HR: 08:15h
AN: ED31D-02 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Weather it's Climate Change?
AU: * Bostrom, A
EM: ann.bostrom@pubpolicy.gatech.edu
AF: Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Public Policy 685 Cherry Street, Atlanta, GA 30332-0345 United States
AU: Lashof, D
EM: dlashof@nrdc.org
AF: Natural Resources Defense Council, 1200 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC, 20005 United States
AB: For almost two decades both national polls and in-depth studies of global warming perceptions have shown that people commonly conflate weather and global climate change. Not only are current weather events such as anecdotal heat waves, droughts or cold spells treated as evidence for or against global warming, but weather changes such as warmer weather and increased storm intensity and frequency are the consequences most likely to come to mind. Distinguishing weather from climate remains a challenge for many. This weather 'framing' of global warming may inhibit behavioral and policy change in several ways. Weather is understood as natural, on an immense scale that makes controlling it difficult to conceive. Further, these attributes contribute to perceptions that global warming, like weather, is uncontrollable. This talk presents an analysis of data from public opinion polls, focus groups, and cognitive studies regarding people's mental models of and 'frames' for global warming and climate change, and the role weather plays in these. This research suggests that priming people with a model of global warming as being caused by a "thickening blanket of carbon dioxide" that "traps heat" in the atmosphere solves some of these communications problems and makes it more likely that people will support policies to address global warming.
DE: 6309 Decision making under uncertainty
DE: 6699 General or miscellaneous
DE: 1699 General or miscellaneous
DE: 0815 Informal education
SC: Education and Human Resourcese [ED]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting