This strikes me as an interesting thing to pursue a bit.
So, let's take quick stock: For years, scientists were the most trusted
regarding climate change, although overall shrinking, especially among
some audiences. There always has been and is more so now a deep partisan
divide over trust in scientists (I actually think there is also a class
divide here, but that's for another day). By comparison anyway, the
media, NGOs, industry or government have all had lower ratings of trust.
Second, scientists have been widely criticized for their slow response
to the hacked email (I really think it's wrong that we perpetuate the
misguided allusion to Watergate, so I don't), which has given this
entire affair a double whammy: exposure of emails that could easily be
and have, of course, been terribly, savagely misinterpreted (though NO
wrong-doing has actually been found, let's recall!) AND the completely
lame, politically naive response of the wider scientific community.
Consequently.... drum roll please... the curtain rises for rightwing
media publicly slaughtering scientists and the science of global warming
(which was, let's recall, already prior to the hacked emails on the
downturn for a variety of reasons), and now this unsurprising polling
result. Duh!
What - is my question here - can be done? Who is left to be trusted as
messengers for climate change? Do we now depend on Mother Nature as the
most immediate, un-media-ted "witness" to tell us her truth? Or is there
someone else to fill the gaping hole?
As we know from hazards and other studies, trust, once lost, is VERY
hard to rebuild. If we lose the weakly, but still (relatively) most
trusted messenger, and only untrusted ones remain - who is left to speak
for climate change?
Thanks for indulging me.
Susi
Wallace, Richard wrote:
Lovely. The poll is a blunt instrument to be sure, but let’s hope
public disaffection with the climate debate and resulting distrust of
“scientists on the environment” doesn’t bleed into other areas, like
biodiversity, deforestation, transboundary pollution, etc. Worth
watching, anyway.
Rich
--
Richard L. Wallace, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Environmental Studies Program
Ursinus College
P.O. Box 1000
Collegeville, PA 19426
(610) 409-3730
(610) 409-3660 fax
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
*From:* [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Wil Burns
*Sent:* Sunday, December 20, 2009 12:48 PM
*To:* [email protected]; 'Global Environmental
Politics Education ListServe'
*Subject:* Climategate Impacts
Ooops… scientists getting hit…a new Washington Post-ABC News poll
after “climategate.” Scientists “significantly” losing credibility
with the public:
“Scientists themselves also come in for more negative assessments in
the poll, with four in 10 Americans now saying that they place little
or no trust in what scientists have to say about the environment.
That’s up significantly in recent years. About 58 percent of
Republicans now put little or no faith in scientists on the subject,
double the number saying so in April 2007. Over this time frame,
distrust among independents bumped up from 24 to 40 percent, while
Democrats changed only marginally. Among seniors, the number of
skeptics more than doubled, to 51 percent.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/18/AR2009121800002.html
* *
* *
* *
*Dr. Wil Burns, Editor in Chief***
*/Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy/***
*1702 Arlington Blvd.***
*El Cerrito, CA 94530 USA*
*Ph: 650.281.9126*
*Fax: 510.779.5361*
*[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>***
*http://www.jiwlp.com <http://www.jiwlp.com/>*
*SSRN site (selected publications): http://ssrn.com/author=240348*
*Skype ID: Wil.Burns*
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Susanne C. Moser, Ph.D.
Director, Principal Scientist
Research Associate
Susanne Moser Research & Consulting Institute of
Marine Sciences
134 Shelter Lagoon Dr.
University of California-Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
email: [email protected]
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