The Global Warming Communications Challenge

By Ted Page, Captains of Industry

“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”
Verbal, The Usual Suspects, in reference to the infamous Keyser Soze.

For many years now there has been an army of lobbyists and “news” channels doing their best to convince people that global warming is a hoax. Or the latest argument (kind of a fall back position) that global warming is happening, but mankind – little us – has nothing to do with it. This coordinated campaign of disinformation has had a powerful and very negative effect. A survey by Yale University and George Mason university found that the number of Americans who believed that global warming was not happening doubled between 2008 and 2010. The Devil, you could say, has once again pulled his biggest trick.

This change in belief occurred despite the fact that we are seeing more frequent and severe storms – exactly what the world’s leading scientists said would happen as man-made global warming progressed. Devastating tornadoes in Missouri and Western Massachusetts are just the latest example of the increasingly freakish weather we are subjected to, a trend that is on track to worsen. So, what’s really going on here?

We have a communications problem. Solving it will be a huge challenge, but it can be done. Only when we Americans (and the people of every nation) believe that global warming is real and man-made can we then start the hard work of slowing and stopping it. I’ll be writing about this challenge in the coming months, with examples of campaigns that have worked in the past to change public opinion and behavior on other pressing issues. Stay tuned!