From our ally “Gray is Green” : Public Opinions on Climate Change
A recent report from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication confirms that the tide of public opinion on climate change has finally turned. Some findings:
About seven in ten Americans (72%) think global warming is happening.
About six in ten Americans (59%) understand that global warming is mostly human-caused.
More than four in ten Americans (45%) think people in the United States are being harmed by global warming “right now.”
This is good news, because another recent report looking at the accuracy of climate model predictions since the 1970s found that the models were mostly quite accurate, which confirms what has already become a global scientific consensus about human-caused climate change. Public understanding of what scientists already know is critical to meeting the challenge.
Changing Consumer Behavior
With the majority of Americans now at least somewhat concerned with global warming, encouraging changed behavior is more likely to be effective. The past decade has seen a rise in “nudging” toward climate-friendly behaviors: providing gentle coaxing in messaging instead of relying on individuals to be internally motivated. Hotels, for instance, provide notes that encourage customers to reuse their towels. Water bottle refill stations include a counter display to tell users how many plastic bottles have been taken out of the trash. Continued attention to such messaging in consumer settings will help swing the population’s behavior in the direction we need it to go.
New Carbon Neutral Certification
There’s a new way for consumers to make environmentally responsible buying choices from the nonprofit Climate Neutral: a certification for products that reduce carbon emissions throughout the entire production and distribution process. Companies can achieve this through a combination of measuring the carbon footprint of products, reducing that footprint, and offsetting emissions that cannot be neutralized through carbon offset investments. After that, a company is granted permission to display a carbon neutral label on its products. The nonprofit is invested in educating consumers about these certified options as well as supporting companies in meeting each step.
Institutional Responses to Climate Change
But as we know, effectively tackling climate change will take much more than individual action. Governments and big business need to implement significant large-scale changes. A new global climate advisory and investment firm, Pollination, is aiming to help that happen by “bringing together experts who can break down barriers to the transition to a clean future, and redirect capital that has been committed but not to climate solutions.” The firm’s goal is to help transform entire economies by supporting governments and corporations in making changes they know need to happen but don’t know how to do.
In another sector, a group of scientists and conservation professionals came together to identify the most significant threats and opportunities for biodiversity over the next year in a horizon scan of global biological conservation. Such research can help policy makers understand what issues—such as the decline of kelp forests, land-use change in response to production of cellulose from wood, and even the risk of losing net neutrality—need attention right now.
Documentaries for Environmental Education
For your own viewing pleasure, or if you need to offer education to climate change skeptics in your life, check out these must-see environmental documentaries from the past decade. They cover everything from natural disaster to sustainable agriculture to consumer choices to food waste. Some are feature-length films, while others, such as the Netflix’s docu-series Explained, offer pithier explanations of specific issues.
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