans and most
simplified discussion of them involves
summarizing concepts that seem to be in
play incredibly far beyond our realm of
action.
• But perhaps the scariest response of the
three reactions is apathy. Apathy occurs
when the public has lost their interest in
the world around them. As a part of the
millennial generation, I can attest that this
is true. As much as we brag of being a
well-connected and well-informed
generation, we are generally uninterested
in our surroundings and are often selffocused (George Carlin)
• However, it is easy for policy makers and
the general public to ignore warnings of
sea levels rising because they would
either have to a) care about the long-term
outcomes for other people, or b) they
would need a more in-depth explanation of
how something that appears so gradual
can devastate entire communities.
• . A second aspect of human behavior that
is present throughout the article is
society’s obsession over tedious and
irrelevant news. Each section ends with a
portion of “in other news” that lists the
news that society was more preoccupied
with at the time.