[Coral-List] Reporting Co2 to the public
Delbeek, Charles
CDelbeek at calacademy.org
Sun Sep 16 18:47:22 EDT 2012
I remember when I was in teacher's college in 1986, by Environmental Studies prof was a staunch environmentalist and champion of recycling etc etc, yet he admitted that he had about given up hope that the message he was preaching would ever be accepted, yet look where we are now where recycling programs and "green" products and technology abound ... somehow somewhere during the next 5 years or so since 1986 there was a paradigm shift where all of a sudden environmental awareness became the "in thing".
I think it is far too early to give up on the climate change message.
J. Charles Delbeek, M.Sc.
Assistant Curator, Steinhart Aquarium
California Academy of Sciences
p 415.379.5303
f. 415.379.5304
cdelbeek at calacademy.org
www.calacademy.org
55 Music Concourse Dr.
Golden Gate Park
San Francisco CA 94118
Prepare to be moved! Earthquake, an all-new exhibit and planetarium show, is now open.
..
-----Original Message-----
From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov [mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov] On Behalf Of Steve Mussman
Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2012 9:48 AM
To: Ellen Prager
Cc: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Reporting Co2 to the public
Of course, Ellen is correct and her analysis clearly illustrates some of the
reasons why the science has
thus far proven to be inept at changing the paradigm. It appears that trying
to advocate for effective change
in dealing with climate change (pardon the hyperbole), is taking on the
moral equivilency of The Battle of Thermopylae.
There appears to be no way to prevail against the forces that be. Perhaps we
would be better off to look at it
as analogous to slowly turning a massive ship.
I just hope that the maneuver can be accomplished before we hit the reef...
Regards,
Steve
-----Original Message-----
From: Ellen Prager
Sent: Sep 15, 2012 4:06 PM
To: Steve Mussman
Cc: Douglas Fenner , "coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov"
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Reporting Co2 to the public
Having worked frequently with various media outlets, including the
network, cable news, and morning shows, this is a really tough sell and
quite frankly highly unlikely. It is always good to try to push them to
cover more science, but many news outlets are covering less these days,
not more. Many have let their science correspondents go, or have them
cover other topics instead (crime, celebrities, etc). My experience is
that unless it is a crisis, visibly stunning, morally shocking, obviously
high impact on the public or a fantastic gee whiz story, getting science
on the news is quite difficult. And as has been noted, showing it in a
way that explains why anyone should care and that is understandable for
the broad public are obstacles as well.
I have been trying for years to get on as an "Earth Analyst" like they have
military or legal analysts...but alas no takers. Though I do get on when
related crisis, events, etc occur.
You could pitch websites that cover science stories - Live Science,
ScienceDaily - but those are not the audiences you are after....I know.
Ellen
Dr. Ellen Prager
Earth2Ocean, Inc
Author 2011 book, Sex, Drugs, and Sea Slime: The Ocean's Oddest Creatures
and Why They Matter
On Sep 15, 2012, at 1:57 PM, Steve Mussman wrote:
Bruce Carlson's idea is brilliant, but as Doug has pointed out, there are
some hurdles to overcome.
Not the least of which is how to lobby "the powers that be" effectively
enough to get the idea implemented.
Perhaps some would be more receptive than others. Something tells me that
FOX News might balk.
And let's not forget that there will be some powerful sources of
advertising
revenue that will show force
on all fronts.Then comes the problem Doug alluded to of educating the
public
as to the relationship
between CO2 concentrations and the earth's temperature. James Hansen has
used watts per square metre
as a way to illustrate this forcing, but can this be comprehensively
consumed by the general public?
I'm a good example of a layperson that struggled through the process which
to be honest, required some faith.
Nevertheless this is too good of an idea to drop because of a few
obstacles.
We should all be thinking
of ways to push this forward. And Bruce should get the intellectual
property
rights!
Regards,
Steve
-----Original Message-----
From: Douglas Fenner
Sent: Sep 14, 2012 6:42 PM
To: Eugene Shinn , [1]coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Reporting Co2 to the public
As far as I know, reporting CO2 to the public would require stating
what the concentration of CO2 is in the atmosphere (that's what the
Keeling
Curve shows). It is probably normally expressed in something like parts
per million, which the public may not understand, so expressing it as a
percent as well could serve to increase public understanding of that
aspect.
Whether CO2 should be reported as a percentage of atmospheric gases
depends on the purpose. If the purpose is to show that CO2 does not drive
temperature changes, then stressing how small the concentration of CO2 is
in the atmosphere could be used to deceive readers into thinking that CO2
is not important in climate change (and thus decrease public
understanding). Showing how little nerve gas concentration would be needed
in the atmosphere to kill the entire human population could illustrate how
even a gas in much less concentration than CO2 could have strong effects.
The concentration of argon or even nitrogen could show that very high
concentrations of inert gases aren't necessarily toxic. What should be
included all depends on the purpose.
Showing a figure of how much additional heat energy (such as watts or
joules) is retained in the earth due to the increases in CO2 might
illustrate the connection between CO2 concentrations and changes in mean
global temperature. If the purpose is to protect the fossil fuel industry,
then maybe that shouldn't be included.
Cheers, Doug
On Fri, Sep 14, 2012 at 4:22 AM, Eugene Shinn wrote:
Good ideas to report Co2 to the public. I suggest that the graphs all
of you have suggested also include graphs of global temperature
change over the same period of time. Should Co2 also be reported as a
percentage of atmospheric gases? The Terry Hughes video is excellent
and truthful. Gene
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