Scientists Aren’t the Best Champions of Climate Science

[Troy 2,376]

I've learned from videos like this and in conversations here that I have to change the way I communicate with the general public on technical issues.  Sharing data with graphics and charts really does not work with people unfamiliar with the domain in which you are speaking. You have to appeal to people on an emotional level.  

 

In the video Van Jones said;

“People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

I know this to be true from personal experience because people have no problem saying they don’t care how much education someone has when they disagree with them. They’ll argue with climatologist easily dismissing what the scientist knows in favor of what they themselves feel.

 

I have a talk coming up in a couple of weeks on the impact of Facebook, Google and Amazon on the web and I'm going to consider these factors when I address the audience. We'll see how it goes.

 

 

In the video, also bt VOX they talk about the environmental cost of ordering online with the next day shipping.  Amazon is the obvious culprit.  As long as Amazon make their owners money, this behavior will never change.  Amazon own the legislators and even the Washington Post who should be reporting on their activities.  The only way this will change is if people change their behavior and I see little evidence of this happening.

 

 

 

 

 

[Delano 1,072]

Thanks for posting. inwas able to find actual temperature data. From 1895 - 2017.

Will see if the temperature has gotten warmer in central park.

[Troy 2,376]

@Delano, you do understand that you can not show that the planet's is warming based upon the temperatures in Central Park, right?

[Delano 1,072]

Okay Troy how would you look at the data to see if temperature is rising? 

[Troy 2,376]

Del the website you shared earlier went into some detail about the methodology and complexity of making of how the determination is made (I assumed you looked at the website).  The difficulty of simply collecting temperature over time is fascinating.

 

I'm completely lost understaning to why you would think it is simply a matter collecting temperature data from a single location.  

[Delano 1,072]

According to climate science the earth is heating up. And 2000 - 2010 was the hottest decade. Shouldn't the  data agree with their predictions 

[Troy 2,376]

No, because in some locations the temperature may be lower.  For example, Atlanta GA got snow last week, which is unusual. That does not mean the planet is not warming.  Again this was explained in the documentation you provided it was in the FAQ section is memory serves.  

 

You should review the website it can provide better answer than I.

[Delano 1,072]

Ok Troy can you describe what you think I am doing and what i am looking at and why I choose Central Park?

[Troy 2,376]

Based upon what you wrote; you are going to use the temperature data from 1895 - 2017 to see if the temperature has gotten warmer in central park.  Beyond that you have to tell me.

[Delano 1,072]

I was going to look at average, max and min for September. They also rank each temperature. So I was going to see what the rankings were for each 30 year period. But then I thought why bother. 

I was about to change my mind until I went to Scripps and read Van Ramanathan writings. 

[Troy 2,376]

Yeah Ram seems like a very interesting fellow.  I saw not familiar with his work until I stumbled across the VOX video I posted above.  His interaction with the Pope was interesting and one of the reasons I'm rethinking how I communicate with people, about why Amazon or Facebook are bad.

[Delano 1,072]

You already thought Amazon and Facebook are bad.

[Troy 2,376]

Yes I did. But I primarily used graphs, charts, and forms of data to try to convince other why they should too  This approach makes people's eyes glaze over at best. 

 

Data does not persuade lay people.  They need to "feel" why it matters to them. If the argument does not resonate on an emotional level it will not work with most people.

 

It is like telling people that cigarettes kill more than 500K people a year and 1/10 of these people die from 2nd hand smoke. This is a staggering figure, but we still allow these things to be sold.

 

Now studies have shown showing one diseased lung or someone cleaning out their tracheotomy hole is much more likely to convince someone to stop smoking and preventing more from ever starting.

 

 

[Delano 1,072]

 

[Troy 2,376]

Brenner still looks pretty good in the video.  Maybe if they cut to a video of him wasting away on a lung machine in the hospital, followed by a shot of him in the morgue or his tombstone it would have had more of an impact.

 

In any case, the best solution would be to make cancer sticks things illegal, and throw the execs in jail.  It is absolutely criminal big tobacco can kill so many people in THIS country and nobody wants to do anything about it... 

[Delano 1,072]

O saw one of Yule Brenner. He said hi I am Yule Brenner and I'm dead.

[Troy 2,376]

Del you posted the video I watched it he look great and was obviously not dead, when he made the statement, that is why the impact of the video in my opinion was minimized.  By today's standards it gets a big yawn and a so what?