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media coverage on climate change
the global warming debate
the global warming debate
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The roles of science, the media, and politics greatly influence public opinion and understanding of the world around us. These three spheres of information and action are invariably linked when discussing complex global issues like climate change. However, the presentation and resolution of disagreement within the three spheres is incredibly independent. The many ways that climate change, specifically the debate on the existence of climate change, is portrayed within these spheres can greatly affect public emotion, knowledge, and policy of such an issue. This is particularly evident in the United States (US) (Boykoff & Boykoff, 2007). This paper attempts to briefly outline the portrayal and settlement of the debate on the existence of climate change within the three spheres of the sciences, the media, and politics. In the field of science, a well defined procedure exists to create scientific debate and controversy. The procedure begins with the scientific method, a generalized series of steps used to collect data and accept or reject hypotheses. It is important to note that the scientific method exists not only to prove ideas, but also to disprove them and to continually build upon understandings. From data collection and interpretation of the results, a synthesis of the experiment and discoveries made are submitted for peer-review. The peer-review process is formal review from other professionals in the scientific community, and is used to attribute credibility and academic quality to an article prior to publishing (UVictoria). Legitimate arguments in the sciences are based on data and, “sustained debate within the broader scientific community” (Egger & Carpi, 2010). Thecontinued interest and skepticism in the scientific commun... ... middle of paper ... ...Works "Science" HowStuffWorks, Inc. Web. 07 Nov. 2011. . Seymour, Julia A. "U.S., European Media Worlds Apart on Climate Change." Reuters.com Article Worries 'U.S., European Media' 'Worlds Apart' on Climate Change. Media Research Center - Business & Media Institute, 07 July 2011. Web. 09 Nov. 2011. . "What Does Peer-review Mean?" UVic Library. University of Victoria, 18 Mar. 2011. Web. 07 Nov. 2011. . "The Discovery of Global Warming." Introduction - Summary. American Institute of Physics, May 2010. Web. 09 Nov. 2011. .
Scientific research is constantly being battled in politics. The point of communication in science is to try and get across a proven theory to the public. Under the scrutiny of political agendas, these efforts face many hurdles. Informing the public of climate changes has had a positive impact on the acceptance of science. There are several techniques the scientific community communicates their findings to the public.
Climate Change has become an incredibly controversial topic because of the bid to win votes. As with any successful political party, capital and supporters are needed to fund and support campaigns and activities to secure votes. The Democratic and Republican parties have taken opposite sides of the ring regardless of scientific proof. In relation to global warming, the Democrats represent the environmentalists in the green corner and the Republicans represent the current energy tycoons in the red corner. The two opposing parties are simply trying to one up each other with each rhetorical combination thrown. The more irrational or misconstrued the rhetoric, the more the crowd rooting for each fighter reacts and the more independents rally to
This video successfully uses the rhetorical appeals of ethos, pathos and logos to support its claims on climate change. The way National Geographic uses ethos, or credibility, for this video is strong and thought out. The main speaker is none other than Bill Nye, who most students grew up watching in elementary school; to learn different aspects of science; and is a very respectable and credible speaker for this topic, of climate change. Nye graduated from Cornell University with a degree in mechanical engineering, then moved to Seattle, Washington to work as an engineer for Boeing and ultimately became a science educator, winning educational awards for his famous program, “Bill Nye the Science Guy”(Biography.com). Nye has extremely credible credentials to be able to speak about this topic of science, who speaks in a serious, concerned and informative manner to grab the attention of the viewer and explain that climate change is a serious affair that needs to be acted upon.
Messenger, E., Gooch, J., & Seyler, D. U. (2011). Arguing About Science. Argument! (pp. 396-398). New York, NY: Mcgraw-Hill Co..
Just because it is not happening here, it does not mean it is not happening. That is what reporter Elizabeth Kolbert would have said to the entire American population on climate change if she could go back in time. Kolbert, in her New Yorker article “The Big Heat”, argues that Americans have been extremely busy handling insignificant situations happening in their regional level that they have forgotten to deal with the most atrocious social issue of all: global warming.
Portions of the United States experienced an exceptionally cold winter this year. Here in North Carolina we had three months of overnight temperature below freezing with temperatures in the 20s. I have lived in the Raleigh area for 25 years and have never experienced a winter so consistently cold with thick layers of ice on windshields every morning and frost on the roofs of homes that remained frozen until the middle of the morning. The act of cleaning up snow and ice brought back memories of growing up in the 1960s in the far north of New Jersey where temperatures remained below freezing for months and the ice on local lakes was solid enough to support the weight of a tractor to plow away the snow so everyone could ice skate, and we did skate there for at least two months. Recent winters in my hometown have been so mild that the lake did not freeze at all and even the Canada geese did not migrate south, but remained there in NJ. This winter, while we were freezing inside our homes back here in Raleigh, the news media continued to debate the global warming issue. The conflict between the weather outside for me vs. the news reports of global warming made me pause and question where the truth lies. My research uncovered that global warming is very real and, in fact, explains the shift in air currents that caused the extreme weather this winter that is negatively impacting millions of lives. In conclusion, the time is now when politicians must legislate strong actions to minimize man’s contribution to global warming and enact measures to provide emergency assistance wherever these violent weather patterns cause crises.
