Identified ThemesIdentified Themes

In the IPCC Reports and the In the IPCC Reports and the Perception of Actual RiskPerception of Actual Risk

• Health impacts • Food supply impacts • Impact on Poor• Sea Level Rise• Threats to Biodiversity

• Third is what I call the "documentary effect." When a person is shown a documentary film on some topic, whether about climate change or fast food or slavery, they ponder that issue for a couple days. Yet then they slowly forget about the issue as their exposure to it decreases.

• Unfortunately, a sentence like “projected climate changes during the 21st century have the potential to lead to future large-scale and possibly irreversible changes in Earth systems resulting in impacts at continental and global scales,” means nothing to most readers. It is only a “projected” theory, with the “potential” of “possibly” irreversible harm, resulting in nebulous “impacts” during the entire “21st century.”

• These reports will be ignored because of the apathy and selfishness of our culture of capitalism. We are more satisfied by the immediate gratification of a new iPhone, or ridiculing celebrities, than preserving mankind.

• because these listed effects are not physically experienced by all people in developed nations today, climate change does not register in people’s minds as being a crucial area of concern to be dealt with immediately

• Rising sea levels are a gradual problem that doesn’t pose apparent immediate threats, especially when the regions that will be most affected have experienced regular flooding for centuries. Food shortages and human health problems are issues that will affect the poor for years before wealthy and developed nations feel the full impact. The decision making elite of the world, based in these developed regions, feel no real pressure to make difficult decisions that may affect them negatively politically and economically in the short term. 

• Perhaps a way to get individuals to stop ignoring these warnings is through exposing people to photos and individual testaments of how climate change is currently having serious negative influences on people and communities.

• These reports look too far into the future to be relevant to most humans and most simplified discussion of them involves summarizing concepts that seem to be in play incredibly far beyond our realm of action.

• But perhaps the scariest response of the three reactions is apathy. Apathy occurs when the public has lost their interest in the world around them. As a part of the millennial generation, I can attest that this is true. As much as we brag of being a well-connected and well-informed generation, we are generally uninterested in our surroundings and are often self-focused (George Carlin)

• However, it is easy for policy makers and the general public to ignore warnings of sea levels rising because they would either have to a) care about the long-term outcomes for other people, or b) they would need a more in-depth explanation of how something that appears so gradual can devastate entire communities.

• . A second aspect of human behavior that is present throughout the article is society’s obsession over tedious and irrelevant news. Each section ends with a portion of “in other news” that lists the news that society was more preoccupied with at the time.