Scientists just found a way to break through climate apathy: Boiling down data into a binary — a stark this or that — can help break through apathy about climate change.
Scientists just found a way to break through climate apathy
Scientists just found a way to break through climate apathy
We just need to get clergy on board and telling their congregations that the magic man under the ground is trying to conquer the realm of Earth and expand hell (that's why it's getting so hot), and that the magic man in the sky would really appreciate if everyone would stop making the magic man under the ground's job so easy.
We need to stop using big sciencey words like "climate", "change", "global", "warming", "weather", "melting", "ice" etc. and use words that they understand like "demons", "hell", "bad juju" etc.
Liu worked with professors at Princeton to test how people responded to two different graphs. One showed winter temperatures of a fictional town gradually rising over time, while the other presented the same warming trend in a black-or-white manner: The lake either froze in any given year, or it didn’t. People who saw the second chart perceived climate change as causing more abrupt changes.
The findings suggest that if scientists want to increase public urgency around climate change, they should highlight clear, concrete shifts instead of slow-moving trends. That could include the loss of white Christmases or outdoor summer activities canceled because of wildfire smoke.
Previous research has found that as the climate warms, people adjust their sense of what seems normal based on weather from the past two to eight years, a phenomenon known as “shifting baselines.”
smoke cancel culture smh
"Scientist finally realize most people have smooth brain"
When they figure out how to blame ghosts we'll get this shit fixed in a year.
isn't it obvious? it's the buildup of ectoplasm in the atmosphere that's causing the warming!
we need to send a pair of plumbers to go unclog purgatory so the souls of the dead can leave the mortal realm once again
so, radicalization?
The reason I think this is mildly interesting is that the article's main revelation is to just make the data a "this or that" presentation. They aren't changing the information, they're merely changing the presentation of how the data is displayed to get people to see what the scientists are seeing. It's literally a "Keep It Simple, Stupid" approach.
scientists discover propaganda
this really shouldn't be considered a new thing, people have been weaponizing presentation for centuries
Angela Collier has some great thoughts about the shortcomings of scientific communication with the public in general -- I think this is the video. Can't recommend her enough, wonderful breakdowns of very complex topics in a way that doesn't make me feel dumb.
Discovered her recently, I think through a video that was a more nuanced take on Feynman that showed up on my feed, and been loving her videos ever since. Highly recommend her takes on science.