Today’s mainstream media has a deep influence on numerous aspects of economical and social life, it provides information and data almost on everything that happens on our planet. Mainstream media became one of the most important and influential instruments in our society, as the news stories reach a large numbers of people in a short time. Different people are using mainstream media as a first source of information; humans need the information, which is why there is a great deal of trust on media. We follow the news because it is our duty as citizens to be informed; it gives us the facts that help us make the right decisions and also gives us something to talk about. The media has a great public responsibility in front of their audience; therefore, they are expected to provide information that is accurate, reliable and free from bias. It is essential that the public is truly informed about the controversial topics on environmental issues, like DDT and GMOs. Media informs the public with regard to science and technology, which further impacts policy making within the society. The drawback with today’s mainstream media is that it tends to provide information that is far from what is happening in the real world. Current news media misrepresent some news report in order to gain attention and they omit the most important news from television, newspapers or radio that the public deserves to know. The articles “Environmentalism for the 21st Century” by Dr. Patrick Moore, “Rachel Carson’s Environmental Genocide” by Lisa Makson, “Lawrence Solomon: For global warming believers, 2013 was the year from Hell” by Lawrance Solomon and “Global warming at work: how climate change affects the economy and labour” by Raveena Aulakh will be discussed ...
Demarcation between science and non-science or pseudo science is particularly important in scientific education, as it determines, for almost every member of our society, what they will accept as true regarding science, particularly creationism and evolution. Having public ...
It is becoming increasingly certain that climate change will have severe adverse effects on the environment in years to come. Addressing this issue poses a serious challenge for policy makers. How we choose to respond to the threat of global warming is not simply a political issue. It is also an economic issue and an ethical one. Responsible, effective climate change policy requires consideration of a number of complex factors, including weighing the costs of implementing climate change policies against the benefits of more environmentally sustainable practices. Furthermore, this analysis must take place amidst serious gaps in the existing research and technology concerning the developing climatic condition.
Critical thinking is a very important concept in regards to science, especially since science and the concepts therein have been fluctuating from the time of their origins. As stated in Kirst-Ashman’s book;
The Earth is currently locked in perpetuating spiral of climate change. While the global climate has unarguably been changing since the dawn of it's manifestation, the once steadied ebb and flow of climate change has become increasingly more unpredictable.The risk of rising sea levels, and drought plaguing the fresh water supply, during the time that flooding and sporadic storm conditions turn once fully inhabited regions into uninhabitable death traps. Climate change catalyzed by human's increased production of carbon dioxide, is more noticeable than ever in our recorded history (United States, 2014 National Climate Assessment). Thankfully however, with the changing weather conditions due to carbon related emissions, the change in public opinion about their personalized influence on climate change is also increasing. Kevin Liptak Jethro Mullen, and Tom Cohen note that In reaction to the most recent governmental report on climate change, even the U.S. government believes that a stronger approach needs to be taken to correct our self-generated cataclysm.
The controversial subject of global warming according to a large amount of scientists is not a prominent concern. Over 31,000 scientists have signed on to a petition saying humans aren't causing global warming. More than 1000 scientists signed on to another report saying there is no global warming at all. There are tens of thousands of well-educated, mainstream scientists who do not agree that global warming is occurring at all. If so many scientists believe it is not a concern then why should we think any different? Well, a consensus shows that in reality 97% of all climate scientists agree that global warming is an issue and that it is most likely due to ...
Subpoint A: Not long ago, a documentary film called “An Inconvenient truth” came out in 2006. This film raised international public awareness of climate change and reenergizing the environmental movement. A former U.S Vice president Al Gore campaigned to educate citizens about global warming through a simp...
Beginning with the scientific revolution in the fifteen hundreds, the Western world has become accustomed to accepting knowledge that is backed by the scientific method, a method that has been standardized worldwide for the most accurate results. This method allows people to believe that the results achieved from an experiment conducted using the scientific method have been properly and rigorously tested and must therefore be the closest to truth. This method also allows for replication of any experiment with the same results, which further solidifies the credibility and standing of natural science in the world. Another aspect that allows for the reliability on the natural sciences is the current paradigm boxes, which skew the truth to remove anomalies. This affects the outcome of experiments as the hypotheses will be molded to create results that fit the paradigm box.
In the modern era, climate change is a variation of weather over a long period of time, and it is the most important and controversial global issue. It is arguable in different positions, especially on science, culture, and politics. These three fields all cause a lot of latent concerns. The science of climate change brings out several harmful phenomenon, such as global warming. With respect to the climate change, the culture of humanity may be changed because the changing climate is the most important key factor of forming today’s human societies. Instead, climate change is now a political issue, which will affect the public attitudes directly. In other words, it means the government tends to review and provide latest information in order to adapt and retard the climate change. Over a long period of time, climate change has been taking place because of human activities that affect the scientific, cultural, and political sides.