Whether people believe in climate change, like whether they believe in evolution, expresses who they are, writes Kahan. To understand Kahans analysis, it helps to start where much of his prior research—extensively covered by Klein, myself, and others—left off. Kahan has defined a measure that he calls ordinary science intelligence, which assesses how good people are at mathematical and scientific reasoning and at questioning their own beliefs. Using this survey tool, he is able to present evidence showing that (1) as people get better at science, they are more likely in general to affirm that global warming is mostly due to human activities; but (2) as soon as you split people up in to liberals and conservatives, that conclusion goes out the window. Actually, liberals get way better in their answers as their science ability increases, and conservatives get considerably worse: ... Still, those who wish to communicate to the public about climate change will have to grapple with Kahans assertion that conservatives really arent ignorant about the issue—theyre just highly prone to defend their worldviews when asked certain kinds of questions. If Kahan is right, the implication is that we need to talk about climate science in a way that is entirely devoid of cultural meanings that will antagonize the right. Later in the paper, Kahan goes on to assert that precisely this strategy is working right now in Southeast Florida, where members of the Regional Climate Change Compact have brought on board politically diverse constituencies by studiously avoiding pushing anyones buttons. Kahan even shows polling data suggesting that questions like local and state officials should be involved in identifying steps that local communities can take to reduce the risk posed by rising sea levels do not provoke a polarized response in this region. Rather, liberals and conservatives alike in Southeast Florida agree with such a statement, which references a major consequence of climate change while ignoring the gigantic elephant in the room…its cause.
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 18:13:21 +0000
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