Comments on: Why don’t people engage climate change? Problem 5: A perfect storm of climate change denial

By: Phil

Phil — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:43:52 +0000

Good question, Kim. Much of it will probably come down to how the public responds to economic changes resulting from a system that makes carbon expensive. It will be interesting to see how the costs and incentives get distributed once a cap and trade system is in place. This could become political fodder that makes politicians pay attention to public opinion.

By: Climate Literacy—A new blog « Global Change

Climate Literacy—A new blog « Global Change — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 02:25:07 +0000

[...] Why don’t people engage climate change? Problem 5: A perfect storm of climate change denial [...]

By: Kim Smith

Kim Smith — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:50:32 +0000

This post starts to engage the question that’s been bothering me: Why should we care about public opinion? Decades of research on public opinion demonstrate the same level of confusion and miseducation in all areas of policy. This research also shows that attempts to educate the public usually only increase the confusion, and it doesn’t matter because public opinion isn’t much of a constraint on lawmakers anyway. The relevance of all this for environmental policy is discussed quite cogently by Deborah Guber in “Grassroots of a Green Revolution”–required reading for anyone involved in environmental politics!