Tag: belief

TV Weathercasters on Climate Change

  • TV weathercasters have differing opinions about climate change according to a recent study. (Photo courtesy of Scott Eric CC-2.0)

A new survey reveals what TV weathercasters think about climate change. Lester Graham reports… that’s important because many people look to the TV weathercaster for information about climate change.

Transcript

A new survey reveals what TV weathercasters think about climate change. Lester Graham reports… that’s important because many people look to the TV weathercaster for information about climate change.

Surveys by the George Mason University researchers have shown many people trust the person who tells you whether to take an umbrella for news of global warming.
Edward Maiback is director of the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason. The survey revealed different TV weathercasters have different opinions about climate change.

“About half of them tell us, responded to our survey that climate change is real; about a quarter said that it wasn’t and about another 20 percent said that they weren’t sure.”

By comparison, a survey of leading climate scientists found 96-percent of them indicated climate change was real and human activity is a significant cause.

Maybe that differences shouldn’t be surprising. Forecasting the weather is not the same as predicting climate change. Weather… is next week. Climate is the next century.

For The Environment Report, I’m Lester Graham.

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How Opinions Form on Climate Change

  • This report found that while most Americans think climate change is an important issue, they don’t see it as an immediate threat to their lives. (Photo courtesy of the National Cancer Institute)

A new report indicates social circles have
more to do with what people believe about
climate change than the facts gathered by
scientists. Lester Graham reports on
research presented to the American
Psychological Association:

Transcript

A new report indicates social circles have
more to do with what people believe about
climate change than the facts gathered by
scientists. Lester Graham reports on
research presented to the American
Psychological Association:

This report found that while most Americans think climate change is an important issue, they don’t see it as an immediate threat to their lives.

Janet Swim with Pennsylvania State Univerity chaired the task force looking into the issue. She reported to the American Psychological Association that getting people to go green will mean getting past psychological barriers.

For example, a politician might cite scientific facts regarding climate change, but that politician’s party affiliation might be more important to people than the scientific facts.

“Party lines determines to some extent people’s beliefs about climate change. And so, when somebody’s not in your party in the government, telling you something about climate change, you’re already starting with a sense of distrust.”

So Swim says policymakers need to recognize getting people to change their behavior will take more than just science and facts.

For The Environment Report, I’m Lester Graham.

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