How do they say Global Warming in Italian?

I have previously argued that the threat of Global Warming is a lousy argument if you want people to change their behaviors that with high probability are affecting the climate. Why is that? I'll give you three points:

- It's too far from the individual's everyday concern

- It doesn't sound that scary, in fact it sounds pretty nice

- It is still perceived as very unsure

All these arguments repeatadly lead to the willingness to show people it does affect us, not only in the future but already today. Every flooding, every storm (like this Winter in California and Scandinavia or the quadruple of hurricanes in Florida) are described as effects of Global Warming. In Sweden actually one of the actions taken by the government after the storm that caused physical damage of more than two billion dollars was more research on Climate Change! The digital cause-effect perception of our politicians really is amazing.

So, why is this a problem? A new study from the University of California San Diego (UCSD) actually shows significant proofs of man-made global warming in their computer modelled research. The glaciers are melting, so is the Antarctic.

Well the problem is that when you use it in your communication it's too easy to point out the opposite of Global Warming phenomena.

Ask right now for instance the Italian people about their point of view in the issue. Freezing degrees, Snow in Genova and Milan (in Italian) and snow chains on the wheels. Are they convinced of the fact that our world is getting warmer and warmer. Hardly.

Pollution is every year causing enormous problems on the earth. We get cancer, we get poisoned, our lakes and oceans suffer and our cities get dirty. And still, the world is only concentrating on lowering the emissions of carbon dioxide. The idea of Global Warming is actually so powerful it makes our governments promoting fuels more cancerous than other more healthy alternatives only because the goal is to lower the level of carbon dioxide, without enough concern about other effects.

I personally think we face a serious problem when we talk about Global Warming. But making people change their mind about what the climate effects may be will just not be effective if you want them change their behavior. We don't need the knowledge about CO2 or other gases. We just need to change the way we live. And there are several reasons for doing that. But it doesn't necessarily involves the need of getting the tempurature down. Just ask the italians.

Comments

[Magnus]

Yes but do we really promote more dangerous flues? My vive is the opposite...
(and I probably get less money for my research because of the GHG effect.)

And the Italians may cheer now but will they if it gets just a little bit wormer? There is actually a bigger risk they get higher peeks in the temperatures reducing their tourist season. But the big concern is the 3:d world...

Anyhow research on how or earth works seams to me well invested money compared to much other research we do…

[Hans Eric Melin]

I also think research in climate change is well invested money. But I oppose the following:

1. A politized research agenda where research is used as a harmless way to argue you have been taken action. When the Swedish government stated they will increase research on climate change as one of the actions follwing the serious storm this winter, they implicitly said the storm was an effect of climate change. They said the same thing about the floodings a couple of years ago. I am very sceptical about that. I think there would be storms and floodings even without a single sign of green house gases. Of course we should do research but not because politicians are hungry showing off.

2. We are totally focused on carbon dioxide. Actually gases like methane is causing the same effect but 20 times worse. But only because it's not in the Kyoto treaty we don't have any national incentives to reduce it.

3. There are still other environental problems that are much more dangerous in the short run. Those get lost in the carbon dioxide excitement.