I am in the early stages of trying to restart the green initiative in my office. That the public, even the intelligent and well-educated, is poorly informed on global warming is not surprising to me. Friday night, however, I found myself at a trivia event organized by one of my coworkers and attended by many. When fewer than one-in-five was able to identify "The three Rs of recycling" (reduce, reuse, recycle) I realized the problem was much more grave than I thought.
I'm going to put together a presentation, and I know I'll be facing an audience that is, generally, skeptical. If you have information that might be helpful, I'd love to have it. I'm thinking of things like Wikipedia saying that there is no longer any scientific body that disputes global warming (although I find their citation of this statement insufficient) or like a report I saw that said something along the lines of "The 2007 IPCC report's claims were so extreme they were considered ignorable; however, all data thus far on the effects of global warming has exceeded the report's projections." Basically - evidence that might not be the most persuasive, but at the very least is nearly indisputable.
I put this post together in many pieces so it might be incoherent but should still be understandable. I know this is a chore but any help you can give is appreciated, and keep in mind that I'll have an audience of about 50, at most 10 of whom go about their lives any differently than they would were global warming not an issue, so in terms of impact, your efforts might be getting more bang for their buck than almost anything else you do.
Oh, and I forgot to mention - the impetus for this post coming right now was this article, which claims that even under best case scenarios, we're down to a coin flip at saving the planet.
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None of this fits what you asked for, but it is all somewhat related:
ReplyDeleteCommon Tragedies- a blog on environmental economics;
Breathing Earth- a simulation of CO2 emissions worldwide;
"In Economic Terms, Recycling Almost Pays"- a NYT article more for you than those who are skeptics;
Global Footprint Network- website that allows you to calculate your own footprint based on your lifestlye;
We Can Solve It- website dedicated to solutions to the climate crisis;
Go Veg- website that details the link between eating meat and global warming. Includes facts like, "Eating 1lb. of meat emits the same amount of greenhouse gases as driving an SUV 40 miles," but these are not necessarily as accepted as the ones you listed;
Home Made Energy- I don't know how legitimate this is, but the website says it sells instructions for how to build a home solar or wind power generator for under $200;
Science Debate 2008- question 2 is relevant.
I'll let you know if I find anything that more closely (read: at all) fits the description you gave.
Despite your reservations and the fact that I have not yet read this (though some of the links are familiar) I really appreciate your help on this. Thank you so much.
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