[enviro-vlc] enviro-vlc Digest, Vol 33, Issue 19 - The Psychology of Climate Change Denial

[R A Myers]

  It's not that "Climate Change" is being denied, the evidence for 
change occurring is clear.

What is being denied is that human generated causes are the only, or 
primary, cause for the change.

On 9/25/2010 10:00 PM, enviro-vlc-request at anu.edu.au wrote, in part:
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 24 Sep 2010 21:10:25 -0700
> From: vern weitzel<vern.weitzel at gmail.com>
> Subject: [enviro-vlc] Feature: The Psychology of Climate Change Denial
> To: "[enviro-vlc discussion group] group]"<enviro-vlc at anu.edu.au>
> Message-ID:<BF4BE3FC-4753-4E3F-BD11-304A46B0CB4D at gmail.com>
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>
> From: Yahoo News Groups<ashwani.vasishth at gmail.com>
> Date: 21 September 2010 7:32:43 AM PDT
> To: Environmental Ecology News<envecolnews at yahoogroups.com>
> Cc: International Development News<intldevelopmentnews at yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: Feature: The Psychology of Climate Change Denial
> Reply-To: envecolnews-owner at yahoogroups.com
>
>
> http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/psychology-provides-insight-into-why-people-doubt-climate-change-20100919-15hy4.html
>
> Psychology provides insight into why people doubt climate change
>
> Ben Cubby
> September 20, 2010
>
> Many people don't believe in global warming because everyday life may have trained them to doubt it, according to a new University of NSW study that brings together climate science and cognitive psychology.
>
> As the physical science underpinning human-induced climate change has grown more and more solid, more people have been growing sceptical of it, according to the paper The Psychology of Global Warming, published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. ''Simply presenting the facts and figures about global warming has failed to convince large portions of the general public, journalists and policy makers about the scale of the problem and the urgency of required action,'' the paper says.
>
> ''From a psychologist's perspective, this is not surprising.''
>
> Two Sydney researchers, psychology lecturer Ben Newell and climate scientist Professor Andy Pitman, identified different classes of perfectly normal psychological phenomena that can tend to turn people into so-called climate ''deniers''. The first concerns ''sampling issues'' - the idea that people normally try to refer to real-life examples to draw conclusions and may be heavily influenced by recent media coverage.
>
> ''For example, if you read or hear opinions from climate change sceptics about 50 per cent of the time then this could lead to a bias in the perception of the balance of evidence in your mind - that is, that the science is only about 50 per cent certain,'' Dr Newell said.
>
> People are also heavily influenced by ''framing issues'' - dealing with how information is presented to them. The figure 0.2 means the same as 20 out of 100, but the latter proportion makes the information seem much more concrete.
>
> People construct mental models which they use to judge new information, and these models are usually built only on a few fragments of information, the study said.
>
> It used the analogy of most people's understanding of the link between cancer and smoking, which is not completely understood by most researchers yet widely accepted by the general public. ''By contrast, understanding how and why an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide leads to warming and how and what we do as individuals and communities affects the composition of the atmosphere is much harder,'' Dr Newell said.
>
> The authors drew on dozens of studies into people's reactions to news about climate change, some of which suggest that certain types of people are more likely to find the evidence for human-induced climate change less convincing than others.
>
> ***   NOTICE:  In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed, without profit, for research and educational purposes only.   ***
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> Message: 2
> Date: Sat, 25 Sep 2010 14:35:09 -0700
> From: vern weitzel<vern.weitzel at gmail.com>
> Subject: [enviro-vlc] China seeks binding climate treaty late
> 	2011-report
> To: "[enviro-vlc discussion group] group]"<enviro-vlc at anu.edu.au>
> Message-ID:<A2E4E881-35F7-4E8A-82C9-801DA28771EF at gmail.com>
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>
> http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/TOE68N05D.htm
>
>
> China seeks binding climate treaty late 2011-report
> 24 Sep 2010 09:51:46 GMT
> Source: Reuters
> * China unyielding on issues of "principle" - negotiator
>
> * United States is biggest obstacle to treaty - negotiator
>
> BEIJING, Sept 24 (Reuters) - China wants the world to seal a binding climate change treaty by late 2011, a Chinese negotiator said in a newspaper on Friday, blaming U.S. politics for impeding talks and making a deal on global warming impossible this year.
>
> Li Gao, a senior Chinese negotiator on climate change, said his government would remain unyielding on issues of "principle" in the talks aimed at forging a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. The first period of that key treaty on fighting global warming expires at the end of 2012.
>
> Li also vowed to keep pressing rich countries to promise deeper cuts to carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from human activity that are stoking global warming, said the China Economic Times, which reported his comments.
>
> Many governments and experts have already dismissed hopes for a full climate change treaty at the next major negotiation meeting, to be held in Cancun, Mexico at the end of this year.
>
> Li underscored that gloom, but also said his government hoped Cancun could be a stepping stone to negotiations next year that will culminate in a meeting in South Africa in November.
>
> "China hopes that based on the outcomes from Cancun, we'll be able to settle on a legally binding document at the meeting in South Africa," Li said, according to the Chinese-language newspaper.
>
> "After the South Africa meeting, we'll move to concrete implementation."
>
> Li oversees the international climate change negotiations office at China's National Development and Reform Commission, a sprawling agency that steers economy policy.
>
> The deadline for a new binding global pact was originally set for late 2009, but a final round of negotiations in Copenhagen ended in acrimonious failure, with some Western politicians saying China was not willing to compromise.
>
> China will be a crucial player in the follow-up talks.
>
> With its 1.3 billion people, it is the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases from human activity, but is also a developing country with average emissions per capita well below those of wealthy economies.
>
> The United States, European Union and other governments want China to take on stronger commitments to control and eventually cut its emissions.
>
> But Li said it was U.S. political uncertainty that had stymied any hope of the Cancun meeting agreeing on a treaty to succeed Kyoto.
>
> "The biggest obstacle comes from the United States," he said. "Without any (climate change) legislation, it can't possibly join in a legally binding international document."
>
> The U.S. Senate has dropped efforts to put emissions curbs in an energy bill now focused on reforming offshore drilling.
>
> Negotiators from nearly 200 nations are haggling over a complex draft accord on climate change, and a further round of talks at the northern Chinese port of Tianjin opens on Oct. 4.
>
> Li said Beijing would keep pressing for certain principles, including that developing countries like China should not shoulder the same absolute caps on emissions that rich countries must take on. (Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Jonathon Burch)
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> End of enviro-vlc Digest, Vol 33, Issue 19
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