Comments on: Environmental Survey Reports One Thing, But Google Reports Another

By: Ellie Ely

Ellie Ely — Sun, 17 May 2009 10:52:49 +0000

I’ve also heard people say that “climate change” sounds wishy-washy and “global warming” can sound fairly benign, especially to people in cold climates. They advocate something more like “global climate disruption.” I can see their point, but I also agree with Eric about the value of sticking with a phrase that is already well known.

By: Jennifer Browning

Jennifer Browning — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:56:56 +0000

I don’t mean to beat a dead horse here, but the phrase they are proposing, “our deteriorating atmosphere” is a bit foxnewsish (fear, fear, fear) to me, and the word atmosphere is a scientific word that probably would be defined in about 10 different ways if you asked the public. Also, in terms of the audience, we need about 30-40% of the public to really change their behavior, and the folks most likely to do that are the “lip service folks.” Since this audience is familiar with the phrases being used, the challenge is to relate those terms to their personally held values. For example describing how climate change/global warming will change their quality of life for themselves or their children, will be far more successfull then trying to convince them that they should be worried about a deteriorating atmoshphere – which sort of sounds like something NASA should be worried about.

By: flyfish509

flyfish509 — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:37:03 +0000

I see no inconsistency. You are aiming at “people who pay lip service to our cause but don’t do much”. EcoAmerica is apparently telling us how to address voters who have yet to even pay lip service. Congressmen must deal with that larger public.

By: Chad

Chad — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:22:16 +0000

I’ve generally used “climate change” and not “global warming” because here in WI, we don’t seem to be seeing hotter days. “Global warming” makes people think of scorching hot days but over the last decade, the number of 90+ degree days has been down in our part of the country. Our nighttime temps haven’t been falling as low so we’re seeing temperature range compression. So to me, “global warming” brings out the skepticism in people more than climate change which sounds broad (or abstract?).

By: Jennifer Browning

Jennifer Browning — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:19:53 +0000

When it comes to motivating the public to change their behavior, it is all about changing our language, identifying the appropriate messenger (typically not the shaggy haired enviro), and figuring out the best pathway. I too am eager to see the research, because global warming and climate change are recognizable and people have a general idea about what they means. Furthermore, with greater frequency folks are begining to understand what is causing it. I would be hard pressed to change a phrase that that registers with people, to some new fangled phrase that seems like it is going back to the same old scare tactics, that we know do not work.

By: Bob Ressl

Bob Ressl — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:03:22 +0000

Seems like we are solving all our problems by just changing how we describe them.