It’s not the averages that are troublesome. The understating reporting of scientists, journalists and climate science consensus organizations is one of the most confounding parts of climate change today. It’s the extremes that matter, yet extremes are viewed as “uncertainty” in a way almost entirely related to written grammar, rather than the statistical uncertainty of when,…
Global warming psychology, this burgeoning new discipline of science that seeks to understand why we don’t trust climate scientists when we trust virtually all other scientists almost implicitly, is very clear in its findings: old science communications strategies have failed and we must use new techniques to communicate the climate change challenge. None of the…
A never-ending string of stories is needed to move our society from a world of climate science disbelief to one of action. The stories must include two main focus areas: 1) communication of why we distrust climate scientists so much more more than any those of other sciences, and 2) Seven principles of communication of…
(See more on the Drexel/Stanford research on the climate change counter-movement here.) Merchants of Doubt, A film by Sony Pictures and Robert KennerAustin Premiere and Lecture by Bruce Melton PE Inspired by the acclaimed book by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway, MERCHANTS OF DOUBT takes audiences on a satirically comedic, yet illuminating ride into the…
Bolsen, Druckman and Cook have summarized the emerging discipline of global warming psychology rather well with this paper. Scientists and policy makers are more likely to believe than the public and more likely to believe that warming is caused by man. There is political influence in what liberals and conservatives believe about the existence of…
I recently had the privilege of being the second reader on a thesis titled: Climate Change Virtue Ethics and Ecocriticism in Undergraduate Education, Barbara Krueger. Basically, this work evaluated the role of ethics and virtues in climate change education. To put the topic in my own words, to convey a chapter of climate change ethics…
This study uses 1,008 survey participants to evaluate where extra effort should be applied to leverage increasing awareness in climate issues after extreme weather events. Extreme weather has already increased because of warming in some circumstances (including cold weather extremes) and experiencing extreme weather increases climate change awareness of individuals. This work suggest using extreme…
A 30 page booklet by the American Psychological Association that helps us understand how behavior is ultimately responsible for this climate pollution mess we are in. Whether it is from $7 billion in climate change counter-movement funding (link) or sheer laziness, the results are the same. This booklet can give insights into why it is…
Relative to most of the 20th century, Austin’s January highs and lows were not 2.9 and 1.4 degrees above normal, but 9.9 and 10.4 degrees above normal! (First published on The Rag Blog, April 25, 2013. http://theragblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/bruce-melton-calling-all-earthlings.html ) AUSTIN — Average temperatures have risen rapidly at the Austin reporting station since the turn of the…
Published on Truthout.org March 13, 2013: Climate change messaging is changing these days. One only needs to look as far as the Sierra Club’s unprecedented encouragement of civil disobedience with the Keystone Pipeline to see this happening. The polls are telling us that some 70 percent or more of Americans believe the Earth is now…
