At 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 26, Director of the Yale Project about Climate Change Anthony Leiserowitz gave a presentation in Watkins Auditorium on climate change and global warming.
Students and faculty filled the room to hear Leiserowitz, who conducts research on climate change on local and national scales.
He began the presentation by talking about several topics, such as the policies of climate change and asking how Americans use energy everyday. He also talked about what extent Americans are willing to become active and what the societal norms are that affect the climate. He went on to talk about how people express their concern for the climate and how Americans may never know the true cause of climate change.
Leiserowitz continued by discussing his “Big Five Ideas in 10 Words,” which includes five ideas that each describe climate change. Those five ideas were that “it’s real,” “it’s us,” “it’s bad,” “scientists agree” and “there’s hope.”
He then began to show charts about the first word that Americans think about when they hear climate change or global warming. Some responses were melting ice, heat, ozone, flood, nature and naysayers. Another chart showed how much Americans care about climate change and he called that his “Six Americas” for global warming, which included categories of alarmed, concerned, cautious, disengaged, doubtful and dismissive. The largest group of Americans was concerned.
He ended the presentation by summarizing his points and talking about how the public understanding of climate change has declined from 2008-2010. He also encouraged UTM students to talk more about global warming with friends and family and bring more awareness to the issue.
